Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 131 



Ni-dgatsdtsa (or Ni-dgatsdki, as some pronounced it) was the site of 

 the present Sioux City, Iowa. J. O. Dorsey's "Omaha Indian Map," 

 however, which was compiled from data furnished by Omaha and 

 Ponca informants in the period 1877-92, locates it near the present 

 Homer, Nebr.^^* The Omaha, according to my informants, had their 

 villages east of this line. Though they hunted west of the boundary 

 they acknowledged that they were doing so as guests of the Ponca. 

 The Omaha insist, of course, that the Ponca were their guests. 



The southern boundary of the Ponca domain was the Platte (North 

 Platte west of the fork). AU informants agreed that the Pawnee 

 vUlages were south of the Platte and that that tribe customarily 

 hunted south of that river. 



The western boundary of their territory was vaguest in the minds 

 of most informants. Some stated that it extended from a point 

 "just west of the Black HUls" in South Dakota south to the North 

 Platte River. Others mentioned an even vaster domain with Pdhe- 

 ze-egq, 'The-hiU-that-resembles-an-erect-penis,' the present Pike's 

 Peak, as the western boundary marker. 



Most informants agreed that the northern boundary followed the 

 Missouri west from Ni-dgatsdtsa to the mouth of the White River in 

 what is now South Dakota. From the mouth of the White River 

 the boundary line continued straight west through the Black Hills 

 to meet the western boundary. PLC remarked that the Ponca also 

 claimed a strip of land north of the Missom-i "a day's hunt" or about 

 30 miles in from the river in the present Bon Homme and Charles 

 Mix Counties, S. Dak. This was confirmed by VHM. 



PLC stated that the Ponca had hunted in this strip for many years 

 prior to the time that the Yankton Dakota, recent arrivals from 

 Minnesota, asked the Ponca if they might settle there. In return for 

 land on which to live, the Yankton offered to help the Ponca when the 

 latter tribe was attacked by its enemies. The Ponca agreed to these 

 terms and the Yankton built their villages in the vicinity of their 

 present reservation. However, PLC pointed out that the Yankton 

 failed to live up to their agreement, for when the Teton Dakota 

 attacked the Ponca the Yankton did not come to their aid. Never- 

 theless the Yankton Dakota and the Ponca always remained friendly, 

 even when the Teton from the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations 

 were constantly raiding the Ponca. 



Ponca relations with the Omaha, their neighbors to the east, were 

 generally quite friendly. The two tribes often joined for the summer 

 bison hunt and there was some interchange of personnel, through 

 marriage and adoption, a pattern which continues up to the present 

 time. Relations became somewhat strained, however, in 1864, when 



*-' Blueprint copies of this map are on file at the Nebraska State Historical Society, Lincoln, Nebr., and 

 at the Laboratory of Anthropology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebr. 



