Revealing Pawnee history through archaeology and oral tradition
From approximately 1750 to 1803, Riverbend City was occupied by the Kitkahahki and other South Band Pawnees. Identified through oral tradition and genealogical research, Riverbend City refers to a significant Pawnee community living along a bend of the Dirty Water (Republican) River in present-day northcentral Kansas. As Spanish, French, British, and American interests expanded into the North American interior, this Pawnee community interacted and traded with European groups, setting in motion irreversible social transformations that affected all Indigenous peoples.
This volume brings together historic documentation, oral tradition, chronology, and analyses of material culture assemblages from Riverbend City. Based on data from fourteen excavated earthlodges, contributors present new insights into community composition, earthlodge construction, subsistence, economy, exchange systems, and the use of European trade items. Together, the archaeological record and oral traditions reveal lives shaped by change and continuity, offering a narrative distinct from twentieth-century ethnographic images of the Pawnee people.