The Kitkehahkis, or Republican Pawnee, occasionally abandoned and relocated various villages along the Republican River. In 1806, first the Spanish and then the Americans journeyed to the large Kitkehahkis village on Republican River, the Pike-Pawnee Village Site then near the present Guide Rock, Nebraska. Both parties were seeking the tribe's assistance in enforcing competing claims to the Louisiana Territory. Leading the much smaller American expedition, Lieutenant Zebulon Pike convinced the Kitkehahkis to accept the American Flag in place of the Spanish.
