Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 7 



At the present time only older Ponca use their native tongue in 

 ordinary conversation. The younger people of both bands custom- 

 arily speak English. They may understand some Geglha, but when 

 addressed in this language by an older person they will reply in 

 English. An informal census in 1961 revealed only 10 individuals 

 under the age of 25 who could conduct a lengthy conversation in 

 Gegiha. One cannot help regretting the extinction of tliis language, 

 which will probably occur (in regard to the Ponca) in two or three 

 generations. It is soft, resonant, yet capable of expressing dramatic 

 action and deep emotion. 



The Southern Ponca, as a result of their years in Oklahoma, now 

 speak English with a slight Southern accent, and this has affected 

 their pronunciation of ^egiha as well. This fact their Northern kins- 

 men find quite amusing. Yet the Northern Ponca, too, have changed. 

 Members of this band, when speaking their native tongue, have the 

 habit of interjecting an occasional Santee or Teton Dakota word, the 

 result of their long contact with these groups in Nebraska and South 

 Dakota. Even PLC, the tribal historian, does this occasionally. 

 Wlien asked the Ponca name for the women's menstrual hut, he first 

 gave the Dakota Isnd-tH instead of the l^egilia term Ohq-ati. 



According to older members of the tribe, the Ponca formerly hunted 

 and ranged over most of the area now known as the Central Great 

 Plains. The Black Hills of South Dakota they knew well, and some- 

 times even reached the Rockies in their search for game, scalps, and 

 the adventure of seeing new territory. Their main seat, however, and 

 the area where most of their permanent villages and forts were built, 

 was what is now Knox County, in northeastern Nebraska. This was 

 the heart of the Ponca domain in former times and is still the home 

 of most of the Northern Ponca. Ponca folktales and accounts of great 

 battles in the past almost invariably find their setting in this area. 



Geographers and anthropologists agree that enviromnent has an 

 important conditioning effect upon the way of life of a region's inhab- 

 itants. Wliat, then, was the Ponca country like ? The climate of this 

 Ponca "heartland" is of the general continental type. Summers are 

 long and warm, and well suited to the raising of crops. The spring 

 is usually cool, with considerable rainy weather, and the autumns are 

 long and pleasant, with only occasionally rainy spells. Indeed, the 

 Ponca preferred the fall of the year to both spring and summer. 



The mean rainfall is 24.1 inches. About 77 percent of this occurs 

 during the principal part of the growing season, from April to Sep- 

 tember, a very fortunate circumstance for the agricultural Ponca. In 

 the summer most of the rainfall occurs as heavy thundershowers, but 

 torrential rains are rare. Severe droughts are almost unknown dur- 

 ing May and June, but in the latter part of July and through August 



