112 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



PLC remembered the Iskd-iyuha only as the "White-horse-dance." 

 He described it as a lively dance much like the Heduska, and stated 

 that many gifts were given away at its performances. 



In 1949 I saw this dance performed by a group of Teton Dakota 

 at Trenton, Nebr. It resembled the Omaha dance (the Dakota ver- 

 sion of the Heduska) so closely as to be indistinguishable from it, 

 were it not for the lyrics of its songs. Among the Dakota, in the 

 early reservation period, the members of this society all rode white 

 horses, hence the name of the group. The Ponca name &dduxe is 

 merely the Gegiha equivalent of the Dakota Iskd-iyuha, meaning 

 'White-owners.' Leonard Smith explained that the other Ponca name 

 for the dance, Gaxexe, referred to the noise made by the clashing 

 metal ornaments and mescal bean bandoliers and bracelets worn by 

 the dancers. Whitman (1939, pp. 186-187) gives a similar explana- 

 tion. The group was made up of chiefs and older, respected warriors. 



PLC described two other dances which seem to be of the warriors' 

 dancing society type. The first of these is the ''Big-belly" dance, 

 in which buffalo bulls were imitated. According to PLC only older 

 men, perhaps chiefs, participated. The dancers marked time in 

 place during the first part of the song, then, on a musical cue, one man, 

 a different person each time, would charge to the center of the lodge 

 and pretend to hook something with his head, as if he were a bison 

 hooking something with his horns. He would then give a present to 

 someone in the audience and the dance would continue. 



I observed this dance, performed by Teton Dakota, at the Milk- 

 camp Community Hall, near St. Charles, S. Dak., in November, 

 1950. PLC participated with the Teton dancers on this occasion, 

 wearing a buffalo headdress. In both the Ponca and Dakota tribes 

 the dance is, in my opinion, a survival of the "Big-belly" or "Bulls" 

 warrior society. This society was present in many Prairie and Plains 

 tribes, and was composed of chiefs and old men. According to one 

 informant, the Iskd-iyuha and the Big-beUy societies were the same, 

 the one society performing two different dances. The name "Big- 

 belly" attached to this society refers to the corpulency common to 

 Plains Indian men of this age group. 



The second of the previously unrecorded dances of the warriors' 

 dancing society type described by PLC is the Ikistdzi or 'Not-ashamed' 

 dance. The name referred to the fact that the participants were not 

 ashamed to be seen taking part in an Indian dance. Only young men 

 danced. They wore fancy broadcloth blankets as their distinguishing 

 costume. As the song began they arose from their seats around the 

 dancehall and danced to the center of the floor, in the Heduska style 

 but with shorter steps and subdued head and body movements. 



PLC stated that this dance or society was originated by the young 

 Ponca woodcutters who supplied fuel for the Missouri River steam- 



