Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 83 



The prefix v)i- signifies 'my,' i.e., Winegi, 'my micle.' In direct 

 address this is omitted, i.e., Wibdaha negi, 'Thank you, micle.' 



At the present time the aboriginal kinship system is used only by 

 older Ponca. Younger people, though they may know the terms, 

 cannot apply them correctly, and use the Western European (Eskimo 

 type) kinship system even when speaking their own tongue. 



PLC stated that in aboriginal times a man, his wife, and their 

 children occupied a dwelling, with perhaps the man's parents as well, 

 if they were still alive. This is still largely true for the present-day 

 Ponca. A large earth lodge might be occupied by two or three 

 brothers and their families. A statement in a folktale recorded by 

 Dorsey (1890, p. 91) indicates the presence, formerly, of communal 

 clan bachelor quarters: ". . . Each of these married men had a skin 

 tent of his own, but unmarried ones dwelt in communal lodges of 

 their respective gentes [clans]." None of my informants had heard 

 of this custom, which probably represents an ancient Southeastern 

 Woodland pattern already abandoned by the Ponca in historic times. 



The Ponca man "wore the pants" in his family. Dorsey (1897, 

 p. 213) writes: "Among the Dakota, as among the ^egiha and other 

 groups, the man is the head of the family" [italics my own]. The 

 woman was the property of the husband, and should a man be dissat- 

 isfied with his wife he might "give her away" at the next Heduska 

 dance. A woman given away to the young men of the tribe in this 

 manner had no recourse except to return to her parents' lodge (Skinner, 

 1915 c, pp. 784-785). 



Apparently there was no hard and fast residence rule in the tribe. 

 According to PLC newly married couples might go to live with either 

 the groom's or the bride's parents, or set up a house of their own, 

 depending upon personal choice and economic circumstances. Judg- 

 ing from the patrilineal kinship system, however, one suspects that 

 residence was predominantly patrilocal in the past. It remains so 

 today when economic circumstances do not permit a couple to estab- 

 lish their own household. 



Adoption was commonly practiced to continue a family line. 

 PLC remarked: "Sometimes, when the only son in a faixiily died, 

 the family would adopt some other child to take his place. This 

 adopted son would be treated just like the little boy who had died." 



Among the Ponca, husband-wife relationships were usually relaxed 

 and easy. Now and then, however, it became necessary for the 

 relatives of the bride to interfere. Dorsey (1884, p. 262) comments 

 on this situation as follows: 



Among the ^egiha, if the husband is kind, the mother-in-law never interferes. 

 But when the husband is unkind the wife takes herself back, saying to him, "I 

 have had you for my husband long enough; depart." Sometimes the father or 



