Ponca
Dhegihan speaking people
(Quapaw ) |
People | Páⁿka |
---|---|
Language | Páⁿka Iyé, Páⁿka Gáxe |
Country | Páⁿka Mazhóⁿ |
The Ponca people[a] are a nation primarily located in the Great Plains of North America that share a common Ponca culture, history, and language, identified with two Indigenous nations: the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma or the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.
This nation comprised the modern-day Ponca,
Early history
At first European contact, the Ponca lived around the mouth of the
The Ponca appear on a 1701 map by Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, who placed them along the upper Missouri. In 1789, fur trader Juan Baptiste Munier was given an exclusive license to trade with the Ponca at the mouth of the Niobrara River. 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 epidemic. In 1804, when they were visited by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, only about 200 Ponca remained. Later in the 19th century, their number rose to about 700.[2]
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 ...".[7]: 27
Unlike most other Plains Indians, the Ponca grew maize and kept vegetable gardens. Their last successful buffalo hunt was in 1855.[4]
Treaties with the United States
In 1817 the tribe signed a peace treaty with the United States.[8] By a second treaty in 1825, they regulated trade and tried to minimize intertribal clashes on the Northern Plains.[9] 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.[10] The Ponca signed their last treaty with the US in 1865.[11] In the 1868 US-Sioux Treaty of Fort Laramie[12] the US mistakenly included all Ponca lands in the Great Sioux Reservation. 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
Standing Bear
Chief
Nebraska
In 1881, the US returned 26,236 acres (106 km2) of Knox County, Nebraska to the Ponca, and about half the tribe moved back north from Indian Territory. The tribe continued to decline.
In the 1930s, the
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.[2] 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.[2]
Today the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska has over 2,783 enrolled members and is headquartered in Niobrara, Nebraska.[2]
Oklahoma
After the 1877 forced relocation onto the
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 on Ponca lands provided revenues but had mixed results. There were environmental disasters as oil refineries dumped waste directly into the Arkansas River.[4]
In 1918, three Ponca men, Frank Eagle, Louis McDonald, and McKinley Eagle, helped co-found the Native American Church.[15][16]: 224–226 As of 2024[update], the Native American Church is the most widespread Indigenous religion among Native Americans in the continental United States, Canada, and Mexico, having an estimated 300,000 adherents.
In 1950, the nation organized a new government under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act. Ponca leaders adopted the Ponca Constitution on 20 September 1950.[17] Today, the Ponca Tribe is headquartered in White Eagle, Oklahoma and conducts business from Ponca City.
Notable Ponca
- Carter Camp, AIM (American Indian Movement) leader
- Brett Chapman, attorney and Native American rights advocate
- Tommy Morrison, former heavyweight boxer/co-star in Rocky V movie
- Chief White Eagle, chief and civil rights advocate
- Susette La Flesche, civil rights activist, writer, lecturer, interpreter, artist
- Paladine Roye, painter, 1946–2001
- Ponka-We Victors, Kansas state legislator
- Clyde Warrior, activist for Native self-determination
- Standing Bear, chief and civil rights advocate
See also
Notes
References
- Citations
- ^ Oklahoma Indian Affairs. Oklahoma Indian Nations Pocket Pictorial Directory. Archived 2009-02-11 at the Wayback Machine 2008: page 28. Retrieved 8 August 2009.
- ^ a b c d e f About the Ponca Tribe. Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
- ISBN 0-306-81370-X.
- ^ a b c d Karr, Steven. A Brief History of the Ponca Tribe. The Official Website of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma.. Retrieved 8 August 2009.
- ^ Louis F. Burns, "Osage" Archived 2011-01-02 at the Wayback Machine Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. Retrieved 2 March 2009.
- ^ Rollins 96-100
- ^ Howard, James H. (1965): The Ponca Tribe. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 195. Washington.
- ^ "US-Ponca Treaty of 1817" Archived 2011-11-26 at the Wayback Machine. retrieved 4nov2011
- ^ "US-Ponca Treaty of 1825" Archived 2015-03-07 at the Wayback Machine. retrieved 4nov2011
- ^ "US-Ponca Treaty of 1858" Archived 2015-02-13 at the Wayback Machine. retrieved 4nov2011
- ^ "US-Ponca Treaty of 1865" Archived 2015-02-13 at the Wayback Machine. retrieved 4nov2011
- ^ "US-Sioux Treaty of 1868" Archived 2011-11-26 at the Wayback Machine. retrieved 4nov2011
- ^ a b Dr. Lance Martin, "Dig Deep", 1997, ABCD unlimited. Retrieved 06/19/17.
- ^ Dr. Lance Martin, "Rabbit Hunt", 1997, ABCD unlimited. Retrieved 12/5/08.
- ^ Mark Van de Logt, "Ponca", Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. 2009 (14 December 2016)
- ISBN 0-8061-2068-1. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
The first officers of the Central Church were Frank Eagle (Ponca), president; Mack Haag (Cheyenne), vice-president; George Pipestem (Oto), secretary; and Louis McDonald (Ponca), treasurer. For the first twenty-five years about thirty people from seven or eight tribes occupied all elected offices and the five or six appointed positions. As well as the member of the original general council, they included Alfred Wilson (Cheyenne), James W. Waldo (Kiowa), Ned E. Bruce (Kiowa), Edgar McCarthy (Osage), Frank W. Cayou (Omaha), and McKinley Eagle (Ponca).
- ^ "Constitution and By-laws of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma"[permanent dead link], National Tribal Justice Resource Center. Retrieved 8 August 2009.
- Books
- Clark, C. Blue. Indian Tribes of Oklahoma: A Guide. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8061-4060-5.
- 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.ISBN 0-306-81370-X.
- Rollins, Willard H. The Osage: An Ethnohistorical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1995.