Howard] 



THE PONCA TRIBE 35 



person and every article in the train" (National Archives, Ponca 

 Agency) . 



The other band of Ponca that preceded those brought by Howard 

 were all quartered in tents they had brought with them, no other 

 provision having been made by the Government for their accommoda- 

 tion. Agent Howard was shocked at the lack of preparation for 

 the comfort of his charges, by now broken down by sickness and 

 the hardships of the journey. Discouraged, homesick, and hopeless, 

 the Ponca found themselves on the lands of strangers, in the middle 

 of a hot summer, with no crops nor prospects for any. 



The Ponca thus placed in the Indian Territory numbered 681 

 persons, embracing 197 heads of families. Thirty-six had remained 

 in the north with their Omaha kinsmen. The tribe had hardly estab- 

 lished their tent city on the Quapaw Reservation when whisky 

 smugglers from Baxter Springs, directly across the line in Kansas, 

 began the surreptitious sale of liquor to them. Attempts by Agent 

 Howard to prosecute these men were ineffectual. 



The Ponca, unhappy and dissatisfied with their surroundings, asked 

 for a more congenial home. Accordmgly, some of the leading men 

 of the tribe, with an Indian Inspector, made an examination of other 

 locations. The one finally selected was on the west bank of the 

 Arkansas River, covering both sides of the Salt Fork, in what is 

 now north-central Oklahoma. This land, of which a reservation of 

 101,894 acres was afterward set apart for them, was a part of the 

 country obtained from the Cherokee in the treaty of 1866. About 

 May 1 a large party of dissatisfied Ponca left the Quapaw country 

 for the location on the Salt Fork without consulting the agent and 

 without assistance from him. They remained at their new home, 

 without sufficient food and medical attention, and, as a result, a num- 

 ber of deaths occurred. Meanwhile, preparations were made by their 

 agent for the removal of those remaining at tlie Quapaw Agency; 

 finally the large amount of freight, consisting of personal effects, 

 supplies, agricultural implements, and camp equipage, was loaded 

 for the journey. There was also a large number of aged, decrepit, 

 and sick Ponca, who were carried in the wagons. 



The Ponca departed from the Quapaw Agency on July 21, 1878, 

 and arrived at their new home, 185 miles distant, 8 days later. In 

 spite of the great heat, which varied from 95 to 100 degrees every 

 day, no further lives were lost on this last trip ; but the people, oxen, 

 horses, and mules, arrived exhausted from the hardships of the 

 journey. 



The new agency was located in the bend of the Salt Fork River 

 about 2 miles above its confluence with the Arkansas. On the new 

 reservation the Ponca first lived in tipis in one large village, but the 



