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Information
on the Ponca Indians
Recorded by Members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804 The following excerpts from the journals of Lewis and Clark and their men present a picture of the Ponca people as the Anglo-Americans saw them. The modern reader must be careful to understand that what these white men saw and recorded was not necessarily correct from the Indian perspective. The following passages have been freely adapted and excerpted from the original texts, and the spelling has been corrected to make them easier to read. For students wishing to quote these passages, the Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary Moulton and published by the University of Nebraska Press, is the recommended source. For those who wish more in-depth information about Lewis and Clark's relations with various Indian tribes, including background from the Indian perspective, the best book is James P. Ronda's Lewis and Clark among the Indians. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984. The very best way to obtain accurate information from the tribal perspective is to contact tribal councils for individual tribes - in other words, to consult the people themselves. The Poncas were a Siouan-speaking tribe, whose language was nearly identical to the Omahas. They were horticulturists living in earth-lodge villages but made seasonal tribal hunting trips far out onto the plains; because of their absence on such a trip they did not meet Lewis and Clark. The village was on Ponca Creek, in Knox County, probably not far from the present village of Verdel. It is now known as Ponca Fort and was occupied in the late eighteenth century and abandoned about 1800. Today, Poncas live in Nebraska and Oklahoma and have contributed many vocal advocates for American Indian rights, such as Chief Standing Bear and Clyde Warrior. Contact Information:
[Clark] |