Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 105 



SO because they belonged to a certain warrior society. Instead, they 

 were individually asked to participate by the priests. 



The Ponca Wd-wq or Pipe dance is a version of the widespread 

 Calumet ceremony. In his "History" (p. 19), PLC refers to it as 

 "the next branch of the Sun dance." This does not indicate that 

 there is any actual connection between the two ceremonies in PLC's 

 mind, but merely that he would place it second in importance among 

 the Ponca ceremonials. 



In this dance the performer carries a beautiful feathered wand, 

 fashioned like the stem of a calumet and called, in fact, a "pipe." 

 This wand is carried in the left hand and a large gourd rattle, in the 

 right. Waving the wand back and forth and shaking the gourd, he 

 imitates the flight of the eagle. Whitman's description of the Ponca 

 Wd-wq in "The Oto" has been termed the best in existence (1937, 

 pp. 121-125). PLC in his "History" (pp. 19-20) gives the saHent 

 features: 



Anyone in the tribe that is needy makes a little bag of tobacco and hands it to 

 anyone that has plenty to spare and if this man accepts this bag of tobacco the 

 dance is given. A pipe and gourd is used. The gourd has a rattle, little stones 

 inside it keeps time with the drum and the pipe on the left. While the dance is 

 on, it is passed to anyone that wanted to dance with it and help give things away 

 to the needy ones. 



PLC's statement that only one pipe was used differs from the 

 accounts of Whitman (1937, p. 282) and Skinner (1915 c, p. 789), 

 both of whom note that two pipes were employed. James O. Dorsey 

 (1884 a, p. 282), however, who observed the dance many years before 

 these authors, says that the Ponca employed only one pipe. To 

 further complicate matters, all of my Northern Ponca informants 

 stated that only one pipe was used, whereas all of those in the south 

 insisted that a minimum of two, and occasionally four, were employed. 



The Wd-wq was extremely sacred, and involved the ceremonial 

 "captiu-e," adoption, and return of a person called the hSga or "honored 

 one" by a ceremonial grandfather. This hqga, the child of the man 

 who had accepted the gift of tobacco and who was to be honored in 

 the ceremony, was usually a giil, though occasionally a boy. At 

 one period in Ponca history the ceremony was used to cement peace 

 treaties with enemy tribes. A member of an alien tribe, usually a 

 chief or other influential person, was honored by the adoption of his 

 child in the ceremony, and thereafter, at least in theory, labored to 

 keep his people on terms of amity with the Ponca. 



The ceremony also functioned, as PLC indicates and as Whitman 

 notes in his account of the rite, as a means of redistributing wealth, 

 both intratribally and intertribally. Most often the Ponca used the 

 ceremony to secure horses from tribes which had an abundance when 

 they were understocked, especially from the Teton Dakota. 



