50 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



bison hide or a blanket. Rawhide or braided bison-hair halters were 

 used which passed around the nose and jaw of the animal and had two 

 reins attached. To allow the hunter more freedom of movement 

 on the bison hunt, saddles were not used. The same type of saddle 

 was used by both sexes. On ceremonial occasions horses were painted ; 

 feathers were fastened to manes, forelocks, and tails ; and fancy hang- 

 ings, martingales, and croupers were displayed. In describing the 

 decoration of a horse given away at a Northern Ponca puberty cere- 

 mony, PLC and OK mentioned that quillwork bands were fastened 

 just above the fetlocks. 



A man usually reserved his best stock for war and the chase, using 

 the poorer animals to pull the travois and to carry the women and 

 children. The travois or (^ba/wai was made of two tipi poles which 

 were tied together so that they crossed at the horse's withers. Be- 

 tween the free ends a sort of sling was arranged, and on this the 

 household goods were packed. The hooplike platform with laced- 

 rawhide filling used by other Plains tribes was apparently not used 

 by the Ponca. 



At the present time the horse has lost most of its former importance 

 to the Ponca, though its fame lives on in Heduska dance songs and 

 in the old stories of war and hunting. The few horses retained in the 

 period of my fieldwork were draft stock used in f armwork. 



The annual cycle of the Ponca at the time they were first contacted 

 by Europeans reveals an alternating pattern of wandering in search of 

 the bison interspersed with periods of sedentary, horticultural, village 

 life. Crops were planted in the spring, hoed once or twice, and then 

 the entire tribe departed for the summer hunt. They returned in 

 time to harvest the crops in the fall, and then shortly afterward 

 left on the fall or winter hunt. Returning to the permanent villages 

 before winter closed in, they remained there until the following 

 spring, hunting and trapping in the surrounding area. Most war- 

 fare took place during the summer months, although raids for horses 

 were occasionally organized in the winter so that falling snow would 

 obscure the tracks of the raiding party and their stolen horses. 



The Sun dance, the major tribal ceremonial, was most commonly 

 held in June. It took place at a spot near the permanent villages, 

 shortly before the communal bison hunt. Late spring and summer 

 was also the season for the various bundle rituals and warrior society 

 initiations. 



At the present time the Southern Ponca hold their ceremonial 

 shinney games in the spring and their annual "Ponca powwow" in 

 late August. Peyote ceremonies, hand games, and church services 

 are held at any time throughout the year. Usually special Peyote 



