Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 15 



homeland in the Southeast. When they arrived at the Mississippi 

 some went iipriver, hence the name Umdhq (Omaha), which means 

 'Upstream,' while the rest went downriver, and so earned the name 

 Ugdxpe (Quapaw), meaning 'Downstream.' The former group con- 

 tained the Omaha, Ponca, Osage, and Kansa. The latter group be- 

 came the Quapaw. 



The tribes which went upriver ranged for a time in the present 

 Osage, Gasconade, and adjacent counties in Missouri. Here they 

 were joined by a Chiwere Siouan-speaking group, the Iowa. At the 

 mouth of the Osage River another separation took place, the Osage 

 and Kansa leaving the main group. The Omaha, Ponca, and Iowa 

 proceeded, by degrees, through Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota to the 

 pipestone quarries near the present city of Pipestone, Minn. From 

 here they journeyed to the Big Sioux River, where they built a fort 

 and a village. Game abounded in this locality. 



The neighboring Dakota, however, made war on the three tribes and 

 so they went west and southwest to a lake near the head of Chouteau 

 Creek, now known as Lake Andes (?) in South Dakota. Here they 

 cut the sacred pole, an important religious object, and assigned each 

 clan and subclan its peculiar customs and duties. After leaving this 

 lake they traveled up the Missouri River to the mouth of the White 

 River, where they crossed over to the west bank. The Ponca then 

 went on to the Black Hills while the Omaha and Iowa stayed in the 

 vicinity. 



Later the Ponca rejoined the others and the three tribes turned 

 downstream. When they reached the vicinity of the present town 

 of Niobrara, Nebr., the Ponca stopped. The Omaha removed to a place 

 near Covington, Nebr. The Iowa passed the Omaha and later made a 

 village near Florence, Nebr. (Dorsey, 1884 a, pp. 211-213.) 



It is not possible to determine the assumed period of these diiferent 

 movements from either Dorsey's account or that of Fletcher and La 

 Flesche. The former (1884 a, pp. 218-222) believed, however, that 

 the Ponca separated from the Omaha around 1390, and that all migra- 

 tions prior to the separation of the Iowa, Omaha, and Ponca occurred 

 prior to 16T3, and that the split between the Quapaw and the four 

 other tribes took place before 1540. Fletcher and La Flesche (1911) 

 imply that the Omaha-Ponca separation was late, but are not specific. 

 W. J. McGee (1897, p. 191) believed that the separation took place 

 ca. 1650. 



Unpublished data accumulated by John L. Champe leads him to date 

 the joint Omaha-Ponca occupancy of the village on the Big Sioux 

 River, north of present-day Sioux City, Iowa, from 1700-1702, and the 

 split of the two tribes at the mouth of the White River about 1715. 

 Later the Ponca returned to the mouth of the Wliite and, according to 

 Champe (cited by Wood, 1959, p. 10) , the Omaha moved to Bow Creek, 



