Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 99 



RELIGION, DANCES AND CEREMONIES, AND GAMES 



An excellent summary of the basic religious attitudes of the Ponca 

 was provided by PLC, who, when questioned on the subject, replied 

 as foUows: 



The Ponca religion is quite a simple one. We believe in only one God, and 

 that is Wakdnda. He tries to help us all of the time. We have a saying ' ' Wakdnda- 

 idddi bdogd gdxe." This means 'God our father has made everything.' A Ponca 

 knows this and remembers it all of the time. 



The Poncas give thanks to God in their different ceremonies and reUgious 

 worships. In the Sun dance, the Wd-wq, the HeSuska, the Peyote church, or in 

 the Christian church, it is all the same God that we pray to and thank. 



Wakdnda-p6zi is the same as the Devil to the Poncas. He is the bad god, and 

 seeks to lead men into evil ways. There are other spirits or demons, but there 

 is only one real God. 



After we die, we go to heaven. This is M^gatd, in Ponca, and a man may say, 

 just before he dies "I am going under the ground but I will be above you." This 

 means that he believes that he will go to heaven. 



The chiefs were the main religious leaders among the Poncas in former days. 

 They did the praying for the tribe. 



PLC's statement, recorded in 1949, echoes information collected 

 by J. O. Dorsey (1894, p. 366) half a century earlier. Dorsey 

 writes: "In the Gegiha, the language spoken by the Ponca and 

 Omaha, Wakdnda means 'the mysterious' or 'powerful one,' and it is 

 applied in several senses. It is now used to denote the God of mono- 

 theism. Some of the old people say that their ancestors always 

 believed in a supreme Wakdnda or Mysterious Power." In the same 

 work Dorsey mentions Wakdnda-pezi, and says that the term was 

 used for Satan after the Ponca had learned of him from the Whites 

 (ibid., p. 371). 



The Ponca conception of the supernatural might best be described 

 as animatistic. Places, objects, and persons were considered xube or 

 supernaturally powerful in various degrees. Whitman (1939, p. 180) 

 writes: "Xube is the Ponca term for supernatural power. Anything 

 animate or inanimate which is thought to possess supernatural power 

 is said to be xube, and any man or woman who is thought to be able 

 to control this supernatm'al power is said to be a xube." 



Usually a Ponca boy secured his first xube on the vision quest, which 

 took place at the age of puberty. With his face darkened with charcoal 

 so that all would recognize his holy errand, he would go to some 

 isolated hilltop to fast and pray for 4 days and nights, visited only by 

 some older man who brought him a little broth and water after dark. 

 If he were arduous and a bit lucky besides, the spirit of some bird or 

 animal would appear to him and gi'ant him power. Later, if he were 

 both devout and lucky he might acquire more xube by fasting and 

 praying, either in a vision quest or publicly in the Sun dance. Xube 

 could also be bought and sold in the form of medicine packets. 



