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6 Conservative.
TOE PAWNEE RKl'UIiLIC.
There is a very long , though unevent
ful river running through Colorado ,
Nebraska and Kansas , called the Repub
lican River. There is also in Colorado ,
west of Denver , a Republican Mountain.
The name of the latter is explained by
the presence , directly confronting it , of
a mountain known by the name of
Democrat. Is the river dedicated to the
political party like the mountain ? Prob
ably most people would offer this theory ;
it was the writer's when he came to Ne
braska and for several years thereafter.
It is , however , wholly erroneous. The
Republican River has nothing to do
with the Republican party. How it did
come by its name is precisely the puzzle
which this article proposes , not to solve ,
but to state. What is certain is that
the name was introduced into this part
of the country by men who had no
knowledge of the political parties of the
United States , and that a certain band
of Indians , the Republican Pawnees ,
were in some way involved in the
christening.
The writer is not able to assert that
the river has borne the name too long to
have gotten it from the party ; the
earliest occurrence of it known to him
is no older than 1806 , while the old Re
publican party , the one to which Thomas
Jefferson belonged , had its beginning in
1792 ; but it is plain for another reason ,
which will be given further on , that
there can have been no connection
between the two.
The Problem.
The case is this : we find at the time
of the first exploration of this region by
Americans the name Republican borne
by a river , a tribe of Indians and a fixed
settlement or town. The question is
this : to which of the three was it first
applied ? Was it the river , and did the
town and its inhabitants acquire it from
being located upon that river ? Or did
the Indians first bear it , and so bestow
it upon their town and upon the river
that they frequented ? Or was their
settlement in fact something like a re
public , so that its citizens and the
neighboring stream caught a name from
it ?
One might understand that it was the
first from a statement quoted by Dr.
George Bird Grinnell ; the second from
one made by Dr. Edward Everett Hale ;
the third from the language used by
Lieutenant Pike.
Not An Indian Name.
No light can be gained on the inquiry
from Indian sources. The Indians in
question formed one of the four well
known bands of the Pawnee tribe , and
have universally been called the Repub
lican Pawnees by white men , but their
name in their own language is Kit-ke-
hak-i , which means nothing in any way
resembling Republican. It signifies
merely "on a hill" or uppermost , and
has reference to their customary location
in encamping with the other bauds.
Their civilized name must therefore
have been bestowed upon them by the
white men , and these could have been
no other than French fur traders , for
the very good reason that there were no
other white men in the country prior to
1800 ; unless it were now and then a
French or Spanish missionary.
Murray.
This appears , in fact , to have been the
general understanding among early
travelers. The Honorable Charles Mur
ray , for instance , a young Scot who
took it into his head to make a sojourn
among the Pawnees in 1885 , says on this
point , "it is needless to say that the
names of the different Pawnee tribes
are given by the French traders accord
ing to their absurd fancies. " He also
gives his version of the Indian name for
the Republicans , which is sufficiently
close to that given above ; he does not
know its meaning , but he bears un
witting testimony to the correctness of
the translation offered above , by observ
ing that this band always formed the
right wing when on the march , which
brought them to the westward when
they encamped , in the instances observed
by him. This matter of order was so
strictly regulated , he says further , that
even each individual lodge had its pre
scribed place in the camp , in which it
was invariably to be found.
Grinnell.
This agrees exactly with Grinnell's
statement , which is that the Republicans
always took the western end of the
camping-place , the Grands the center
and the Tapage or "racket" Pawnees
the east , and that the names which the
bands bore in their own tongues had
reference to these locations.
As to the origin of the white man's
name , Dr. Grinnell quotes "an old
French trader , who has known these
people for many years" to the effect that
"the Kit-ke-hak-i called
- - - were Republi
can from the river of that name. This
explanation , " he adds , however , "is not
altogether satisfactory ; " but he offers
none in place of it.
Dunbnr.
Grinnell is one of the two great
authorities on the Pawnees , the other
being John B. Dunbar. Mr. Dunbar is
on record as confessing his ignorance
concerning the source of the name Re
publican. He says that some allege it
to have been applied to the Indians from
their having formerly resided upon the
river of that name , but he considers the
process to have been the reverse , citing
the analogy of the Kansas and Osage
rivers , which were named from Indian
tribes , not the tribes from them. He
says further , "there has been a tradition
that it was first suggested by the semi-
republican form of government observed
among them when first known ; but this
feature was no more marked with them
than among the other bands. " From
Mr. Dnnbar's own account of the social
organization of the Pawnees , it appears
that with them the office of head chief
was hereditary , so that they had even
less claim to be called a republic in their
own right thau had some of the other
western tribes.
Pike.
Lieutenant Pike , who in 1806 was the
first white man to visit and investigate
them , spoils the "republic" theory ;
"their government , " he says , "is the
same as that of the Osage , an hereditary
aristocracy ; the father handing his
dignity of chieftain down to his son. "
This is explicit , and may remove some
misconception of the explorer's meaning - *
ing ; for he is the very one who , by
persistent use of the expression "Pawnee
republic" must have given many readers
an idea of a community resembling in
kind the Argentine republic , for example. I
In only three cases , so far as the writer 4\
has observed , does he speak of this " ;
Indian town in any other way ; once he ; '
calls it "the Pawnee village ; " once "the ; |
village of the Pawnee republic ; " once 4 f
"the Pawnee republican village. " ;
i
Others.
Among other old-timers who have left
observations to the purpose is old Jim ' f
Beckwourth , who in the fall of 1820 ,
when he was young Jim , came to "the
Republican Pawnee villages" and found
them deserted for the winter. It is not
clear from his story where these villages
were ; possibly on the Platte. The
missionary Parker in 1885 passed "the
villages of the Tapage and Republican
Pawnee Indians" two days west of the
Lonp fork , on the Platte. The painter *
Catlin , about the same year , found all
four bands dwelling a few miles asunder
on the Platte ; and Colonel Inman says
that in 1885 , discouraged over a severe
defeat inflicted on them at Ash Hollow
by the Sioux , they abandoned all their
villages , including that on the Republi
can river , and concentrated near the
mouth of the Loup , where buried re
mains of ancient villages have been
found in great abundance ever since the
settlement of the country ; scraps of
pottery , arrow-heads and rotted posts ,
on both sides of the Platte. Here they
in fact remained until 1874 , when they
were removed to the Indian Territory ;
and there last year 664 of them still
existed , miserable relic of a tribe that , it
was said , could in the early part of the
century raise 80,000 to 40,000 warriors.
One other eminently respectable
authority , though not at first hand , may
be cited , Dr. E. E. Hale , who in 1854
made mention of the "Republican
Pawnees , who gave its name to Repub
lican Fork of the Kanzas. " In this he
agrees , it will be remembered , with Mr.
Dunbar.
Neither should the testimony of the