52 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



notes that "Sandbar willow stems were peeled and used in basketry 

 by the Omaha and Ponca" (ibid., p. 73) . Bulrush stems were used to 

 weave mats, which were used as seats and floor coverings in the per- 

 manent dwellings. Smaller mats were used as wrappings for sacred 

 bmidles. A fragment of such matting was recovered at the Ponca 

 Fort site. 



Though definite information is lacking, it is almost certain that the 

 Ponca manufactured finger- woven sashes, turbans, and knee bands 

 in the finger-weaving technique. An old photograph in the Cross- 

 Cultural Survey files at the Laboratory of Anthropology of the 

 University of Nebraska shows two Ponca men wearing finger-woven 

 turbans. Photographs labeled "Ponca" in the Morrow collection at 

 the South Dakota Museum, University of South Dakota, also show such 

 turbans worn by Ponca men. At the present time Ponca "straight 

 dancers" generally purchase their finger- woven sashes and knee bands 

 from the Osage, who still produce them. 



Beautifully tanned skin garments, the skins colored in various 

 ways, were formerly characteristic of the Ponca. PLC described the 

 Ponca tanning process as follows : 



To tan hides the Ponca spread the green hide out on the ground and stake 

 it down. Pieces of meat and fat still sticking to the hide are scraped off with 

 an elk horn tool. After this the hide is dried and turned over, and the hair 

 is scraped from it. You stop here for moccasin soles, parflgche, and other 

 heavy pieces. 



If they want buckskin, bone grease (marrow) is rubbed into the hide. Then 

 a sandstone or pumice stone is rubbed over the hide to make it soft and of an 

 even thickness. A pit is then dug the same size as the hide and a fire is built 

 in it. The hide is then smoked over the pit. This is said to make the skin 

 waterproof. If they want a robe, the fur is left on the hide. 



Various shades of yellow, tan, and brown buckskin were produced 

 by using different sorts of twigs in the smoking process. Sometunes 

 the buckskin was actually dyed. Maximilian (1906, vol. 22, p. 285), 

 on his famous trip up the Missouri in 1832-34:j noted a Ponca man 

 "with a pair of shoes, made of elk leather, which were dyed black 

 with the juice of a white walnut." The dyeing process noted by 

 Maximilian may be akin to that described by Gilmore (1919, p. 101), 

 who notes that soft maple twigs, grease, and a type of iron bearing 

 clay were used in preparing a black dye used in coloring skins. Black 

 moccasms are still made occasionally by the Southern Ponca, the only 

 North American Indian tribe to make them. However, they now ob- 

 tain black leather commercially. 



The Ponca fonnerly made hoes of bison scapulae, and such hoes 

 were recovered at the Ponca Fort site (Wood, 1960, pp. 57-58). 



