While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Chaui ('in the
middle.'—Grinnell). A tribe of the Pawnee confederacy, spoken of by the
French as Grand Pawnee. In the positions maintained by the 4 tribes of the
Pawnee confederacy the villages of the Chaui were always between those of
the Pitahauerat on the east and Kitkehahki on the west. In the council of
the confederacy the Chaui held a prominent place, their head chiefs
outranking all others, and being accepted as representative of the Pawnee,
although without power to dominate all the tribes. Little that is
distinctive is known of this tribe. In 1833 they ceded to the United
States their lands south of Platte River, Nebraska, and in 1857 all lands
on the north side of that stream, when the Pawnee reservation on Loup
River was established. This land was ceded in 1876 and their reservation
in Oklahoma set apart. Here they now live. Having taken their lands in
severalty, in 1892 they became citizens of the United States. They were
included the missions established among the Pawnee. In customs and beliefs
the Chaui did not differ from their congeners. They possessed many
interesting ceremonies, of which that connected with the calumet has been
preserved entire and gives evidence of their well-defined cosmogony and
religious system. The divisions and totems are not known.
