The ancestors of the Pawnees are speakers…

The ancestors of the Pawnees are speakers of Caddoan languages, who have developed a semi-sedentary neolithic lifestyle in valley-bottom lands on the Great Plains, having entered the region from east of the Mississippi River.

Unlike other groups of the Great Plains, they have a stratified society with priests and hereditary chiefs.

Their religion includes cannibalism and human sacrifice.

Their initially unfortified villages of well-scattered grass lodges and earth lodges reflect an assumption that large raiding parties will not arrive without warning; their inhabitants cannot rapidly co-ordinate defense against a large party of enemies.