Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 27 



Thus, by the time Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, on their 

 epic journey of exploration, reached the Ponca, the tribe was quite 

 familiar with Europeans — with their prized trade goods and their 

 diseases. In their characteristic style and spelling, the explorers 

 noted, on September 4, 1804, that there was a "Poncaries Village 

 situated in a handsom Plain on the lower side of this Creek [Ponca 

 Creek] about two miles from the Missouri" (Lewis, 1904^5, vol. 1, 

 p. 140) . On the Wm. Clark map of 1815 the "Poncarars, 200 souls" are 

 shown a short distance above the mouth of Ponca Creek. Another 

 explorer, H. M. Brackenridge (1904, p. 94), found their village there 

 in 1811 and the Atkinson-O'Fallon party found them at the same 

 place in 1825. 



From this time on, the Ponca village was a regular stopping place 

 for boats ascending and descending the Missouri, and the tribe was 

 visited by most of the "greats" who traveled the river — military men, 

 explorers, traders, and also artists and etlmographers such as George 

 Catlin and Prince Maximilian of Wied. Kelations between the Ponca 

 tribe and the United States began in 1817, when the Government 

 entered into a treaty of "perpetual peace and friendship" with them. 

 This was followed in 1826 by another treaty, in which the Federal 

 Government agreed to receive the Ponca "into their friendship and 

 under their protection." Present-day Ponca are proud of the fact 

 that they have never taken up arms against the United States of 

 America. 



The accounts of early 19th-century visitors to the Ponca, though 

 customarily filled with the routine and trivia of everyday affairs, 

 sometimes permit us an interesting glimpse of the life of the tribe. 

 In 1824, for example, Peter Wilson, acting on behalf of Maj. Ben- 

 jamin O'Fallon, visited a small group of Ponca at the mouth of the 

 Niobrara. Wilson noted : "The cries and lamentations made by them 

 while approaching convinced me that some sad disaster, or misfortune 

 had happened." The cause of their distress was soon learned. A 

 party of 30 Ponca, who were returning from a friendly visit to the 

 Oglala subband of Teton Dakota, had been surprised and attacked by 

 a large party of "Saones" (members of the Brule subband of the 

 Teton). Of the 30, only 12 escaped. Numbered among the dead 

 were all of the Ponca chiefs, including the famous Smoke-maker 

 {Sude-gaxe) , the first Ponca chief of that name (frontis.; pis. 1 and 

 12, a) . The son of Smoke-maker approached Wilson with tears in his 

 eyes, bearing the chief's medal which had been given to his father by 

 the Government. Wilson, after doing what he could to console the 

 young man, appointed him chief of the tribe in his father's stead (pi. 

 1 ) . (Keport of Wilson to O'Fallon, 1824, National Archives, St. Louis 

 Superintendency.) 



