The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is one of two

federally recognized tribe A federally recognized tribe is a Native American tribe recognized by the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs as holding a government-to-government relationship with the US federal government. In the United States, the Native American tribe ...

s of the Ponca people. The other is the

Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma The Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, also known as the Ponca Nation, is one of two federally recognized tribes of Ponca people. The other is the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. Traditionally, peoples of both tribes have spoken the Omaha-Ponca langu ...

. , the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska’s total population is 5,334 citizens, of which 1,923 reside in Nebraska.

Reservation

From the original Ponca Reservation, the tribe has repurchased a trust landbase of . Since the passage of the Ponca Restoration Act, the tribe has the legal right to conduct business in

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

.
''Ponca Tribe of Nebraska enrollment'' Retrieved January 10, 2017. The tribe has used the land to restore a bison herd to the area.

Government

The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is headquartered in Niobrara, Nebraska. The tribe is governed by a democratically elected council. Candace Schmidt is currently serving as tribal chairperson.

History

Ponca people are thought to have migrated to the

Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...

from the Ohio River valley. In the mid-16th century, Ponca people migrated with the Kansa,

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, and Osage north, up the Mississippi. They separated from the Omaha in the mid-17th century but reunited with them near the Niobrara River of Nebraska in 1793. Introduced European diseases had killed 90% of the Ponca people by 1804, when the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gro ...

arrived in their lands.Pritzker 353 The Ponca signed their first treaty with the United States in 1817, ceding two million acres of their lands. In 1858, their reservation had been reduced to . Poncas were removed to

Indian Territory Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the Federal government of the United States, United States government for the relocation of Native Americans in the United States, ...

; 25% of the tribe died from disease and starvation in a single year. Chief Standing Bear led a group on a back to their homelands in Nebraska to bury their dead. The subsequent trial, '' Standing Bear v. Crook'' established the writ of habeas corpus for the first time for Native Americans, also allowed the Poncas to have lands restored to them in Nebraska. Niobrara Island was included in the original reservation. In the 1930s, an archeological survey was begun on the Ponca/Niobrara Reservation south of the Niobrara River and Lynch, Nebraska. In an effort to identify and save

prehistoric Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use o ...

artifacts before they were destroyed during agricultural development, the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

undertook a joint project. The team excavated a prehistoric Ponca village; the ten laborers on the project were paid by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

of the

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

administration during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

. The project was to survey, identify and protect ancient resources. The Ponca village included large circular homes up to sixty feet in diameter; their residences were located for almost two miles (3 km) along the south bank of the Niobrara River.Dr. Lance Martin, "Rabbit Hunt"
1997, ABCD unlimited. Retrieved 12/5/08.
1997, ABCD unlimited. Retrieved 06/19/17. In the 1950s, the United States government unilaterally terminated recognition of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. Since 1990, the tribe reacquired of their lost lands. The US government finally re-recognized the tribe in 1990.Pritzker 353–354 In 2018 farmers Helen and Art Tanderup gifted and deeded of their land near Neligh, Nebraska, which had been in their family for 137 years, back to the tribe in the first ceremony of its kind; the Fifth Annual planting of sacred Ponca corn also took place. The land lies in the path of the historic

Trail of Tears The Trail of Tears was the forced displacement of about 60,000 people of the " Five Civilized Tribes" between 1830 and 1850, and the additional thousands of Native Americans and their black slaves within that were ethnically cleansed by the U ...

as well as the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Notable tribal members

Standing Bear Standing Bear (–1908) (Omaha-Ponca language, Ponca official orthography: Maⁿchú-Naⁿzhíⁿ/Macunajin;U.S. Indian Census Rolls, 1885 Ponca Indians of Dakota other spellings: Ma-chú-nu-zhe, Ma-chú-na-zhe or Mantcunanjin pronounced ) was ...

, chief * Verdell Primeaux, Native American Church singer and songwriter

Notes

References

* Pritzker, Barry M. ''A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

External links

Ponca Tribe of Nebraska
official website {{DEFAULTSORT:Ponca Tribe of Nebraska Native American tribes in Nebraska Federally recognized tribes in the United States Knox County, Nebraska Dhegiha Siouan peoples