44 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



Although the Ponca raised beans in their gardens, they also utilized 

 stores of wild beans that had been collected by rodents and stored by 

 the animals in their burrows (OK) . These beans were called "mouse- 

 beans" by the Ponca, and are very likely the same as the "ground- 

 beans" noted by Gilmore (1919, pp. 95-96). 



Various fruits and berries native to the area were, of course, 

 gathered as well. These included crabapples, wild strawberries, wild 

 raspberries, juneberries, wild plums, sand cherries, chokecherries, 

 wild grapes, buffaloberries, groundcherries, and elderberries. 



Sugar was made from the sap of the maple, hickory, and boxelder 

 trees. Wild honey also was used to sweeten things. A favorite dessert 

 of the Ponca was wild honey mixed with nuts. Hickory nuts, black 

 walnuts, hazelnuts, and hackberries were all used by the Ponca. 

 Acorns were pounded into flour after they had been leached with a 

 solution of basswood ashes to remove their bitter taste (Gilmore, 1919, 

 p. 75). 



Beverages, also, were made with various wild plants. PLC men- 

 tioned a beverage made from a plant "about 3 feet tall" called xdde- 

 makq^ and Gilmore mentions several other wild-plant beverages used 

 by the Ponca. Elderberry blossoms were dipped into hot water to 

 make one type, and redroot or "Indian tea" was used in another. 

 Other beverages were made of wild verbena, wild mint, and wild 

 anise. 



Salt was obtained from the salt flats 3 miles west of the present 

 Lincoln, Nebr. The present Omaha and Ponca name for Lincoln, 

 Niskide-towqgdq or 'Salt town,' refers to this. The salt was dug 

 out in chunks with wooden spades, dried out on racks of wooden slabs, 

 and then packed in parfleches for transport. Women did all of this 

 work (PLC). 



A few of the older people of both Ponca bands still make use of 

 wild foods to some extent, though nowhere near the number of plants 

 listed by Gilmore is utilized. A supply of tipsina bulbs, for use in 

 soups, was noted in PLC's home in 1954. Bunches of other herbs, 

 for use in soups and beverages, were seen drying on the porches of 

 Southern Ponca homes. The Southern Ponca are probably more con- 

 servative in this respect than their northern kinsmen. 



Like the other tribes of the Missouri, the Ponca raised extensive 

 gardens, in some instances large enough to be termed "farms." Maize, 

 beans, squash, pumpkins, gourds, and tobacco were the principal crops. 



Corn was planted soon after the frost had left the ground. It was 

 planted in a ritual manner that recalls the Ponca corn origin legend 

 (see PLC's "History," pp. 20-21) and demonstrates the interrelation of 

 com and the bison in the Ponca scheme of tilings: "First a sod was 

 removed from the ground to form a mqgdqge or com hill. Then the 



