The Pawnees lived mainly along the Platte and Loup Rivers in what is now eastern Nebraska. Their social-cultural organization and considerable population were important factors in providing the cohesion needed to play a predominant role in the central Plains of North America. In the latter quarter of the eighteenth century the Spanish of New Mexico and the western Comanche formed an alliance intended to thwart Pawnee expansion in the Southern Plains. Horses and firearms introduced by the Europeans contributed to upset the balance of power between the Pawnees and the nomadic tribes that immigrated to the Plains.
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