Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 81 



years earlier I was privileged to hear the wonderful quavering tones 

 of his instrument at a twilight concert. 



The human voice was the Ponca musical instrument par excellence. 

 Songs accompanied nearly every activity. There were songs to 

 accompany various dances and ceremonies, such as the Sun dance, 

 TFd-wq, and Heduska; medicine songs which were thought to bear 

 supernatural power and could call the spirits to heal the sick; vigorous 

 Moccasin game and Hand game songs which were used to distract 

 the players on the opposing team ; love songs, some of which imitated 

 the bell-like quavers of the courting flute, and mock love songs in 

 which young men imitated lovesick girls. There were also lullabies 

 which mothers sang to quiet their children and put them to sleep. 



Fletcher (1900, pp. 90-91) writes that songs were sung by warriors 

 as they left for battle, and Fletcher and La Flesche (1911, p. 442) 

 mention that Wetqwq, or "brave heart" songs were sung by the 

 women of the tribe to aid their absent warriors. One of J. O. Dorsey's 

 Ponca informants told him (1890, p. 371): "My father went on the 

 war path and he sang all the time. He was always singing as he 

 walked. When he was a young man, he was always singing when he 

 lay down at night." According to PLC, women formerly sang 

 mourning songs or Ndgde-wqutd when a relative died. 



At the present time four classes of songs are still in use among the 

 Southern Ponca: (1) dance songs, including those for the Heduska, 

 Round, "49", and other dances; (2) Hand game songs; (3) 

 Peyote songs; and (4) church (White style) songs. The Northern 

 Ponca are still very musical, but, with the single exception of PLC 

 they have abandoned their native music and sing popular White 

 songs instead. 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 



James O. Dorsey (1897, p. 213) calls the tribal organization, as 

 existing among the Central Siouan tribes, a "kinship state" and points 

 out that "the governmental functions are performed by men whose offices 

 are determined by kinship . . . ," By this, Dorsey means that in 

 aboriginal Ponca society the high status positions were almost entirely 

 of the "ascribed" type, and not open to free competition among the 

 tribal members. Instead, one's position in Ponca society depended 

 upon his position in the family, his family's position in the clan, and 

 his clan's position in the tribe. Certain clans outranked certain others 

 socially, and had special rights and prerogatives not possessed by 

 others. Marriage and the mutual rights and duties of the members 

 of each clan were strictly governed by one's position in the system. 

 In this respect the Ponca and other Central Siouan groups contrast 

 strongly with their egalitarian neighbors to the north, the Dakota. 



