The Ponca ( Páⁿka iyé: Páⁿka or Ppáⁿkka pronounced ) are a

Midwestern The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

Native American tribe of the

Dhegihan The Dhegihan languages are a group of Siouan languages that include Kansa– Osage, Omaha–Ponca, and Quapaw. Their historical region included parts of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, the Great Plains, and southeastern North America. T ...

branch of the

Siouan language Siouan or Siouan–Catawban is a language family of North America that is located primarily in the Great Plains, Ohio and Mississippi valleys and southeastern North America with a few other languages in the east. Name Authors who call the entire ...

group. There are two

federally recognized This is a list of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States of America. There are also federally recognized Alaska Native tribes. , 574 Indian tribes were legally recognized by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) of the United ...

Ponca

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

s: the

Ponca Tribe of Nebraska The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is one of two Federally recognized tribes, federally recognized tribes of Ponca people. The other is the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. They hold an annual powwow every August. Reservation From the original Ponc ...

and 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 languag ...

. Their oral history states they originated as a tribe east of the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

in the Ohio River valley area and migrated west for game and as a result of

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

wars. The term ''Ponca'' was the name of a clan among the Kansa, Osage, and

Quapaw The Quapaw ( ; or Arkansas and Ugahxpa) people are a tribe of Native Americans that coalesced in what is known as the Midwest and Ohio Valley of the present-day United States. The Dhegiha Siouan-speaking tribe historically migrated from the Oh ...

s. The meaning of the name is "Those Who Lead."

Early history

At first European contact, the Ponca lived around the mouth of the

Niobrara River The Niobrara River (; oma, Ní Ubthátha khe, , literally "water spread-out horizontal-the" or "The Wide-Spreading Water") is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long,U.S. Geological Survey. Many early settlers, such as Mari Sando ...

in northern

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

.Karr, Steven
A Brief History of the Ponca Tribe.
''The Official Website of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma.''. Retrieved 8 August 2009. According to tradition, they moved there from an area east of the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

just before Columbus' arrival in the Americas. Siouan-speaking tribes such as the Omaha, Osage,

and

Kaw Kaw or KAW may refer to: Mythology * Kaw (bull), a legendary bull in Meitei mythology * Johnny Kaw, mythical settler of Kansas, US * Kaw (character), in ''The Chronicles of Prydain'' People * Kaw people, a Native American tribe Places * Kaw, Fr ...

also have traditions of having migrated to the West from east of the Mississippi River. The invasions of the

from their traditional base in the north pushed those tribes out of the Ohio River area.Louis F. Burns
"Osage"
''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. Retrieved 2 March 2009. Scholars are not able to determine precisely when the

Dhegiha Siouan The Dhegihan languages are a group of Siouan languages that include Kansa– Osage, Omaha–Ponca, and Quapaw. Their historical region included parts of the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys, the Great Plains, and southeastern North America. ...

tribes migrated west, but know the Iroquois also pushed tribes out from the Ohio and West Virginia areas in the Beaver Wars. The Iroquois maintained the lands as hunting grounds. The Ponca appear on a 1701 map by

Pierre-Charles Le Sueur Pierre-Charles Le Sueur (c. 1657, Artois, France – 17 July 1704, Havana, Cuba) was a French fur trader and explorer in North America, recognized as the first known European to explore the Minnesota River valley. Le Sueur came to Canada with ...

, who placed them along the upper

Missouri Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...

. In 1789, fur trader Juan Baptiste Munier was given an exclusive license to trade with the Ponca at the mouth of the

. He founded a trading post at its confluence with the Missouri, where he found about 800 Ponca residing. Shortly after that, the tribe was hit by a devastating

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

epidemic An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of patients among a given population within an area in a short period of time. Epidemics of infectious ...

. In 1804, when they were visited by 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 gr ...

, only about 200 Ponca remained. Later in the 19th century, their number rose to about 700.About the Ponca Tribe.
''Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.''. Retrieved 6 January 2015. Most of the leadership of the Ponca people was destroyed in 1824. Hostile Lakotas attacked a delegation of 30 leaders of various rank returning from a visit in a friendly Oglala Lakota camp. Only twelve survived. "Numbered among the dead were all the Ponca chiefs, including the famous Smoke-maker ...".Howard, James H. (1965): ''The Ponca Tribe''. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 195. Washington. Unlike most other Plains Indians, the Ponca grew

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

and kept vegetable gardens. Their last successful buffalo hunt was in 1855.

Treaties with the United States

In 1817 the tribe signed a peace treaty with the United States."US-Ponca Treaty of 1817"
. retrieved 4nov2011 By a second treaty in 1825, they regulated trade and tried to minimize intertribal clashes on the Northern Plains.
. retrieved 4nov2011 In 1858 the Ponca signed a treaty by which they gave up parts of their land to the United States in return for protection from hostile tribes and a permanent reservation home on the Niobrara.
. retrieved 4nov2011 The Ponca signed their last treaty with the US in 1865.
. retrieved 4nov2011 In the 1868 US-Sioux Treaty of Fort Laramie"US-Sioux Treaty of 1868"
. retrieved 4nov2011 the US mistakenly included all Ponca lands in the

Great Sioux Reservation The Great Sioux Reservation initially set aside land west of the Missouri River in South Dakota and Nebraska for the use of the Lakota Sioux, who had dominated this territory. The reservation was established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 ...

. Conflict between the Ponca and the Sioux/Lakota, who now claimed the land as their own by US law, forced the US to remove the Ponca from their own ancestral lands.

Relocation

When

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

decided to remove several northern tribes to

Indian Territory The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign ...

(present-day Oklahoma) in 1876, the Ponca were on the list. After inspecting the lands the US government offered for their new reservation and finding it unsuitable for

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

, the Ponca chiefs decided against a move to the Indian Territory. Hence, when governmental officials came in early 1877 to move the Ponca to their new land, the chiefs refused, citing their earlier treaty. Most of the tribe refused and had to be moved by force. In their new location, the Ponca struggled with

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

, a shortage of food and the hot climate. One in four members died within the first year.

Standing Bear

Chief

Standing Bear Standing Bear (c. 1829–1908) (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 a Ponca chief a ...

was among those who had most vehemently protested the tribe's removal. When his eldest son, Bear Shield, lay on his deathbed, Standing Bear promised to have him buried on the tribe's ancestral lands. In order to carry out his promise, Standing Bear left the reservation in Oklahoma and traveled back toward the Ponca homelands. He was arrested for doing so without US government permission and ordered confined at Fort Omaha. Many people took up his cause, and two prominent attorneys offered their services ''pro bono''. Standing Bear filed a ''

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

'' suit challenging his arrest. In ''Standing Bear v. Crook'' (1879), held in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

, the US District Court established for the first time that Native Americans are "persons within the meaning of the law" of the United States, and that they have certain rights as a result. This was an important

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

case.

Nebraska

In 1881, the US returned 26,236 acres (106 km²) of

Knox County, Nebraska Knox County is a county in the U.S. state of Nebraska. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 8,391. Its county seat is Center. Knox County was named for Continental and U.S. Army Major General Henry Knox. In the Nebraska licen ...

to the Ponca, and about half the tribe moved back north from Indian Territory. The tribe continued to decline. In the 1930s, the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, ...

and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

conducted an archeological project to identify and save prehistoric artifacts before they were destroyed during agricultural development. The team excavated a prehistoric Ponca village, which included large circular homes up to sixty feet in diameter, located 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. After World War II, the US government began a policy of terminating its relationship with tribes. In 1966, the US federal government terminated the tribe (then called the Northern Ponca). It distributed its land by allotment to members, and sold off what it called surplus. Many individuals sold off their separate allotments over the decades, sometimes being tricked by speculators. In the 1970s, the tribe started efforts to reorganize politically. Members wanted to revive the cultural identity of its people and improve their welfare. First, they sought state recognition and then allied with their Congressional representatives to seek legislation for federal recognition. On October 31, 1990, the Ponca Restoration Bill was signed into law, and they were recognized as the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. They are now trying to rebuild a land base on their ancestral lands. They are the only federally recognized tribe in Nebraska without a reservation. Today the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska has over 2,783 enrolled members and is headquartered in Niobrara, Nebraska.

Oklahoma

After the 1877 forced relocation onto the

Reservation in Indian Territory, the tribe moved west to their own lands along the

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

and Salt Fork Rivers. The full-bloods formed a

tipi A tipi , often called a lodge in English, is a conical tent, historically made of animal hides or pelts, and in more recent generations of canvas, stretched on a framework of wooden poles. The word is Siouan, and in use in Dakhótiyapi, Lakȟó ...

village, while the mixed-bloods settled about

Chikaskia River The Chikaskia River (usually pronounced ''chi-KAS-kee-uh'' but often pronounced ''chi-KAS-kee'' in southern Kansas) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 31, 2011 tri ...

. During opposition by Ponca leadership, the US government began dismantling tribal government under the

Curtis Act The Curtis Act of 1898 was an amendment to the United States Dawes Act; it resulted in the break-up of tribal governments and communal lands in Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) of the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory: the Choctaw, Chickasa ...

. In an attempt to encourage assimilation (and to allow Oklahoma to become a state), they allotted reservation lands to individual members under the

Dawes Act The Dawes Act of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. Named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, it authorized the Pres ...

in 1891 and 1892. Any land remaining after allotment was made available for sale to non-natives. After Oklahoma achieved statehood, some remaining Ponca land was leased or sold to the 101 Ranch, where many Ponca people found employment. The 1911 discovery of

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

on Ponca lands provided revenues but had mixed results. There were environmental disasters as oil refineries dumped waste directly into the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

. In 1918, two Ponca men, Frank Eagle and Louis McDonald, helped co-found the

Native American Church The Native American Church (NAC), also known as Peyotism and Peyote Religion, is a Native American religion that teaches a combination of traditional Native American beliefs and Christianity, with sacramental use of the entheogen peyote. The ...

.Mark Van de Logt, "Ponca"
''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture.'' 2009 (14 December 2016) In 1950 the tribe organized a new government under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. They adopted their tribal constitution on 20 September 1950."Constitution and By-laws of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma"
''National Tribal Justice Resource Center.'' Retrieved 8 August 2009. Today the tribe is headquartered in

White Eagle, Oklahoma White Eagle is an unincorporated community in Kay County, Oklahoma, United States. White Eagle was named for the Ponca principal chief, White Eagle (ca. 1840-1914), who led the Ponca to their reservation in Indian Territory. Other names for the to ...

. It conducts business from

Ponca City Ponca City ( iow, Chína Uhánⁿdhe) is a city in Kay County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The city was named after the Ponca tribe. Ponca City had a population of 25,387 at the time of the 2010 census- and a population of 24,424 in the 2020 ...

. The Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma has over 4200 members."Pocket Pictorial."
''Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission.'' 2010: 29. (retrieved 10 June 2010)

Notable Ponca

Carter Camp Carter Camp (August 18, 1941, Pawnee, Oklahoma – December 27, 2013, White Eagle, Oklahoma) (Ponca) was an American Indian Movement activist. Camp played a leading role in the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties that traveled to Washington, DC, wher ...

, AIM (American Indian Movement) leader * Brett Chapman, attorney and Native American rights advocate *

Tommy Morrison Tommy "The Duke" Morrison (January 2, 1969 – September 1, 2013) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 2008, and held the WBO heavyweight title in 1993. He retired from boxing in 1996 when he tested positive for HIV. Mo ...

, former heavyweight boxer/co-star in Rocky V movie *

Chief White Eagle Chief White Eagle (c. 1825 - February 3, 1914) was a Native American politician and American civil rights leader who served as the hereditary chief of the Ponca from 1870 until 1904. His 34-year tenure as the Ponca head of state spanned the mos ...

, chief and civil rights advocate * Susette La Flesche, civil rights activist, writer, lecturer, interpreter, artist * Paladine Roye, painter, 1946–2001 * Ponka-We Victors,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

state legislator * Clyde Warrior, activist for Native self-determination *

, chief and civil rights advocate

Notes

References

* Clark, C. Blue. ''Indian Tribes of Oklahoma: A Guide.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009. . * Dorsey, James Owen. ''Omaha and Ponka Letters.'' Washington: Government Printing Office, 1891. * Dando-Collins, Stephen. ''Standing Bear is a Person.'' Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2004.. * Rollins, Willard H
''The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains''.
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1995.

External links

Ponca Tribe of Nebraska

Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma

* {{authority control Plains tribes Dhegiha Siouan peoples Native American tribes in Nebraska Native American tribes in Oklahoma