14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



the archeology of north-central Nebraska is still too imperfectly under- 

 stood to tell us much of the entry and occupation of the area by the 

 Ponca. It is hoped that future research will clarify the relationships 

 of the Ponca to other groups in the area and provide us with a more 

 detailed account of their prehistory. 



Since we lack archeological evidence in the form of a neat string 

 of sites stretching back in time and space to the ancestral homeland 

 of the Ponca, we must rely upon other sorts of data in reconstructing 

 the tribe's past. One line of evidence is afforded by the tribal migra- 

 tion legends. Passed down from one generation to the next by word 

 of mouth, such legends are of course subject to considerable distortion. 

 Nevertheless they constitute one of our best sources for the reconstruc- 

 tion of Ponca history. 



There are many Ponca and Omaha legends in the anthropological 

 literature. Most of these agree in their main points, namely, that the 

 Ponca, Omaha, Kansa, Osage, and Quapaw were once a single tribe 

 in the Southeast, and that during the migration north and west the 

 group split up, the Ponca and Omaha being the last to separate (Dor- 

 sey, 1884 a, pp. 211-213; Eiggs, 1893, p. 190; McGee, 1897, p. 191; 

 Anonymous, 1907, pp. 653-656 ; Dorsey and Thomas, 1910, pp. 278-279 ; 

 Swanton, 1910, pp. 156-158 ; Fletcher and La Flesche, 1911, pp. 38-39 ; 

 Miner, 1911, pp. xvii-xiii ; Skinner, 1915 c, p. 779 ; La Flesche, 1917, 

 pp. 460-462; Hyde, 1934 b, pp. 23-26; Strong, 1935, pp. 16-17; Wedel, 

 1936, p. 3) . Many Southern Ponca, Omaha, and Osage interviewed in 

 1954 confirmed this tradition. Although the accounts agree in placing 

 the ancestral home of the egiha tribes in the Southeast, they are 

 vague as to the path followed when moving westward. 



One traditional account from the Omaha tribe, cited by Fletcher 

 and La Flesche (1911, pp. 72-81), states that after their separation 

 from the Quapaw, the Omaha (and Ponca) followed the Des Moines 

 River to its headwaters and then wandered to the northeast. The 

 two tribes finally settled in a village on the Big Sioux River and 

 lived there until a disastrous battle Avith the Dakota took place. They 

 thereupon abandoned this village and turned southward, where they 

 encountered the ancestors of the Arikara tril)e, who then occupied the 

 historic Omaha territory in northeastern Nebraska. At first they 

 warred with the Arikara, but later a peace was concluded. During this 

 peaceful interlude the Omaha and Ponca learned to build Plains-type 

 earth lodges from the Arikara. The separation of the Omaha and 

 Ponca supposedly took place shortly after this. 



The Rev. James O. Dorsey, for many years a missionary among the 

 Ponca and Omaha, gives a slightly more detailed account of the ^e- 

 giha migrations, combining native traditions with his own specula- 

 tions. Pie says that the Omaha, Ponca, Osage, and other cognate 

 tribes traveled down the Ohio River to its mouth from their original 



