Guide Rock, known to the Pawnee as Pahur, was a sacred hill in south-central Nebraska whose name meant “hill that points the way.” It was one of the five lodges of the nahurac, spirit animals linked to the supreme being Tirawa, and a large Kitkehahki Pawnee village stood nearby between about 1770 and 1830. The hill also became part of early imperial rivalry on the Great Plains in 1806, when Lieutenant Facundo Melgares visited the nearby Pawnee village for Spain and Zebulon Pike soon after persuaded the Pawnee to replace a Spanish flag with an American one. Later settlers named their community for the hill, which remained both a landmark and a sacred place.