originally designated the Pawnee Indians; because so many Plains Indians came to Wisconsin as captives taken in war, it eventually became a slang term for "slave" (sometimes found as "panis")

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[Source: Perrot, Nicolas. Ch. 15 of "Mémoire sur les moeurs, coustumes et religion des sauvages de l'Amérique Septentrionale" at Turning Points in Wis. History (www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/)]