98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



Winnebago. The Ponca also have "individual" Heduska songs. When 

 such a song is sung at a powwow, the man so honored, and his family, 

 "give-away" to the singers and honored guests. 



It was interesting to me to learn that the older Ponca have a strong 

 interest in ethics. The following code of ethics was secured from 

 PLC, and a slightly different one is found in his "History" (p. 19). 



The Poncas have only seven little rules to follow. These are: 



1. Have one God. 



2. Respect the sacred pipe. 



3. Be good to one another. 



4. Do not talk about one another. 



5. Be good to the old people. 



6. Do not steal. 



7. Do not kill. 



To what extent this code of ethics reflects missionary teachings we 

 cannot say. The rules certainly demonstrate the high value which 

 the Ponca placed upon intragroup loyalty and cooperation. PLC 

 also provided the following set of rules relating to the behavior of 

 clan chiefs, and presumably applicable to the tribal chiefs of the 

 first and second ranks as well: 



1. Be good to the old, 



2. Be good to orphans. 



3. Be good to the needy. 



This system clearly shows the function of the chief as a "provider" 

 for his clan particularly, as in the case of orphans, of those not pro- 

 vided with close relatives willing to attend to their needs, 



Ponca informants during the past 100 years have consistently com- 

 bined ethics mth religion. Since there was apparently little connec- 

 tion between religion and morality in many American Indian tribes, 

 the Ponca are a bit unusual in this respect. Again, however, it is 

 possible that much of this is due to missionary influences during the 

 19th century, though the Ponca deny this is true. At any rate 

 Skinner (1920, p. 307) notes that: "The candidates [for the Pebble 

 Medicine Lodge society] were instructed how to do things, and to hve 

 good lives." Likewise, Whitman (1939, pp. 190-191) tells of WBB's 

 uncle lecturing him on the fact that if he leads a dissolute life he will 

 later repent it: "What you have done is going to come back on you 

 one by one. That is the time you are going to cry." I secured the same 

 information from WBB 15 years later. Whatever the sources, it is 

 clear that dm-ing the past century Ponca ideas of ethics and morality 

 closely approximated those of the major culture, 



OK stated that the women who were tattooed by the Night-dance 

 society were supposed to be models of virtue and kindness thereafter, 

 but that in later years they did not live up to this rule and were "too 

 proud." Most of them, therefore, "came to a bad end, one way or 

 another." 



