24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



especially large nor hostile. Even long after their "discovery," in fact, 

 references to the group are scattered and infrequent. 



The earliest European reference to a group that may be identified 

 with the Ponca is on a map. This map, attributed to the famous 

 French cartographer Guillaume De L'Isle, has a draft copy dated 

 May 1718. It shows a tribe called the "Maha," very likely the Omaha, 

 living near the "Aiaouez" (Iowa) north of the Missouri on the "R. du 

 Rocher," probably the Big Sioux River. Far above, east of the Mis- 

 souri, is another group, identified as "Les Mahas, Nation errante" 

 [i.e., "Wandering Omahas"] . This last group is very likely the Ponca, 

 which if true is the earliest mention of the tribe. The 1718 De L'Isle 

 is considered a good "mother map" and has had many imitations. 



The 1722 De L'Isle map shows "Les Maha" north of the Missouri in 

 the vicinity of the present Sioux City, Iowa, but does not mention any 

 group that might be identified with the Ponca. The 1744 Bellin map 

 mentions neither the Omaha nor the Ponca. The 1755 Mitchell map, 

 however, which seems to be largely a copy of the 1718 De L'Isle, shows 

 the "Maha" and "Ajoues" on a river which seems to correspond to the 

 Big Sioux or Vermillion. Again, as on the 1718 De L'Isle, we find 

 another group of "Mahas" further identified as "Wandering Indians," 

 upriver. It is possible that these earliest maps fail to mention the 

 Ponca by name because they were then still a part of the Omaha tribe, 

 or that because of the near identity of their dialect with that of the 

 Omaha they were assumed to be a part of that tribe. 



A widely reproduced map, the 1757 Du Pratz, shows neither the 

 Ponca nor Omaha. An unsigned French map of 1786, however, en- 

 titled "Carte du Mississippi et ses embranchemens" (sic), shows the 

 Ponca, identified by name, above the "Maha." Their village is placed 

 on the Missouri, between Ponca Creek and the Niobrara. The map of 

 Gen. George H. V. Collot (published in 1826 but referring to 1796) 

 shows the Ponca just north of Ponca Creek on the Missouri. The 

 Sellard-Perrin du Lac map of 1802 (which would appear to be a 

 plagiarization of a Makay and Evans map) also shows the Ponca in 

 this location. 



The earliest mention of the Ponca tribe, other than on the 1718 De 

 L'Isle map cited above, is in an unsigned letter, probably by Esteban 

 Rodriguez Miro, the Governor General of Louisiana, to Antonio Ren- 

 zel, who bore the title "Commandant of the Interior Provinces of 

 Louisiana." In this letter, dated December 12, 1785, Miro writes (as 

 recorded by Nasatir, 1952, vol. 1, p. 126) : 



The Poncas have a village on the small river below the River-that-Rnns [Nio- 

 brara]. Nevertheless they are nomadic, naturally ferocious and ci'uel, kill with- 

 out mercy those whom they meet on the road, although if they find themselves 

 inferior in strength, they make friends of them, and, in a word, although they 

 are not more than eighty warriors, they only keep friendship with those whom 

 necessity obliges to treat as friends. 



