Pawnee (/pɔːˈniː/ paw-NEE) is a fictional town located in the state of Indiana in which the NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation is set.

Pawnee's fictional history begins with its founding in 1817, which was very shortly followed by the driving of the Native American Wamapoke tribe from the land.

[1] The town is depicted as having an extensive history of racial and misogynistic abuse towards the Wamapoke people, which it celebrates in various murals on the walls at City Hall.

Pawnee is depicted as a typical mid-sized city in south central Indiana, located in the fictional "Wamapoke County" about 90 miles from Indianapolis.

Over the course of the series, in part due to the actions of Leslie Knope, the city's Deputy Director of the Parks and Recreation department, and her associates, the town's fortunes improve and Pawnee becomes a more desirable place to live.

Ron Swanson is Director of the Parks and Recreation department for most of the series' run with main protagonist Leslie Knope as his deputy.

In the May 2020 special episode of the series, Congressman and Pawnee resident Ben Wyatt is shown to be representing the 9th congressional district.

For example, Hillary Busis of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "the show wouldn't work nearly as well if it were set in a less wonderfully quirky place", and said that "some of the show's funniest moments come when the extreme weirdness of its setting is revealed — when, say, Leslie explains what's going on in one of City Hall's numerous, horrifically offensive murals, or when she dispatches ridiculous bits of Pawnee history.

And then there's how absurdly cosmopolitan Pawnee is: Why does this blip on the map have its own tabloid news show, zoo, beauty pageant, periodicals, and thriving nightlife scene?