Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 113 



boats. He considered it a strictly Northern Ponca dance, but in 

 1954 it was learned that the Southern Ponca also performed the dance 

 at one time. It is now obsolete in both groups. 



The Ponca chiefs formerly had a dance called Igazige-wdq. The 

 dance was described by PLC as slow and dignified in character, in 

 keeping with the high rank of the participants. On a certain musical 

 cue the dancers all took four steps forward. Then they danced in 

 place for a short time until, on cue, they took another four steps for- 

 ward. The dance proceeded in this manner for the duration of the 

 song. 



The Hqhe-watsi, or 'Night dance,' the Omaha version of which is 

 described by Fletcher and La Flesche (1911, pp. 493-509), was a 

 prestige society. Men donated large sums of money and gave away 

 large amounts of goods for the privilege of joining the group. This 

 entitled them to have their daughters tattooed with the insignia of 

 the society. The Night dance persisted until the 1930's among the 

 Southern Ponca, and in 1954 I observed several Southern Ponca 

 women who bore the characteristic blue spot of the society on their 

 foreheads. 



The Ponca women, like the men, had their dancing societies. The 

 Nudq was the woman's equivalent of the HeMSka. Skinner (1915 c, 

 p. 790) states that its name was taken from the warpath songs com- 

 posed by the braves, with which the women accompanied their dances. 

 Its choreography is not known to me, though I suspect it was like the 

 Soldier and Round dances. 



Skinner (ibid., pp. 790-791) also describes a woman's dancing 

 society called Mazlskqapi or the 'Medal dance.' The members of the 

 society wore chiefs' medals around their necks. 



Riggs (1893, p. xxvii) writes that: "The scalp dance is a dance for the 

 women among the Ponca and Omaha, who call it Wi-watsi." Accord- 

 ing to Skinner (1915 c, p. 791) the dance was performed the day after 

 the return of a war party. The women who danced bore the scalps, 

 tied to short sticks. The Wi-watsi was also described by PLC: 

 "Women form a big circle facing the center and move around the drum 

 to the left." This dance was probably ancestral to both the Soldier 

 dance and the Round dance, to be described below. 



Dorsey (1884 a, p. 355) mentions two other women's dancing 

 societies, the Pa-ddtq and the Gat'ana. Neither was known to my 

 informants. As with the men's societies, new groups were continually 

 being formed and older ones passing out of existence. In a slightly 

 modified form, this process has continued up to the present day. 

 Following World War II several such women's groups were formed, 

 each distinguished by its characteristic blanket or shawl with the 

 group's name (i.e., "Ponca War Mothers") appliqued upon it. Usu- 

 ally the function of these groups is to honor the returning veterans of 



