Pawnee Indian Village Museum in Kansas

Great Bend
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	Pawnee Indian Village Museum
Kansas State Historical Marker
Republic County
	Republic County Entrance to the Pawnee Indian Village State Historic Site , KS, USA

	This is the site of a large, fortified village of the Republican band of Pawnee Indians, occupied during the early 1800s. As the inscription on the stone marker indicates, the village was long believed by local, state and national historians to be that visited by Zebulon M. Pike in 1808. On the strength of this belief, the site was purchased and presented to the state in 1899 by Elizabeth A. and George Johnson. Later investigations cast doubt on the claim, chiefly because the topography does not match that described by Pike. Nevertheless, there can be no question that the farsighted and public-spirited action fo the donors save this important location from destruction. Today it is the only major preserved Pawnee village site in the Central Plains area, and this museum, constructed around a scientifically excavated house floor, is unique in Plains archeology.