Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 109 



I have seen this dance performed on two occasions, once by the 

 Teton Dakota at the Oglala Fair, Oglala, S. Dak., where it was called 

 the "Sneak-up" dance, in 1960, and once by the Meskwaki at the 

 Meskwaki powwow, near Tama, Iowa, in 1956. The announcer at 

 the Meskwaki powwow called it the "Meskwaki dance." 



The widespread Ghost dance did not reach the Ponca until about 

 1900, according to LMD. It came to them from the Pawnee, who had 

 learned it from some tribe farther west.^^" Among the Ponca there was 

 only one leader, who was a powerful xube or shaman. He was assisted 

 by two "prophets." Among the Ponca the dance was performed in 

 order that the living might gain contact with deceased relatives and 

 friends. Men and women danced in large circles, facing inward, their 

 hands joined, in order that the "power" of the dance might pass freely 

 from one to the other. The step was a simple step-drag to the left. 

 The dance lasted 4 days. The first 3 days the group danced from noon 

 until midnight, the last day from sunrise of that day until sunrise of 

 the following day. 



The leader and the two prophets danced inside the great circle, 

 facing the dancers and watching for persons who were about to visit 

 the spirits (i.e., collapse into a cataleptic trance). When the leader 

 noticed such a person he would dance before him (or her) and project 

 "electricity" into him by means of a small mirror which he carried 

 in his hand. The person would then fall, and, according to the Ghost 

 dance belief, his spirit would leave his body and travel to the spirit 

 world where departed relatives and friends lived in a land of plenty. 

 When his spirit returned to his body, which was still lying in the dance 

 ring, he would tell the other dancers, through the leader and the two 

 prophets, what he had seen and heard in the other world. 



In connection with the Ghost dance a special form of the Hand 

 game, known as the Ghost dance Hand game, was often played. The 

 Pawnee form of the Ghost dance and its associated Hand game have 

 been ably discussed by Lesser (1933) in his "The Pawnee Ghost Dance 

 Hand Game." Since the Ponca practices were apparently borrowed 

 from the Pawnee and remained virtually identical with those of that 

 tribe, readers interested in a more complete description than that 

 offered here are referred to this fine work. 



The Ghost dance and Ghost dance Hand game never reached the 

 Northern Ponca. Among the Southern Ponca the dance lasted until 

 1914-15. During the period of my fieldwork in 1954 the crow feather 

 ornaments used in it were still preserved, according to WBB, by Mrs. 

 Napoleon Buffalo-head, the daughter of one of the principals. The 

 Ghost dance Hand game, which entirely superseded the older Ponca 

 Moccasin and Hand games, is still played several times a year by the 

 Southern Ponca. 



»8b James Mooney (1896, p. 159) states that "the Ghost dance was brought to the Pawnee, Ponca, Oto, 

 Missouri, Kansa, Iowa, Osage, and other tribes In central Oklahoma by delegates from the Arapaho and 

 Cheyenne In the west." 



