Page "Pawnee people" Paragraph 65

Writing in the 1960s, the historian Gene Weltfish drew from earlier work of Wissler and Spinden to suggest that the sacrificial practice might have been transferred in the early 16th century from the Aztec of present-day Mexico.

More recently, historians have disputed the proposed connection to Mesoamerican practice.

They believe that the sacrifice ritual originated separately within ancient traditional Pawnee culture.