VIII BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195] 



"Aboriginal Ponca culture," then, as used in this work, must of 

 necessity be a construction. It consists of descriptions of Ponca cul- 

 ture of the 18th and 19th centuries from the published literature and 

 documentary sources, plus 20th-century "memory culture" accounts 

 of Ponca informants, with all recognizably European or White ele- 

 ments removed from consideration. Now, though this sort of treat- 

 ment is admittedly risky, and traditional ethnographies constructed 

 in this manner have received considerable criticism in recent years, 

 there is, in my opinion, some justification for this approach. In the 

 present instance it provides the only method of achieving a reasonably 

 complete and well-rounded view of a culture which would otherwise 

 remain a mere hodgepodge of disparate (though possibly well-dated) 

 fragments. The criticism that this "free floating" Ponca culture does 

 not accurately reflect any specific instant in time must be acknowl- 

 edged, however, as valid. But until some sort of time machine is 

 invented permitting us to revisit the past, we shall have to content 

 ourself with such devices. It might also be noted that although all 

 cultures are continually changing, the rate of change may vary from 

 fast to slow. American Indian cultures of the precontact and even 

 early historic periods were often not changing so rapidly that the 

 concept "traditional culture" is entirely invalid. 



Where it is possible to accurately trace change, of course, this has 

 been done. The fieldwork among the two bands of the tribe, which 

 were one until 1879, revealed that important differences had grown 

 up in the relatively short period since their separation. On the whole, 

 it was learned, the Southern Ponca have offered more resistance to the 

 forces of White acculturation. Yet in certain respects, surprisingly, 

 it was the Northern Ponca who were the more conservative. Out of 

 this interesting discovery the second objective of this study developed : 

 to show what differences exist between the two bands and to suggest 

 factors that might be responsible for these differences. 



In this connection the Southern Ponca participation in Oklahoma 

 Pan-Indianism was examined. This interesting phenomenon, which 

 seems to represent a sort of generalized intertribal "Indian" culture, 

 takes many of its components from the older Prairie-Plains culture 

 which was, to a great extent, shared by the Ponca. Other elements in 

 Pan-Indianism derive from the cultures of the Eastern Woodlands and 

 the Southwest, while yet others appear to be peculiar to Pan-Indian- 

 ism and to have no roots in the Indian past. The third purpose of 

 this study, then, is to trace the development of Pan-Indianism in 

 Oklahoma, with particular reference to the Ponca. An attempt has 

 been made to determine why some older traits were retained, why 

 others were abandoned, and why certain new traits were adopted, and 

 to show how these factors have contributed to the existing differences 

 between Northern and Southern Ponca culture. 



