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A Place Called Pahaku, Paul A. Johnsgard

Papers in Ornithology

There is an area in eastern Nebraska where the Platte River, after flowing northeastwardly from the vicinity of Kearney for nearly 150 miles, enters the glacial drift bordering the Missouri Valley and turns directly east. Over its eastward course of about 50 miles, the river forms a shallow and wide sandy channel that is bounded to the south by forested bluffs and to the north by a wide wooded floodplain. One of these glacially shaped and loess-capped bluffs was known historically to the resident Pawnee tribe as Pahaku (usually but incorrectly spelled as Pahuk) Hill. This Pawnee word may be …