Howard! THE PONCA TRIBE 103 



Concerning the Sun dance, George A. Dorsey states: "The name 

 the Poncas give to the Sun Dance ceremony is Sun-Seeing dance; 

 that is, the sun is a witness to the dance." This is from his mono- 

 graph, "The Ponca Sun Dance," undoubtedly the most complete 

 description of the rites (1905, p. 69). Readers interested in the many 

 facets of this elaborate ceremony are directed to this work, a step-by- 

 step account of one of the last Southern Ponca performances. 



In his "History" (p. 19) PLC briefly characterizes the dance as 

 follows: 



They have the Sun dance in midsummer when the corn is in silk. The dance 

 lasts four days and four nights without drink, sleep, and without food, a real 

 sacrifice. The dancers are in the shape of a wheel or representing the four winds 

 they would swing every so often. 



In an interview PLC commented further: 



The dancers are attached to the pole at the center with rawhide ropes, which 

 are threaded through a gash in their breast. They swing on these ropes every 

 now and then, trying to break the flesh. When they break the flesh they are 

 finished dancing. 



The Sun dance is the biggest and most sacred ceremony of the Ponca. The 

 Poncas used to have it when they were camped together as one tribe. Later, 

 when the tribe split up, the Southern band still kept up the Sun dance. Some 

 of the Northern Poncas would go down for it, because we are all one tribe. 



ChoreographicaUy the Sun dance is quite simple. Dancers merely 

 danced in place with a toe-heel step, gazing at the "thunderbird's 

 nest," a bunch of boughs tied in the crotch of the center pole, and 

 piping on eagle-bone whistles all the while. Occasionally a group 

 of dancers, under the direction of their personal priest, would slowly 

 dance toward the center pole a few feet and then retreat, maintaining 

 a rough rank or Hne while doing so. Dancers equipped with "offering 

 objects" such as sage wrapped hoops (emblematic of the universe) or 

 cloth banners would hold them aloft, extended toward the "thunder- 

 bird's nest." These features of the dance are well illustrated in the 

 plates which accompany Dorsey's monograph (1905); also in the old 

 print of the dance reproduced in the present volume (pi. 17, a). 



G. A. Dorsey obtained the following symbolic interpretation of the 

 dance from Chief White-eagle (pi. 11), a longtime Sun dance priest: 



The lodge itself is typical of the circle of tipis overhead. The centre-pole seems 

 to be symbolic of a man, an enemy, conceived of as naked, that the Great Medicine 

 may see him. It is also conceived of as firewood, being of wUlow, which is said 

 to be hard to kill and of a clean nature. In the fork of the pole is the nest of the 

 Thunder-Bird, sometimes spoken of by the Ponca as an eagle, sometimes as a 

 brant or loon. This bird produces rain, thunder, and lightning. The altar seems 

 to be symbolic of a fireplace; it is also spoken of as the sun, which in turn is 

 spoken of as the chief. According to Ponca mythology, in the beginning of 

 creation was the sun or fireplace, and at that time it contained the four colors 

 which are found in the four tipis of preparation. Next came the buffalo bull 

 bearing a pipe, offering himself to the people. The bull came from the interior 



