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Fall 2002

Piecing Together The Ponca Past Reconstructing Degiha Migrations To The Great Plains

Beth R. Ritter University of Nebraska at Omaha, [email protected]

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Ritter, Beth R., "Piecing Together The Ponca Past Reconstructing Degiha Migrations To The Great Plains" (2002). Great Plains Quarterly. 2307. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/2307

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. PIECING TOGETHER THE PONCA PAST RECONSTRUCTING DEGIHA MIGRATIONS TO THE GREAT PLAINS

BETH R. RITTER

The twenty-first century presents opportu­ chronically underfunded annual appropria­ nities, as well as limitations, for the American tions for Native American health, housing, Indian Nations of the Great Plains. Oppor­ and social service programs. tunities include enhanced economic devel­ The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, terminated opment activities (e.g., casino gambling, in 1965 and restored to federally recognized telecommunications, and high-tech industries) status in 1990,1 embraces these challenges by and innovative tribal programming such as exploring the limits of self-governance, eco­ language immersion programs made possible nomic development opportunities, and cul­ through enhanced self-governance initiatives. tural revitalization initiatives. The Ponca Limitations include familiar scripts that per­ recognize they have experienced profound petually threaten tribal sovereignty and cultural loss over the past three centuries. Yet the definition of what it "means" to be Ponca has never been lost. Tribal termination was the culmination of generations of federal Indian policy that ad­ versely affected the Ponca.2 Historically, the KEY WORDS: Blood Run, Degiha, ethnohistory, migrations, Oneota, oral history, Ponca Ponca were a small tribe who suffered consid­ erably as a result of treaties of cession, forced Beth R. Ritter is Assistant Professor of Anthropology removal to Indian Territory, the subsequent and Native American Studies at the University of division of the tribe into "Northern" and Nebraska at Omaha. She has worked with the Ponca "Southern" entities, allotment, and the even­ Tribe of Nebraska since 1989 and has published on tual dispossession of all but 834 acres of their their history, culture, and experience as a terminated/ original estate.3 By the time the government res tored Tribe. enacted its termination policy in the 1950s, there was little left of the former estate of the [GPQ 22 (Fall 2002): 271-84l Northern Ponca to fight for.

271 272 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2002

Sou t h D a k 0

O'Neill.

Io wa

N e br as k a

o Service Area * Headquarters • Field Office

.\1. Doole ' FIG. 1. Map of service delivery areas of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska .

The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska was restored settlement history of the tribe in order to make to federally recognized status on 31 October more informed policy decisions governing all 1990. The language of their restoration legis­ fifteen service delivery areas. This article syn­ lation specifically prohibits the tribe from ever thesizes tribal oral histories (recovered from seeking a residential reservation.4 Rather, it is legal and ethnographic sources), as well as allowed to deliver services (e.g., health, hous­ ethnohistorical and archeological evidence for ing, and social services) to their widely dis­ Ponca migration to and settlement in the Great persed membership who reside in fifteen Plains. counties in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Da­ kota (Fig. O. These counties include the cit­ DEGIHA MIGRATIONS ies of Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, and Norfolk in Nebraska, as well as Council Bluffs Many of the tribes historically and currently and Sioux City in Iowa. Tribal headquarters associated with the Great Plains originated are located in Niobrara, Nebraska. Field of­ from regions outside the Plains, particularly fices are located in Omaha, Lincoln, Norfolk, from the Eastern Woodlands. The Ponca and and Sioux City. The tribe is allowed to ac­ their close linguistic and cultural relatives, the quire trust land and deliver a full range of Omaha, Kaw (also known as Kansa), Quapaw, services in all of the fifteen counties that com­ and Osage, are one such example. Together, prise their service areas. the five cognate tribes are referred to as In 1998 the Tribal Council identified a need "Degiha-speakers" of Siouan linguistic stock. to better understand the early migration and The Degiha-speakers are also related lin- PIECING TOGETHER THE PONCA PAST 273

Proto-Siouan

Southeastern (Biloxin, Ofo, Tutelo) Mississippi Valley \ Crow Hidatsa Chiwere /\ Dheglha Mandan Winnebago loway J\ Oto Ponca \ \ Yanktonai Missouri Quapaw Yankton Stoney Teton Assiniboin Santee Kansa Osage

FIG. 2. Siouan language family. [Adapted from Hollow and Parks: Robert C. Hollow and Douglas R. Parks, "Studies in Plains Linguistics: A Review," Anthropology on the Great Plains, ed. Margot Liberty and W. Raymond Wood (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980), Fig. 1, p. 76.]

guistically and culturally to the Chiwere divi­ speakers who originated from the vicinity of sion of Siouan-speakers, the Ioway, Otoe, the Great Lakes or Ohio River valley.5 The Missouria, and Winnebago (Fig. 2). cognate Degiha tribes contend they were once The story of how the· Degiha-speakers and a single tribe-before the migration. Accord­ Chiwere-speakers came to inhabit the Great ing to Dorsey, the Degiha-speakers, when one Plains from their woodland homelands is nation, were known as the "Arkansa" or known primarily through tribal oral histories "Alkansa" by the Illinois tribes when they still supported by ethnohistoric accounts. From dwelt within the Ohio River valley (Fig. 3).6 these texts, we can begin to flesh out an epic Fletcher and LaFlesche posit the original tribal narrative of a large-scale migration of Indian name was Hon'nga, a hypothesis that is well nations to the Great Plains. supported by linguistic evidence.7 The precise location of the "pre migration" We can only speculate why the Ponca an­ homeland of the Degiha-speakers is not known. cestors and their relatives may have chosen Tribal oral histories suggest the Ponca were to migrate to the Great Plains, but we know one contingent of a large migration of Degiha- that their migration was an event of great 274 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2002

• Ponca Village Site .- Migration Route

Cultural Hearth ~! Dooln /\ i1t'r Dor>'\'v. "ISS6 FIG. 3. Map of Degiha migration routes and Ponca village or occupation sites. [Adapted from James Owen Dorsey (note 6), Plate X, and James H. Howard (note 42), p. 111.]

magnitude that has left vivid, yet varied ac­ horticulture while simultaneously favoring the counts among each of the cognate tribes. One expansion of western bison range. II Other trig­ plausible explanation is that the Degiha-speak­ gering factors may have been the spread of ers once comprised a highly organized epidemic disease and/or intensified intertribal chiefdom of village horticulturalists in the warfare associated with the early Contact pe­ Ohio River valley.s Depending on the timeline riod.12 In this context, we can imagine a sce­ selected, many factors may have contributed nario whereby either part or all of the to their apparent decision to abandon their Degiha-speakers eventually sought refuge on ancestral homeland. the Great Plains. I3 If one favors a relatively "early" exodus, The tribal designations of "Quapaw" and the collapse of complex chiefdoms associated "Omaha" may be of more recent origin than with the Middle Mississippian cultures (e.g., the tribal names of "Ponca," "Osage," and Cahokia or the American Bottoms) in the four­ "Kaw." According to Degihan traditions, the teenth century may be directly implicated.9 term "Omaha" refers to those going against Moreover, global climate change may have the wind or current and "Quapaw" refers to initiated a push-pull effect. Beginning as early the opposite phenomenon. The terms harken as A.D. 1200 and culminating in the "Little back to the initial event that split the Ice Age" or N eo-Boreal, 10 a general pattern of Degihas, dividing those who traveled upstream cooler, drier conditions may have seriously from those who traveled downstream when curtailed the number of frost-free days for maize the original group reached the Mississippi PIECING TOGETHER THE PONCA PAST 275

River early in the course of their migration Ioway) in the following passage: "At all events odyssey. the traditions agree in this: the people built From the Ponca perspective, the migration earth lodges (permanent villages), theyJarmed commenced with all five cognate tribes trav­ and hunted the buffalo and other animals. eling down the Ohio River from their original When the game became scarce in their neigh­ homeland.14 Upon reaching the confluence of borhood, they abandoned their villages and the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, one group went north-west."19 Dorsey's assertion that the separated and traveled down the Mississippi tribes built earth lodges is at odds with the River. This group came to be known as the oral traditions of both the Ponca and Omaha, "downstream" or Quapaw. 1S The "upstream" who believe they learned to build earth lodges people-the Omaha, Osage, Ponca, and Kaw­ from the Arikara (or "Sand Pawnee") after followed the Mississippi upstream until they they arrived in northwestern Iowa. 20 reached the mouth of the Missouri and even­ All accounts concur that the Omaha, tually drifted into the contemporary state of Ponca, and Ioway proceeded northward and Missouri (Fig. 3). eventually reached the sacred Pipestone James Owen Dorsey, a missionary and eth­ Quarry. It was here that the Ponca obtained nographer who lived with the Ponca and the catlinite for their sacred pipe. 21 Pipestone Omaha for an extended period in the late nine­ Quarry was a highly contested landscape, and teenth century, has provided the most com­ the Omaha/Ponca/Ioway were forced to aban­ prehensive account of the migration route after don their settlement at Pipestone due to fierce separation. 16 The group (sans Quapaw but oth­ opposition by the Dakota.22 erwise intact) apparently remained at the site Reportedly, after leaving Pipestone the of present-day St. Louis, Missouri, for some tribes then drifted south and southwest to­ time before ascending the Missouri River to ward the Big Sioux River, eventually estab­ the mouth of the Osage River east of the lishing a village on the Big Sioux River north present-day Jefferson City, Missouri. It was at of present-day Sioux City, Iowa (see Fig. 3).23 this point that another major separation took The Big Sioux River figures prominently in place. The Omaha and Ponca crossed the Mis­ the subsequent history of the three confeder­ souri River and left the Osage and Kaw be­ ated tribes. The riverine habitat of the Big hind. Sioux locale reportedly had plentiful game and Dorsey offered two accounts of the migra­ also would have supported the style of flood­ tion from this junctureY One account (sup­ plain horticulture the confederated tribes were plied by Joseph LaFlesche and Two Crows of familiar with.24 However, the confederated the Omaha) recounts that the migration of tribes faced continued opposition to their oc­ the Omaha and Ponca followed the Missouri cupation of this locale by the Yankton Dakota River north and west until reaching the vicin­ and their allies. ity of the Pipestone Quarry (in southwestern Tribal histories report the Ponca, Omaha, Minnesota). The other account, favored by and Ioway were driven out of their village or Dorsey and other informants, placed the villages on the Big Sioux by the Yankton Da­ Omaha and Ponca on a route that ascended kota in a major battle, losing 1,000 warriors in the Chariton River to its source near the Des the process.2S If this figure is accurate, the con­ Moines River. This account posits that the federated tribes would have been a very large Ioway first joined the Omaha and Ponca on population group indeed. After this crushing the Des Moines River, traveling together to defeat, the village(s) were evidently aban­ the headwaters of this river near Pipestone doned.26 The surviving Ponca, Omaha, and Quarry (Fig. 3) .18 Ioway traveled into southeastern South Da­ Dorsey characterized the subsequent migra­ kota, reportedly to Lake Andes (Fig. 3), where tion of the confederated tribes (Omaha/Ponca/ they cut the sacred pole of the Omaha and 276 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2002 where the Omaha formally committed to their lated to the Ioway) were also with the confed­ tribal organization.27 Omaha tribal history sug­ erated tribes during part or all of this odyssey. gests that they returned to the east side of the The Otoe settled at the mouth of the Elkhorn Missouri River and eventually built a new vil­ River in eastern Nebraska (Fig. 3 ).33 lage on the Big Sioux River. Omaha tribal The Ponca appear to have been generally histories also recall that the Omaha/Ponca more mobile than their Omaha relatives (Fig. nearly lost possession of the Sacred Pole dur­ 3). When the Ponca separated permanently ing a subsequent fierce battle at the newly from the Omaha, according to the Omaha, settled Big Sioux village. 28 neither tribe had horses. The Ponca traveled During the Big Sioux village era, the Omaha westward from their Niobrara homeland and and Ponca encountered the Arikara living in encountered the "Padouca" or Plains Apache. 34 what is now northeastern Nebraska. The They warred with the Padouca but eventually Omaha and Ponca began raiding the Arikara, made peace and received horses from them.35 as Fletcher and LaFlesche attest: "Omaha war Interestingly, the Omaha have no stories about parties from the east side of the river harassed how they received horses but are highly famil­ the Arikara, who were living on the west iar with how the Ponca obtained theirs. Be­ side."29 Traditions of both the Omaha and sides their familiarity with the Black Hills, Ponca relate that the tribes were operating the Ponca also have traditions regarding ex­ together when they drove the Arikara north­ peditions to Pike's Peak in Colorado and a ward. While this may be accurate, the Yankton medicine wheel in Wyoming.36 and Santee Dakota are generally credited with It is risky to assign dates to the migration displacing the Arikara. Nonetheless, the scenario outlined above; however, it is pos­ Omaha and Ponca agree that the Arikara sible to advance a tentative chronology specific sought to make peace with them and that peace to the late seventeenth and early eighteenth was negotiated at the "new village" on the Big centuries. In 1884 Dorsey wrote, "The Waxdege, Sioux.3D Za-waxube, or sacred pole, is very old, having After finally abandoning the Big Sioux vil­ been cut more than two hundred years ago."37 lage locale, the confederated tribes traveled Obviously, this information does little to pin­ west and northwest to the mouth of the White point the actual date of separation. However, River, where the Omaha and Ioway remained this account, stating that the Ponca and Ioway for a time. The Ponca, however, set off on were with the Omaha when the sacred pole was their own to the Black HillsY The three tribes cut, was verified by Howard's twentieth-century eventually reunited and traveled back down Ponca informants.38 This would have placed the the Missouri River. Driving the Arikara out of Ponca with the Omaha at Lake Andes (Fig. 3) northeastern Nebraska cleared the way for the sometime near 1684. This estimate is generally eventual settlement of the region by the Ponca, consistent with available ethnographic, ethno­ Omaha, and Ioway (Fig. 3). historic, and archeological data. The Ponca were the first to fission off from the larger group, signaling a new political and PONCA ORAL HISTORY economic arrangement for the allies. When the confederated group reached the mouth of Ponca oral history is vague when account­ the Niobrara River, the Ponca permanently ing for their history before they inhabited the separated from the Omaha and Ioway. The Pipestone/Big Sioux region with the Omaha Omaha eventually settled near the mouth of and Ioway.39 If the Omaha-Ponca association Bow Creek in northeastern Nebraska,32 and posited by various scholars and Omaha infor­ the Ioway continued eastward to establish a mants is correct, this dearth of knowledge is village near Ponca, Nebraska. It is possible consistent with the "single tribe hypothesis" that the Otoe (Chiwere-speakers closely re- (author's phrasing) which suggests that the PIECING TOGETHER THE PONCA PAST 277

Ponca were a clan of the Omaha. However, it for the Ponca was Oyateyamni, or "three is also plausible that this gap in traditional tribes."45 An alternative explanation of this knowledge may be due to the premature deaths name is that the village dated from the period of Ponca culture-bearers-as a result of epi­ when the Omaha, Ioway, and Ponca-or some demic disease, warfare, or some other cause­ other configuration of three cognate tribes­ before they could pass on Ponca tribal history. lived closely together. Clearly, the recollections of various Ponca Two other well-known Ponca villages are elders interviewed in the late nineteenth and found along the Missouri River in what is now early twentieth centuries consistently dem­ Dakota County, Nebraska (Fig. 3). The Ponca onstrate a strong tribal presence in northwest­ Omadi village site was located near Dakota ern Iowa, northeastern Nebraska, southeastern City, Nebraska, very near Sioux City, Iowa. South Dakota, and southwestern Minnesota Uhe atan, or Bridge village, was located near in the protohistoric and early historic eras. As Homer, Nebraska, confirming the Ponca as­ discussed below, these recollections dovetail sertion that they were well established in this with what is presently known about Oneota region.46 The remainder of the known Ponca culture history in northwestern Iowa in the village sites are located primarily within the protohistoric and early historic periods. traditional cultural hearth associated with the In testimony provided for the Omaha Land Ponca along Ponca Creek and the Niobrara Claims case in 1911-12, seventy-year-old and Missouri Rivers (Fig. 3).47 Ponca elder Louis LeRoy described the east­ ern boundary of land claimed by the Ponca ETHNOHISTORIC ACCOUNTS before their Treaty of 1858 as "that area that stretched from the catlinite quarries to the North American ethnohistory utilizes ar­ mouth of the Platte River or a point east of the chival maps, photographs, documents, and Missouri opposite Omaha."40 On the question documented observations of Europeans and of whether the Ponca and Omaha were once a European-Americans to reveal the cultural single tribe, seventy-year-old Jack Penisky history of a particular ethnic group, or "tribe." Uacob Peniskal replied, "They never mixed Ethnohistory is very useful as an additional up, they were separate tribes, the Omaha and line of evidence to validate and/or refine tribal the Ponca. But when they were at Pipestone oral histories and the archeological record. The the villages were close together."41 greatest degree of confidence in interpreting The Ponca have several stories of old vil­ tribal history is gained when oral history, lages in the vicinity of Pipestone and north­ ethnohistory, and archeology overlap. western Iowa (Fig. 3). One such village, The earliest ethnohistoric data available Maxude Wa aeda, translated as "Where the on the Degihas involves the infamous expedi­ Iowa Farmed," is near the mouth of Iowa Creek tion of Spanish conquistador Hernando in Dixon County, NebraskaY Based on the DeSoto, who reportedly met the Quapaw on testimony of Standing Elk, this village was the lower Mississippi in 1541 (Fig. 3). Because "the oldest place the Ponca lived, a long time the expedition specifically names the Quapaw ago; that was their main home at one time."43 it is widely assumed that the Quapaw were The Ponca were likely a much larger tribe when already "alone," placing the initial separation they originally inhabited this village near the of the cognate tribes well before 1541.48 Missouri River. Ponca elder Louis LeRoy re­ In the seventeenth century, France success­ ported that his grandfather told him his an­ fully challenged Spain's hegemony over the cestors were a "three-ring tribe" when they interior regions of North America and came lived together at this site, indicating that their to dominate the trans-Mississippi trade with numbers were too many to form a single camp Native Americans. European geopolitical cir­ circle.44 Interestingly, one of the Dakota names cumstances in the eighteenth century caused 278 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2002

France to yield control of the region back to companion of Le Sueur's on his return trip to Spain. As a result, many archeological sites France. Le Sueur reported to Iberville that the from this era contain considerable quantities Omaha had a population of 1,200 families in of European (including French) trade goods, that village and that the Ioway and Otoe had allowing these sites to be more reliably dated. an additional 300 families living at the site. 17 After reviewing the available ethnohistoric In a letter to Iberville in 1700, Father Marest literature, Thiessen concluded that by the early of the Kaskaskia mission also placed the Ioway eighteenth century the French were highly (and Otoe) on the upper Missouri River but familiar with the region west of the Missis­ admits he never met them personally.18 In a sippi "to the point where relatively specific memoir written in 1700 (published in 1702), information about native peoples and water­ Iberville said that the Otoe and Ioway were courses was becoming available on maps and with the Omaha between the Missouri and in travelers' accounts."49 Specifically, Thiessen Mississippi Rivers, and estimated their loca­ noted that the Omaha/Ponca and Ioway were tion as about a hundred leagues from the Illi­ located by the French on maps and other eigh­ nois."59 teenth-century documents near (or west of) References to the Omaha/Ponca occu­ the headwaters of the Iowa-Cedar, Upper Iowa, pation of the Big Sioux locale are further and/or the Des Moines Rivers.5o supported by noted French cartographer One of the first such French expeditions to Guillaume de l'Isle, whose two maps of 1702, document this region involved Louis Jolliet and an additional map produced in 1703, and Father Jacques Marquette, who are cred­ placed the Omaha near the mouth of the Big ited with "discovering" the Missouri River for Sioux River in northwestern Iowa.60 De l'Isle's France during their 1673 expedition. 51 Of more maps and accompanying notes situate the immediate interest, Jolliet and Marquette re­ Omaha village thirty to forty leagues west of ported an Omaha (fPonca?) and Ioway village Fort Vert.61 Additional notes specify that the on the Des Moines River in the same year. 12 Omaha village was located on a river "that The Marquette map of 1673 is the earliest enters the Missouri on the right in ascending documentary mention of the Omaha.53 Un­ at nine or ten leagues from the river that comes fortunately, Jolliet and Marquette did not visit from the former villages of the Aiaoue [Ioway]"; the village personally; instead they relied on this river has been interpreted as the Big information gained from the Peoria and Sioux.62 Quapaw.54 In a subsequent 1718 map, de l'Isle again In 1695 Pierre-Charles Le Sueur placed the placed the "Maha" living near the "Aiaouez" Omaha near the Missouri River and noted that [Ioways] north of the Missouri River-prob­ the Ioways had joined them. 55 Presumably, the ably the Big Sioux River. Of particular inter­ Ponca were also with them. Le Sueur never est is de l'Isle's 1718 depiction of a separate personally visited the villages of the Omaha tribe east of the Missouri, identified as "Les or Ioway; rather, he sent several expeditions Mahas, Nation errante" {"Wandering Omaha"). of his men from his post on the Blue Earth Howard and Wood believe this last group was River (south-central Minnesota), commonly very likely the Ponca, which if true is the first referred to as Fort Vert, in 1700-1701. On the recorded mention of the Ponca as a separate basis of Le Sueur's documentation, Wedel has tribe by outside observers.63 concluded that the Omaha were residing in a Therefore, according to the ethnohistoric large village on the Big Sioux River in 1700- accounts, the Omaha/Ponca (and Ioway) had 1701 but had likely been joined by the Ioway a village (or villages) on the Big Sioux River by 1699.56 north of modern-day Sioux City, Iowa, for a Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, the considerable length of time in the late seven­ French governor of Louisiana, was a traveling teenth and early eighteenth centuries. More- PIECING TOGETHER THE PONCA PAST 279 over, evidence of the Omaha/Ponca split is opened a trading post that came to be known apparent on de l'Isle's 1718 map, with two as the "Ponca House" on Ponca Creek near "Maha" groups depicted. This chronology is the Missouri. 71 consistent with the separation hypothesis championed by O'Shea and Ludwickson, who ARCHEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE believe that the Ponca and Omaha split some­ time between 1714 and 1718 (before the Archeological evidence of Omaha/Ponca/ Omaha established Bad Village on Bow Creek Ioway campsites and/or village sites before they in northeastern Nebraska in 1720).64 O'Shea settled in the Big Sioux locale is difficult to and Ludwickson believe that the tribes were detect. As Omaha informants noted, during still together in 1714 because a know ledge­ their migration they used skin tents held in able trader failed to mention the Ponca by place by a circle of stones that was left in place name in that year. Furthermore, they posit when the tents were taken down. Some Omaha that the Omaha population dropped by 800 informants reported having seen the "tent between 1700 and 1758, which they believe is circles" east of the Missouri, but subsequent roughly the number of Ponca who may have attempts to locate them in the early twentieth departed. The first definitively Ponca villages century were inconclusive.72 date from ca. 1750 in their historical home­ The greatest likelihood of finding early land near the confluence of the Niobrara and Omaha/Ponca archeological sites in the Great Missouri Rivers.65 Plains is obtained by matching up the known Any apparent confusion on the part of the sites with the most robust tribal traditions and Europeans regarding the tribal status of the ethnohistoric data. This approach leads us to Ponca was resolved in the ensuing years. By directly examine the archeological evidence 1785 the French were highly familiar with the for Omaha/Ponca villages in the drainage of Ponca and associated them with their historic the Big Sioux River in northwestern Iowa. aboriginal homeland near the Niobrara River Mildred Mott Wedel, in her 1938 master's in northeastern Nebraska. In that same year thesis and subsequent publications, was the the Ponca were disparaged in an unsigned let­ first to explicitly attribute occupation of the ter to the governor general of Louisiana, An­ Blood Run site in extreme northwestern Iowa tonio Renzel, as "nomadic, naturally ferocious, to the Ioway Indians. 73 Ethnohistoric and tribal and cruel."66 According to Howard, a French traditions certainly justify expanding that oc­ map produced in 1786 identified the Ponca by cupation to the Omaha/Ponca in the early name above the "Mahas" and placed their vil­ historic period.74 lage on the Missouri River, near Ponca Creek and the Niobrara RiverY BLOOD RUN AND ROCK ISLAND The earliest European visitor to the Ponca ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES to leave a firsthand written description was Jean Baptiste Monier. Monier (also known as The Blood Run (13L02) and Rock Island Juan Munie by the Spanish) traded and lived (39LN2) archeological sites in northwestern with the Ponca in 1789 and petitioned for Iowa and southeastern South Dakota achieved exclusive trading rights with the tribe in National Historic Landmark status in 1970. 1793.68 In 1794 French trader Jacques The designation recognized roughly 845 acres Clamorgan located the Ponca "[oln the bank as an especially significant resource.75 The of the Missouri about thirty leagues above the entire site spans more than 1,200 acres. The village of the Maha nation."69 In the same Blood Run/Rock Island sites are located ten communication, Clamorgan bitterly com­ miles southeast of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, plained about Monier's trade monopoly with and approximately seven miles west of the Ponca.70 In 1794-95 Jean Baptiste Trudeau Larchwood, Iowa (Fig. 3). They are approxi- 280 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2002 mately forty miles southwest of the Pipestone in the 1890s, interpreted many of the boulder Quarry (southwestern Minnesota) that figures outlines (estimated at 150 to 800 total) as tipi so prominently in the oral histories of the rings with entryways oriented to the south­ Ponca and Omaha. Blood Run actually east.82 straddles the Big Sioux River and takes its The occupants of Blood Run/Rock Island name from Blood Run Creek. The largest por­ were engaged in maize, beans, and squash hor­ tion is located in western Lyon County, Iowa, ticulture and were hunting and collecting a and the portion on the other side of the river wide variety of fauna, fish, and shellfish. Sev­ (in South Dakota) is known as Rock Island. eral catlinite pipes manufactured from stone The Blood Run and Rock Island village sites quarried from Pipestone have also been re­ are believed to have been occupied sometime covered. Archeologists have also recovered between A.D. 1500 and 1700. 76 On the basis chipped and polished stone artifacts and pot­ of tribal traditions and ethnohistoric docu­ tery.83 mentation, it is likely that the Blood Run/ Rock Island site contained the principal vil­ THE ONEOTA TRADITION lage of the Omaha/Ponca from the 1690s to perhaps 1714.77 Blood Run/Rock Island is the Blood Run and Rock Island are included in largest documented Oneota site and one of a larger regional archeological taxonomy gen­ the most important Oneota archeological vil­ erally referred to as the Oneota tradition.84 lage sites in the Western Prairie Peninsula. Oneota is often described as a "bridging cul­ Blood Run/Rock Island is an impressive, ture" that spans the Prairie Peninsula, incor­ large-scale archeological site. The first docu­ porating aspects of Eastern Woodlands with mented observations of the site in the nine­ those of the Plains during the late Holocene.85 teenth century counted "275 large conical Oneota culture dates from approximately A.D. mounds, one possible effigy mound, an earthen 900 through contact with historically known embankment enclosing about 15 acres and a tribes by European and European-American large number of circular and ovoid boulder cultures.86 Hundreds of sites have been classi­ outlines."78 The effigy mound may have been fied as Oneota and are located in the tallgrass in the shape of a bison, and there are also prairies along rivers and lakes in the modern reports of a serpent-shaped effigy mound states of Iowa, Nebraska (extreme northeast), stretching more than one-quarter mile in South Dakota (extreme southeast), Kansas length.79 Most of the mounds are burial (extreme northeast), Missouri, Illinois, Wis­ mounds; many contained European trade consin, and Minnesota. goods. 80 Unfortunately, the majority of the Oneota sites have a generalized cultural original features of the site have been either pattern with few distinctive traits. In general, obliterated or severely modified by several gen­ we can characterize Oneota as a hybridization erations of plow agriculture. of local Woodland cultures and the more Interestingly, Blood Run/Rock Island is elaborate Mississippian. Oneota sites exhibit known to have contained archeological fea­ an apparently higher reliance on hunting and tures in the highlands area that may corre­ gathering than the Mississippian, probably in spond to the "tipi rings" described by Omaha response to local environmental factors. 87 informants. The boulders were too large for Henning identifies the Oneota tradition individuals to lift and were usually arranged primarily with the Chiwere-Winnebago and side by side to form ovals and circles (the circles Degiha, or Siouan-speaking, peoples.88 Harvey average 30 feet in diameter). 81 A tipi of this concurs with Henning and believes that four size would have accommodated a fairly large of the five Degiha-speaking tribes (all but the nuclear or extended family of six adults and Quapaw) may be represented in the Oneota several children. Thomas, who studied the site tradition.89 What we may be seeing is an inte- PIECING TOGETHER THE PONCA PAST 281 grated cultural complex that incorporated sev­ firmly place the Ponca in northwestern Iowa eral distinct Chi were and Degiha Siouan by the beginning of the eighteenth century. speakers throughout the region, involving Thiessen concludes, "[Djespite the lack of patterns of movement from west to east as agreement in all respects, Omaha and Ponca well as east to west.90 Viewed in this manner, traditions in particular, considered as a whole, it is plausible that Degiha and Chiwere "pio­ amply attest to the presence of the Omaha, neers" may have inhabited the region before Ponca, Ioways, and Otos in the region of north­ the large-scale final migration described in western Iowa, southeastern South Dakota and tribal oral histories commenced. southwestern Minnesota."96 Henning cautions against employing the While the ethnohistoric record fails to spe­ direct historical approach in analyzing Degiha cifically identify the Ponca Tribe by name until prehistory.91 He notes, quite correctly, that 1718, many plausible explanations for this while the five cognate tribes have tenaciously apparent deficit have been explored in this retained their language, social, and religious research. Like Howard, Jablow argues that the traditions, they jettisoned their former mate­ lack of specific mention of the Ponca separate rial culture in favor of the regional adapta­ from the Omaha until the eighteenth century tions of the Plains' tribes they encountered in may simply be the result of the failure of non­ their eventual homelands.92 Henning is refer­ Indian observers to note the distinction be­ ring specifically to the lack of similarity of tween the linguistically and culturally similar archeological sites associated with the histori­ tribes.97 cally known Degiha tribes. The lack of simi­ Today, the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is seek­ larity in the material culture of the five closely ing to recover the pieces of their past in an related Degihan tribes, or even of the Oneota effort to move forward on behalf of their chil­ sites in general, has confounded many arche­ dren, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren ologists' attempts to construct a distinctive to come. The research compiled for this ar­ "Degihan archeological type." The Ponca ap­ ticle was a necessary step toward understand­ pear to be the most elusive of all, leading ing their past so that better-informed policies Henning to confess that the "Ponca consti­ may be formulated regarding land acquisition, tute an archeological enigma."93 economic development, cultural patrimony, Vehik notes that Degihan oral histories are and cultural programming. Despite termina­ often at odds with the archeological recon­ tion and restoration legislation that preclude structions that dismiss Degihan westward mi­ the Ponca from reestablishing a reservation, grations in favor of local cultural evolution.94 the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska has legally and However, she credits the oral histories with politically returned to their homeland (see having an internal consistency that is lacking Figs. 1 and 3). in the archeological interpretations: "It seems odd to dismiss a set of oral histories that ex­ NOTES hibit substantial similarity among Dhegihan The author gratefully acknowledges the con­ societies in favor of an archaeological argu­ tinuing support of the Tribal Council of the Ponca ment that cannot be substantiated in Dhegihan Tribe of Nebraska, with special thanks to Chair­ or Caddoan culture as historically docu­ man Fred LeRoy and Michael Mason. This article mented."95 benefited immensely from comments by Tom Thiessen, Alan]. Osborn, and anonymous review­ ers. The maps were expertly crafted by Matt Dooley. Reconstructing prehistoric, proto historic, and early historic tribal histories is far from an 1. Beth R. Ritter, "The Politics of Retribal­ exact science. However, the ethnohistoric and ization: The Northern Ponca Case," Great Plains archeological data strongly support the core Research 4 (1994): 237-55. 2. Ibid.; Elizabeth S. Grobsmith and Beth R. content of Degiha tribal migration stories that Ritter, "The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska: The Process 282 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2002 of Restoration of a Federally Terminated Tribe," 25. Dorsey, "Migrations of Siouan Tribes" (note Human Organization 51 (1992): 1-16; James H. 6 above), p. 219. Howard, The Ponca Tribe, Bureau of American Eth­ 26. Fletcher and LaFlesche, Omaha Tribe (note nology, Bulletin 195, Smithsonian Institution 7 above), p. 73. (Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing Of­ 27. Ibid. fice,1965). 28. Ibid. 3. Ritter, "Politics of Retribalization" (note 1 29. Ibid., p. 75. above). 30. Ibid., p. 74. 4. Grobsmith and Ritter, "Ponca Tribe of Ne­ 31. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above). braska" (note 2 above); Ritter, "Politics of 32. John M. O'Shea and John Ludwickson, Ar­ Retribalization" (note 1 above). chaeology and Ethnohistory of the Omaha Indians: 5. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above); Joseph The Big Village Site (Lincoln: University of Ne­ Jablow, Ponca Indians: Ethnohistory of the Ponca braska Press, 1992). (N ew York: Garland Press, 1974). 33. Thomas D. Thiessen, "Who Lived at Blood 6. James Owen Dorsey, "Migrations of Siouan Run? A Review of the Historical and Traditional Tribes," American Naturalist 20 (1886): 215. Evidence" (unpublished manuscript, State Histori­ 7. Alice C. Fletcher and Francis LaFlesche, The cal Society of Iowa, by the National Park Service, Omaha Tribe, 27th Annual Report of the Bureau of Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln, Nebr., American Ethnology (Washington, D.C.: US Gov­ 1998), p. 7. ernment Printing Office, 1905-6), p. 41. 34. James D. Gunnerson, personal communica­ 8. Dale R. Henning, "The Oneota Tradition," tion with author, 18 May 1999; Howard, Ponca in Archaeology on the Great Plains, ed. W. Raymond Tribe (note 2 above). Wood (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 35. Fletcher and LaFlesche, Omaha Tribe (note 1998), pp. 345-414. 7 above), p. 79. 9. Dale Henning, "Oneota: The Western Mani­ 36. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above). festations," The Wisconsin Archeologist 79 (1998): 37. James Owen Dorsey, Omaha Sociology, 33rd 238-47, p. 240. Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnol­ 10. David A. Baerreis and Reid A. Bryson, "Cli­ ogy (Washington, D.C.: US Government Printing matic Episodes and the Dating of the Mississippian Office, 1884), p. 234. Cultures," The Wisconsin Archeologist 46(1965): 38. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above). 203-20. 39. Thiessen, "Who Lived at Blood Run?" (note 11. William Green, "Exa~ining Protohistoric 33 above). Depopulation in the Upper Midwest," The Wiscon­ 40. Testimony of Ponca elder Louis LeRoy, sin Archeologist 74(1993): 290-323; Dale R. Omaha Land Claims Case, Omaha Tribe v. United Henning, "Development and Interrelationships of States, US Court of Claims, no. 31, 002, (1911-12) Oneota Culture in the Lower Missouri River Val­ [hereafter OLC 1911-12]' pp. 32-33. ley," The Missouri Archaeologist 32 (1970): 1-180; 41. Testimony of Jacob Peniska, OLC 1911-12, Dale R. Henning, "Oneota: The Western Manifesta­ p.136. tions," The Wisconsin Archeologist 79(1998): 238-47. 42. James H. Howard, "Known Village Sites of 12. Green, ibid. the Ponca," Plains Anthropologist 15, no. 48 (1970): 13. See, for example, Paul H. Carlson, The Plains 109-34, p. 118. Indians (College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M Uni­ 43. Testimony of Standing Elk, OLC 1911-12 versity Press, 1998), p. 28. (note 40 above), p. 423. 14. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above), p. 15. 44. Testimony of Louis LeRoy, OLC 1911-12 15. Fletcher and LaFlesche, Omaha Tribe (note (note 40 above), p. 180. 7 above), p. 38. 45. Howard, "Known Village Sites" (note 42 16. Dorsey, "Migrations of Siouan Tribes" (note above), p. 119. 6 above). 46. Ibid., p. 118. 17. Ibid. 47. Steven R. Holen, "Ponca Settlement at the 18. Ibid. Mouth of Ponca Creek," Technical Report 95-04, 19. Ibid., pp. 218-19. Nebraska Archeological Survey (Lincoln: Univer­ 20. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above); Fletcher sity of Nebraska State Museum, 1995). and LaFlesche, Omaha Tribe (note 7 above). 48. Fletcher and LaFlesche, Omaha Tribe (note 21. Howard, ibid. 7 above), p. 35; W. J. McGee, The Siouan Indians: 22. Ibid. A Preliminary Sketch, 15th Annual Report of the 23. Ibid., p. 15. Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington, D.C.: 24. Ibid. US Government Printing Office, 1897), pp. 157- 204, p. 191. PIECING TOGETHER THE PONCA PAST 283

49. Thiessen, "Who Lived at Blood Run?" (note 73. Wedel, "Ioway, Oto, and Omaha Indians" 33 above), p. 11. (note 56 above) and "Peering at the Ioway Indi­ 50. Ibid., p. 12. ans" (note 53 above); Thiessen, "Who Lived at 51. Alfred P. Nasatir, ed., Before Lewis and Clark Blood Run?" (note 33 above), p. 2. (St. Louis Historical Documents Foundation, 1952; 74. See, for example, Lynn M. Alex, Iowa's Ar­ reprint, Lincoln, Nebr.: Bison Books, 1990), p. 3. chaeological Past (Iowa City: University of Iowa 52. Jablow, Ponca Indians (note 5 above), p. 45. Press, 2000); Dale R. Henning, "The Oneota Tra­ 53. Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Rela­ dition," in Archaeology on the Great Plains, ed. W. tions and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations Raymond Wood (Lawrence: University of Kansas of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France, 1610-1791, Press, 1998), pp. 345-414; Henning, "Development vol. 59 (Cleveland: Burrows Brothers Company, and Interrelationships of Oneota Culture" (note 1900), fig. 3. 11 above). 54. Mildred Mott Wedel, "Peering at the Ioway 75. Tom Thiessen, personal communication with Indians through the Mist of Time: 1650-Circa author, 26 September 2002. 1700," Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society 76. Henning, "Oneota Tradition," (note 74 33(1986): 1-74, p. 13. above); Thiessen, "Who Lived at Blood Run?" (note 55. Fletcher and LaFlesche, Omaha Tribe (note 33 above). 7 above), p. 80. 77. Henning, "Oneota Tradition" (note 74 56. Mildred Mott Wedel, "The Ioway, Oto, and above), p. 384; O'Shea and Ludwickson, Archaeol­ Omaha Indians in 1700," Journal of the Iowa Ar­ ogy and Ethnohistory of the Omaha Indians (note 32 cheological Society 28 (1981): 1-13. above), p. 17. 57. Ibid.,p.9. 78. Cyrus Thomas in 1891, quoted in Henning, 58. Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark (note 51 "Oneota Tradition" (note 74 above), p. 383. above), p. 6. 79. Midwest Support Office, "Special Resource 59. Dorsey, "Migrations of Siouan Tribes" (note Study for the Blood Run/Rock Island National 6 above), p. 214. The distance of a league was not Historic Landmark" (Midwest Support Center, always uniform; during this period it generally National Park Service, Omaha, Nebr., 2000). meant 2.7 to 3.0 miles. 80. Burials included glass beads, brass and small 60. "Carte de la Riviere de Mississippi" (1702); iron objects, horse bones and a dog skeleton wrapped "Carte du Canada et du Mississippi" (1702); "Carte in hide (Henning, "Oneota Tradition" [note 74 du Mexique et de la Floride" (1703). Photocopies, above], p. 384). Geography and Map Division, Library of Congress. 81. Midwest Support Office, "Special Resource Reproduced in Wedel, "Iowa, Oto, and Omaha Study" (note 79 above). Indians" (note 56 above). 82. Quoted in Henning, "Oneota Tradition" 61. Wedel, "Ioway, Oto, and Omaha Indians" (note 74 above), p. 383. (note 56 above), p. 7. 83. Amy E. Harvey, Oneota Culture in North­ 62. Ibid. western Iowa, Report 12, Office of the State Arche­ 63. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above), and W. ologist (Iowa City: University of Iowa, 1979); Raymond Wood, Na'nza, The Ponca Fort, Reprints Henning, "Oneota Tradition" (note 74 above). in Anthropology, vol. 44 (Lincoln, Nebr.: J & L 84. The term "Oneota" can be traced back to Reprint Company, 1993). Ellison Orr, "Indian Pottery of the Oneota or Up­ 64. O'Shea and Ludwickson, Archaeology and per Iowa River in Northeastern Iowa," Proceedings Ethnohistory of the Omaha Indians (note 32 above). of the Iowa Academy of Sciences 21 (1914): 231-39. 65. Holen, "Ponca Settlement" (note 47 above). For additional information and syntheses, see Paul 66. Quoted in Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 Radin, The Winnebago Tribe, 37th Annual Report above), p. 24. of the Bureau of American Ethnology (Washing­ 67. "Carte du Mississippi et ses embranchemens"; ton, D.C.: US Government Printing Office, 1915- an unsigned French map, in Howard (note 5 above), 16); Nancy O. Lurie, "Winnebago Protohistory," p.24. Culture and History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin, 68. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above), p. 25. ed. Stanley Diamond (New York: Columbia Uni­ 69. Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark (note 51 versity Press, 1960), pp. 790-808); Dale R. Henning, above), p. 206. "Oneota Ceramics in Iowa," Journal of the Iowa 70. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above); Jablow, Archeological Society 11 (1961): 1-47; Dale R. Ponca Indians (note 5 above). Henning, "The Adaptive Patterning of the Dhegiha 71. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above), p. 25. Sioux," Plains Anthropologist 38 (1993): 253-64; Guy n. Fletcher and LaFlesche, Omaha Tribe (note E. Gibbon, ed., Oneota Studies, Publications in 7 above), p. n. Anthropology, no. 1 (Minneapolis: University of 284 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, FALL 2002

Minnesota, 1982); William Green, ed., Oneota 91. Henning, "Adaptive Patterning of the Archaeology Past and Future Research, Report 20 Dhegiha Sioux" (note 84 above). (Iowa City: Office of the State Archaeologist, 1995); 92. Ibid., p. 262. David F. Overstreet, "Oneota Prehistory and His­ 93. Henning, "Development and Interrelation­ tory," The Wisconsin Archeologist 78 (1997): 250-96. ships of Oneota Culture" (note 11 above), p. 243. 85. Henning, "Oneota Tradition" (note 74 94. Susan C. Vehik, "Dhegiha Origins and Plains above), p. 345. Archaeology," Plains Anthropologist 38(1993): 232- 86. Ibid. 52. An example is Alfred E. Johnson, "Kansa Ori­ 87. Harvey, Oneota Culture in Northwestern Iowa gins: An Alternative," Plains Anthropologist 36 (note 83 above), p. 232. (1991): 57-65. 88. Henning, "Oneota Tradition" (note 74 95. Vehik, "Dhegiha Origins," ibid., p. 246. above), p. 362. 96. Thiessen, "Who Lived at Blood Run?" (note 89. Harvey, Oneota Culture in Northwestern Iowa 33 above). (note 83 above), p. 226. 97. Howard, Ponca Tribe (note 2 above); Jablow, 90. Ibid., p. 233; Henning, "Development and Ponca Indians (note 5 above), p. 47. Interrelationships of Oneota Culture" (note 11 above).