Photography by Tanner Colvin
Rex Buchanan, director emeritus of the Kansas Geological Survey, goes on a thoughtful exploration of the Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site in Republic
At the end of a lonely, black-topped road in north central Kansas, near the Nebraska border, sits one of the most under appreciated spots in Kansas. The Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site, perched atop a hill in Republic County west of Belleville, offers history and solitude. It’s a place to learn, experience and better understand an important chapter in the state’s history.
I visited this museum on a cold morning last November. The sun was showing through thin, wispy clouds. The museum is closed in the winter, but visitors can typically arrange a visit almost any time of year by calling ahead.
“Museum” is maybe a misnomer. This site is unlike any traditional museum I’ve ever visited. For starters, the building is round and low. Though the front door opens to a small gift shop, the next door opens to the heart of the experience—an excavated Pawnee lodge from the 1820s.
The museum was built over this excavated lodge in the 1960s, its limestone exterior blending with the land around it. Visitors walk around and slightly above the bare earth floor, which is about 50 feet in diameter. Holes dotting the surface indicate where posts supported the earthen lodge above. Artifacts—tools, pottery shards, a bison skull and even a small pile of corn kernels—lie scattered on the lodge floor, most discovered in the same position they were left. A round, deep storage pit once hid food and other supplies while the Pawnee were away. There’s a skylight in the middle of the roof, mimicking the hole in the top of a lodge where smoke once escaped.
Educational exhibits, maps and photographs line the walls, blending seamlessly with the experience of standing where the Pawnee people lived and worked, planted and harvested, flourished and left. In this place, you can walk where they walked.
A Brief History
The Pawnee, who called themselves the Chatiks si chatiks, comprised four bands. The Kitkehahki band, which occupied this village, was called the Republican band by early white explorers who thought the Natives practiced a republican form of government.
The Pawnee were celestially oriented, looking to the sky, planets and stars as part of their spiritual practice. On display in the museum is a photograph of a Pawnee star chart, a drawing depicting the stars as “crosses” (rather than five-point stars, as Westerners might draw them) and showing the Pawnee vision of the night sky. The Field Museum in Chicago houses the original star chart but does not display it because it is a sacred object.
Seeing these artifacts in the quiet, mostly dim light of the museum feels like a privilege. Because it is.
There’s even more to see outside. The remains of more than 20 grass-covered lodges dot the 10-acre museum grounds. The Kitkehahki Nature Trail takes visitors through those lodge circles, offering a view of the Republican River valley to the north. Small Nebraska towns are visible in the distance. On the fall morning of my visit, the cottonwoods along the river had already lost their leaves. Two bald eagles swooped and flew across the land to the north.
For centuries, Pawnee lived in earth lodges in north-central Kansas and south-central Nebraska. They planted crops in the spring, hunted on the plains in the summer and returned home in the fall to harvest their bounty. In the winter, they made a hunting trip to the west. The Pawnee abandoned this village in the 1800s. Today, their reservation is in northern Oklahoma.
For a time, it was thought that American brigadier general and explorer Zebulon Pike visited this village during his 1806 travels across Kansas. An obelisk was even erected to mark the place people believed Pike had raised the American flag. Research later confirmed that Pike visited another Pawnee village in Nebraska.
A Sense of Belonging
In working on a book about Native rock carvings in central Kansas, I learned that the Pawnee are credited with many of the carvings (or petroglyphs) found in Kansas. The Pawnee were among one of the largest tribes in Kansas when European settlers first arrived, but most of today’s Kansans know little about them.
That educational gap is one reason the Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site is such an important piece of our state’s history. Visiting this site is a learning opportunity, a chance to see a village in the place it originated and where it belongs. When I worked on my book about petroglyphs, it became evident that Kansas’ Native peoples deliberately left carvings in certain places—near springs or in caves, for example. These glyphs are inseparable from the land where they were carved. Similarly, these lodges are profoundly connected to their land. They are in, and of, this place.
There is a tendency to view Indigenous people as a singular entity. This tendency is even reflected in the word “Indigenous”; each tribe has its own identity, way of life and spiritual practices. This museum is a place to learn about the Pawnee and how this tribe was connected to their land—on this now-quiet hilltop, thrust into the sky.
The Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site deserves more visitors. When I’ve visited, I’ve often been the only person there (unless I’m leading a field trip). The solitude, though, is part of its charm. Make a visit, and you’ll likely have the place to yourself. Wander the grounds and take a moment to ponder, to think about the land and the people who lived here before settlers arrived. They lived here first, and we owe them our respect and an effort to understand their place in this place.
Every once in a while, somebody asks me to name my favorite location in Kansas. My answer varies, depending on my mood. But if the question is “What place should everyone visit?” it is the Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site.
Plan your trip
The Pawnee Indian Museum State Historic Site is located on 480 Pawnee Trail in Republic. It is about 8 miles north of U.S. Highway 36, on KS-266 N/Pawnee Trail. Signs lead the way.
The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday afternoons, April to October. Visitors can call 785.748.2205 during the off-season to make an appointment. Be sure to call at least a few days in advance.
The Kitkehahki Nature Trail, a paved, half-mile path, winds through the unexcavated lodges and is easily accessible. A picnic area is also available on museum grounds.
Visitors can find lodging and restaurants in nearby Belleville. In addition, the nearest town of Courtland offers Airbnb rentals and a local brewpub.
Visit kansashistory.gov/pawnee_indian for more information.
