132 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



the Omaha, under theu" chief Logan Fontanelle, ceded a large tract of 

 land to the Government. Part of this land, which lay south of an 

 east-west line drawn through the mouth of the Iowa River, was claimed 

 by the Ponca, who were not a party to the treaty. When the Ponca 

 chief Wegasdpi or "Whip" learned of this cession he was furious, 

 and prepared to lead a war party against the Omaha, saying "When 

 the Omaha have defeated the Ponca in battle, then they can sell our 

 land!" At the last moment, however, Wegasdpi was tm-ned from his 

 purpose by Government promises of annuity payments. Nowadays, 

 though the Omaha and Ponca visit freely with one another, a few 

 Ponca still harbor resentment against their sister tribe because of 

 "Fontanelle's crooked deal." 



Ponca relations with the Pawnee, who were south of the Platte, 

 were also good, as a rule. Occasionally, Pawnee horsethieves would 

 enter the Ponca country. If caught, these horsethieves were killed 

 on the spot, and this sometimes led to reprisals. Nevertheless, there 

 was much visiting and a great deal of cultural exchange between the 

 two tribes. Both the Wd-wq, and Heduska dances probably came to 

 the Ponca from the Pawnee. According to PLC, the Ponca also 

 maintained friendly relations with the Arikara or "Sand-Pawnee" 

 when that tribe lived in South Dakota, and intermarried with them 

 to some extent. 



To the southwest of the Ponca, at one time, lived the Pddjca or 

 Padouca tribe. The Ponca identify these people as Comanche, 

 but recent ethnohistorical and archeological work has shown that 

 they were Lipan Apache (Champe, 1949; Secoy, 1951). Relations 

 with this tribe were never friendly, and warfare was continuous until 

 the Padouca were finally broken and driven from the land. PLC 

 mentions the Ponca wars with the Padouca in his "History," and most 

 of my other informants also mentioned them. The Padouca were 

 skilled horsemen, and savage opponents. LMD had heard that they 

 often used long lances with loops at the end with which they could 

 snare and decapitate their enemies. 



The West was apparently an empty waste as far as the Ponca 

 were concerned. There seem to be no tales of contacts with tribes 

 to the west, though many stories tell of long hunting trips in this 

 direction, some as far as the Rocky Mountains, where the Ponca 

 made hide "moccasins" to protect their dogs' feet, and hunted the 

 Rocky Mountain goat. 



To the north of the Ponca were the various bands of the Dakota 

 nation. East of the Missouri were the semisedentary Yankton. 

 West of this river were the warlike and nomadic Teton. We have 

 already noted that the Ponca and Yankton Dakota were good friends. 

 Relations between the Ponca and the Teton seem to have been ami- 

 cable also, until shortly after the middle of the 19th century. Several 



