Across The Fence: The Pawnee and human sacrifice

A great deal of literature and significant archaeological findings have been published that indicate the occurrence of human sacrifice among the religious practices of early South American tribes, most notably the Aztec.

Less well known is the ritual of human sacrifice of the North American Plains Indians, the Skidi Pawnee, in the region of what is today Nebraska and Kansas.

Some suggest that the practice among the Pawnee was adapted from the Aztec culture and others believe that the Pawnee ritual was developed solely within their own culture. Regardless of its origins the basic premise was the same – the gods must be appeased and only the sacrifice of a human being would satisfy. It is not known how long the Morning Star sacrifice had been conducted among the Skidi, before white incursion on the plains, but the first recorded event was in 1817.

That year, the only whites who ventured into the great west were trappers and traders who established friendly relations with the native populations of the regions. From these early adventurers the story of Petalesharo, the son of Knife Chief has been passed along.

It is told that the Skidi Pawnee had captured a Comanche maiden to be offered for the Morning Star sacrifice. Petalesharo was opposed to the sacrifice and at the last possible moment rescued the maiden from the sacrificial scaffold, carried her away from the village and gave her a horse that she escaped on and returned to her own people.

Later, in 1821, Petalesharo was a guest in Washington, D.C., where local dignitaries presented him with a silver medallion. The three-inch medallion was inscribed: "To The Bravest of The Brave." It depicted a scene of Petalesharo rescuing the Comanche girl on one side, and on the reverse, showing the empty scaffold.

Being the son of a chief, Petalesharo was, by birth, next in line to be chief of the Skidi. He declared that the practice of human sacrifice was to be banned and should never be practiced again. However, long-held religious beliefs are more easily forbade than abandoned. It isn't known how often the ceremony was carried out after Petalesharo's decree, but the next documented occurrence came 10 years later in 1827.

The ritual of the Morning Star sacrifice was deeply rooted in the religion of the Skidi Pawnee. The creation story of the Pawnee told that the Morning Star – the male figure of light – and the Evening Star – the female figure of darkness – conceived a girl child who was the first human being on earth. This girl child was the giver of life, insured the fertility of the earth that also promised an abundant harvest. She was also the source of the renewal of life that began its cycle each spring.

It's believed that each spring the ritual of the Morning Star was held and the sacrifice was made symbolically. However, if a male member of the tribe had a Morning Star dream, or the Morning Star itself shone exceptionally bright, or the Morning Star priest declared it to be needed, then a human sacrifice was to be offered. The sacrificial human was to be a young female captured from an enemy tribe. The Morning Star dreamer was responsible for capturing the sacrificial maiden and for keeping her safe until the actual ceremony.

The dreamer, in the fall of the year, would gather a group of warriors together and conduct the raid on the enemy. Once an appropriate maiden was captured, the raid was abandoned and the raiding party would return with their captive. During the fall and through the winter the maiden would be well treated. It was hoped that she would not be aware of her ultimate fate and would be well cared for, well fed and not mistreated in any way. Perhaps the maiden would begin to believe that she was intended to be a bride and become family within the tribe of her captors, but these faint hopes were false.

In the final days of winter, preparations for the sacrifice would begin and the captive would be made to believe that the elaborate ceremony that was to take place was in her honor.

The ceremony began by the gathering of four, thick, 12-foot long poles. Each pole was to come from one of the four sacred directions.

From the north would come an elm, from the west a box elder, from the south a cottonwood and from the east a willow. The four logs would be brought to the fire pit and laid so that one end of each log would touch in the flames and the opposite end would face away from the fire, each pointing to its own sacred direction. The four logs would be continually pushed into the fire, their ends always touching and would last for the entire four days of the ceremony.

In the early evening of the fourth day, tne man from each of the four bands of the village was chosen to gather the pieces needed to construct the scaffold. The leader of the group would be the warrior who had captured the maiden. The group would first search through heavy timber to find a hackberry tree where they would make an offering of smoke.

From that place they would travel northeast to find a suitable elm, then northwest until they found a box elder, southwest to find a cottonwood and southeast for a willow. These branches would be used for the cross pieces of the scaffold. Again, they continued searching toward the east until they found a large cottonwood that could be used for the upright poles of the scaffold. The final pole would come from the west where a willow was selected for the uppermost crosspiece.

While the pieces were being gathered, the women and girls would prepare the grounds where the scaffold was to be built. Holes were dug for the uprights, the ground smoothed and prepared with ceremonial trappings. The preparations would be complete by the time the others returned with the various tree branches and by dark the scaffold would be completed.

In the early morning, just before the rising of the Morning Star, the captive would be led to the scaffold. Her head adorned with eagle feathers, her body painted, black on one side and red on the other. She would be bound to the uppermost crosspiece where she would hang until the Morning Star came into view.

When the star appeared, the warrior who had captured the maiden would charge out of the nearby brush, bow drawn and – with a warrior's shout of battle – shoot an arrow through the maiden's heart. After the sacrifice was completed, the body would be placed on the ground where the blood would soak into the earth and all of life would be replenished.

In 1827, it was a captive Cheyenne girl who was to be sacrificed at the Pawnee village on the forks of the Platte and Loup River in Nebraska territory. Chief Big Axe had promised a Morning Star sacrifice, but the Indian Agent, John Dougherty, attempted to thwart the ritual.

After a lengthy parlay with Chief Big Axe, Dougherty had convinced Big Axe that the ceremony would have the opposite of the intended effect. He reminded them of promises they had made since Knife Chief and his son, Petalesharo, had freed the Comanche girl. He reminded Big Axe that he had heard these promises made to William Cark and to Manuel Lisa and that their broken promise would result in the disappearance of the buffalo. More importantly, it would make the Great Father in Washington angry.

After hours of negotiations, Big Axe called off the ceremony and Dougherty's men were escorting the Cheyenne maiden from the camp to safety when a disgruntled warrior emerged from his lodge and attempted to kill the woman. Other Pawnee, who supported Big Axe's decision, wrestled the bow from the would-be assassin but another like-minded warrior was able to send an arrow through the maiden's heart.

Dougherty's men were unable to ward off the mass of women who drugged the Cheyenne woman's body from her horse's back, dragged it to a nearby ravine and mutilated the corpse. The ceremony had been avoided, but the maiden had been sacrificed.

If there was any knowledge of other Morning Star sacrifices after 1827, they weren't recorded or made known until 1838. In that year, the Skidi Pawnee held their last known Morning Star sacrifice when a 14-year-old Oglala Lakota maiden named Haxti was offered as a living sacrifice to the Morning Star.

M. Timothy Nolting is an award-winning Nebraska columnist and freelance writer. Contact him at [email protected]