Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 141 



blowing when he was killed was displayed whenever this song was 

 sung. This famous whistle, the end of which is carved to resemble 

 a crane's head, is now on display in the Ponca City Indian Museum, 

 Ponca City Library, Ponca City, Okla. 



Fletcher and La Flesche (1911, pp. 439-441) describe the Ponca 

 ceremony of conferring war honors, in which the sacred bundles 

 figured prominently. Warriors were requu'ed to tell of theu' warlike 

 deeds in the presence of the entire tribe and the unopened war bundles. 

 Persons who lied or exaggerated concerning their deeds were threatened 

 with supernatural punishment. 



Peacemaking between the Ponca and other tribes, according to 

 J. O. Dorsey (1884 a, p. 332; 1890, pp. 399-401), was usually effected 

 by sending an envoy bearing a peace pipe to the enemy. Hyde 

 (1934 a, p. 53) writes of a tradition mentioning that a Wd-wq ceremony 

 was performed at a great peacemaking council attended by the Ponca, 

 Omaha, Arikara, and Cheyenne. 



At the present time, of course, tribal warfare is a thing of the past. 

 Present-day Ponca know some tales of the old tribal wars, however, 

 and are very proud of the tribe's military tradition. Veterans of 

 World War II were highly honored on their return from the service, 

 and pictm'es of veterans in uniform are foimd in many homes. One 

 Southern Ponca family visited in 1954 had even built a small indoor 

 shrine to honor the servicemen and servicewomen of the family. This 

 consisted of small flags, pictures of members of the family in uniform, 

 and religious and patriotic mottoes, all arranged artistically over the 

 fireplace. 



LIFE CYCLE 



According to my informants, sexual intercourse was treated quite 

 openly by the Ponca in aboriginal times. Since privacy was vir- 

 tually unknown in an Indian camp or village, children at an early 

 age probably observed their parents and others engaged in the 

 sexual act. Two positions were commonly employed by the Ponca 

 and Omaha in sexual intercourse; in the first the man lay above 

 the woman, in the other their positions were reversed. Foreplay 

 consisted in rubbing the genitals in the case of the male and rubbing 

 the breasts and genitals in the case of the female. 



Several philters or "love medicines" were used by Ponca men to 

 seduce women who were cold to their advances. A small amount 

 of this substance, usually plant material, was brushed on the gui's 

 clothing, put in her food, left where she would step over it, or other- 

 wise brought into contact with her. A favorite trick was to open a 

 moistened packet of the medicine upwind of the girl. Once she 

 tasted or smelled the medicine it acted as a powerful aphrodisiac 

 and drove her to her would-be lover in spite of her inclinations. 



