Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 31 



country, and the valuable bottom-land fields were fast being taken up 

 by these squatters. In the winter of 1857-58 feeling was running so 

 high in regard to their miserable situation that the Ponca destroyed 

 the Niobrara sawmill and stole various items from the storehouse in 

 protest against Government neglect. 



Bowing to the inevitable, the chiefs of the Ponca tribe, on March 12, 

 1858, signed a treaty with the U.S. Government (Eoyce, 1899, p. 818). 

 By the terms of this treaty the Ponca ceded to the Federal Government 

 all lands which they owned or claimed except a tract bounded as fol- 

 lows : "Beginning at a point on the Niobrara river and running due N. 

 so as to intersect the Ponca river 25 miles from its mouth ; thence from 

 said point of intersection up said river 20 miles ; thence due S. to the 

 Niobrara river; thence down said river to the place of beginning." 

 In consideration of this cession, the Federal Government promised 

 to protect the tribe in the possession of the remainder of their domain 

 (the reservation as defined above) as their permanent home and to 

 secure them in their persons and property. By a subsequent treaty in 

 1865, at the solicitation of the United States, the Ponca ceded an 

 additional 30,000 acres of their reserved land (ibid., p. 836). In con- 

 sideration for this cession and "by way of rewarding them for their 

 constant fidelity to the government and citizens thereof, and with a 

 view of returning to the said tribe of Ponca Indians their old burying- 

 grounds, and cornfields," the Government in turn ceded certain lands 

 back to the tribe. The lands thus held constituted a reservation of 

 96,000 acres (U.S. Congress, 1868, vol. 14, pp. 675-677) . 



In 1859 the Ponca attempted to make their customary spring and 

 summer hunt, but encountered a combined party of Brule, Oglala, 

 and Cheyenne at the headwaters of the Elkhorn River. The Dakota- 

 Cheyenne combination attacked the Ponca hunting camp, killing 

 Heavy Cloud, the third chief of the tribe, another chief named 

 "Podara," and 13 others. Three Ponca children were captured and 

 carried off into slavery. The Dakota informed the Ponca that the 

 reason for their attack was that the Ponca had sold their lands and 

 made a treaty with the Wliites (Letter of I. S. Gregory to Commis- 

 sioner Greenwood, Aug. 27, 1859, National Archives, Ponca Agency). 



Upon the return of the hunting party Chief We^asdpi (pi. 9) 

 angrily confronted Agent Gregory. Denouncing the Government for 

 rewarding its enemies, the Sioux, while neglecting the Ponca, he dis- 

 played bloody arrows from the battle of the Elkhorn, and threatened 

 to go to war. "I shall be a woman no longer, but go on the warpath 

 with my tribe as I used to before my Great Father talked soft to me 

 and tied my hands ! It is better to die like warriors — like men — ^not 

 wait until the Sioux come here to kill us" (ibid.). 



