Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 115 



is a secular form of the sacred Blue Lake Kound dance of Taos. 

 Others contend that it is merely a secular form of the old Ponca 

 Soldier dance. 



A secular Buffalo dance was performed once each evening at the 

 Southern Ponca powwows I attended. It seemed to be purely 

 social in nature. Dming the first part of the song the dancers, 

 both men and women, moved about the arena in a counterclockwise 

 direction, using Heduska steps. On a musical cue, accompanied by 

 a rolling of the drum, they turned toward the center of the dance 

 ground, where the singers were seated around the drum. The drum- 

 beat now changed to a heavily accented cadence and the dancers 

 hopped in place, first on one leg, then on the other, at the same 

 time "bunching up" like bison. On another musical cue they sepa- 

 rated and continued aromid the arena in Heduska stjde. The dance 

 proceeded in this manner for the duration of the song. I am told 

 that one of the songs used in this dance belongs to the now obsolete 

 Iskd-iyuha society. 



Another dance which is performed at Southern Ponca powwows 

 to break the monotony of the nearly continuous Heduska episodes 

 is the Snake dance. According to PLC and several Southern Ponca 

 informants this dance was borrowed from Oklahoma tribes in recent 

 years. It is performed by a long file of dancers, both men and 

 women, led by two good male dancers, one at each end of the line. 

 As the song starts, one of the men leads off with a brisk, trotting, 

 "Stomp dance" type step, the long file of dancers jogging along 

 behind him. He leads the queue in a serpentine path, sometimes 

 coiling the whole line into a tight spiral. On a musical cue the 

 dancers about-face and follow the leader at the other end. Thus 

 the line of dancers twists, coils, and changes du'ection throughout 

 the song, presenting a weird and beautiful effect. When viewed 

 from the vantage point of the grandstand the line of dancers very 

 much resembles a huge feathered serpent. 



In its choreography this dance seems to be a variant of the "Stomp 

 dance" of the Eastern Woodland tribes. The musical accompaniment, 

 however, is provided by singers seated around a large drum, a feature 

 more typical of the Prairie-Plains area. 



The Stomp dance of the Eastern Woodland tribes is performed 

 by the Southern Ponca on occasion. This dance, much like the 

 Snake dance in its choreography, featm*es antiphonal singing by 

 a leader and a long line of dancers, both men and women, who follow 

 him. Rhythmic accompaniment is provided by a "shell shaker 

 girl," a woman who wears heavy terrapin sheU or condensed-milk-can 

 leg rattles, and dances just behind the leader. 



According to Curtis (1930, vol. 30, p. 214), Henry Snake, a Ponca, 

 brought the dance to his tribe from the Quapaw. Curtis also credits 



