28 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



Details of the fur trade with the Ponca are revealed in a letter from 

 Jolin Dougherty, agent to the Ponca, to Lewis Cass, Secretary of War. 

 Dougherty states that goods were traded to the Ponca from a post of 

 the American Fur Company located at the mouth of the Little Mis- 

 souri. Specific items mentioned are powder, ball, blankets, strouds, 

 calicoes, axes, hoes, tobacco, beads, and vermillion. It was the custom 

 at this time (1830's) for a trader to establish "temporary" posts in 

 the Indian villages, which might be some miles from the main post. 

 Wlien with the Ponca, the trader generally established himself in the 

 earth lodge of a friendly chief, whose rank discouraged the pilfering 

 of the trader's goods. It was not uncommon for the traders at these 

 "temporary" posts to accompany the tribe on the tribal bison hunts. 



The larger fur posts were staffed by 30 men each. These men 

 loaded and unloaded the boats, some of them being delegated to take 

 out goods to the temporary stations and bring back the furs. Eegu- 

 lar cornfields and vegetable gardens surrounded the larger posts. 

 The best months for fur trading were January, February, and March. 

 After the spring trading season the furs were brought downriver 

 in flatboats or barges, reaching St. Louis in the latter part of May or 

 the first part of June. Even at this early date, Dougherty notes, the 

 return of furs was diminishing as far north as the Ponca country, 

 and he comments forebodingly that all of the tribes south of there 

 must soon learn to "farm or perish" (letter of Dougherty to Cass, 

 Nov. 19, 1831). 



At this period the Ponca were allies of the Yankton and Teton 

 Dakota, for in 1833 Dougherty reports that the Ponca were spending 

 little time on the Missouri following the buffalo on the "Plains of the 

 Eau-qui-cour [Niobrara] river. They are friendly with the Sioux 

 and join them in war, against the Pawnees" (letter of Dougherty to 

 Wm. Clark, Nov. 12, 1834). One suspects that for the Ponca this 

 alliance was merely a means of self-preservation. Being a small 

 group, they were afraid to stop warring on the Pawnee so long as the 

 Dakota were still at war, since their country lay between the two 

 tribes. The Pawnee, of course, often retaliated on the Ponca, and 

 in 1835 Joshua Pilcher reported that "Two or three Ponca families 

 farming at the mouth of the Niobrara had their horses stolen by the 

 Pawnee" (Report of Pilcher, Oct. 5, 1835). Pilcher notes that the 

 Ponca at that time inhabited the "country near L'eau-qui-court to its 

 source in the Black Hills." 



That same year Dougherty and Pilcher jointly recommended that 

 the Ponca be attached to the Sioux Subagency. Their letter states 

 that the tribe numbered between 75 and 100 men at that date, and goes 

 on to note that the Ponca "formerly raised corn at the mouth of 

 L'eau-qui-court but depredations of the Sioux forced them to join the 



