Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 117 



living in Oklahoma and would have been famUiar with the Brush 

 dance if it had been performed by the Ponca at that time. 



At the present time the Northern Ponca retain only one aboriginal 

 type dance, this being the widespread Rabbit dance. JLR said 

 that this dance came to the Ponca from the Shoshone, but I am 

 more inclined to credit its introduction to the Teton or Yankton 

 Dakota. It is a purely social dance, and is probably the Indian 

 adaptation of the square and round dances of the White pioneers. 

 Couples, arm in arm in the "skaters' embrace" circle the drum in a 

 clockwise fashion, stepping off with the left foot and bringing the 

 right up with it in time with a heavy loud-soft drum beat. 



Dming the period of my fieldwork the dance had not been per- 

 formed for a number of years owing to the fact that the custodian 

 of the Northern Ponca Community Hall, the only suitable place for 

 holding such dances, refused to let it be used for "uncivilized" 

 Indian practices, following the old-line "assimilationist" policy 

 of the Indian Bureau. 



A Begging dance is described by J. O. Dorsey (1884 a, p. 355), who 

 writes: "The ' Wand-watsigaxe' or Begging dance is not found among 

 the Omahas; but among the Ponkas, Dakotas, etc." This "Begging 

 dance," which I have observed among the Arikara, Dakota, Omaha, 

 and Winnebago, is really not a dance per se but rather a dancing 

 custom. Any suitable dance, such as the Heduska or Round dance, 

 may be used. A group of singers and dancers, usually composed of 

 visiting Indians, gathers and moves about the camp of their hosts, 

 stopping to sing and dance before the tent of every well-to-do person. 

 At each tent, after an interval of song and dance, the owner appears 

 and presents the group with a gift, whereupon they move along to 

 the next one. After the entire camp has been circled an auction is 

 held where single items donated to the group are sold to the highest 

 bidder. The money from this auction, plus any loose cash contributed 

 by the tent owners, is then divided among the gi-oup. 



Among the Ponca, as in most Plains tribes, shamans were organized 

 into groups on the basis of spirit helpers held in common. For 

 example the Matogaxe or 'Bear doctor' society was composed entirely 

 of medicine men who claimed to derive their powers from the bear, 

 either directly, by means of visions, or indirectly, by means of purchase 

 from other members of the group. Dealing primarily in herbal 

 remedies, they were the physicians of the tribe. Another society, 

 the "Buffalo doctors," which was devoted to the healing of wounds, 

 was made up of shamans who had the buffalo as their tutelary deity. 

 Its members were the Ponca "surgeons." ^^ 



3» A bear-buflalo shaman dichotomy was present in many Plains tribes. Though shamans could, and did, 

 receive power from many animals, these two were considered most powerful. They were, therefore, the 

 two most often sought, and secured, as spirit helpers. 

 718-071—65 9 



