Howard] THE PONCA TRIBE 155 



living) were put on his feet that he might not 'lose his way,' but go 

 on safely and 'be recognized by his own people' in the spirit world." 



Concerning Ponca graves Maximilian writes: "Towards evening 

 we were near the Assiniboin steamer, which lay before us, and halted 

 in the vicinity of Basil Creek, where the Poncas formerly dwelt, 

 numbers of whose graves are seen upon the hills" (Maximilian, 

 1906, vol. 22, p. 290). We are not told how these graves were built. 

 At a later period Alanson Skinner (1915 c, p. 801) described the graves 

 as follows: "Now the Ponca bury their dead in the ground altogether, 

 but formerly they used scaffolds and trees." BushneU (1927, fol. p. 52) 

 shows two illustrations of Ponca burials, one of the scaffold type, the 

 other of the log-roofed type mentioned by PLC (see pi. 14, the present 

 volume) . 



JLR commented upon Ponca burial customs as follows: 



The old time Poncas used to use both scaffolds and graves to put the dead in. 

 In winter, when the ground was frozen solid and they couldn't dig a grave, they 

 buried the person on a scaflfold. In summer they dug a grave. Ponca graves 

 were quite shallow. Various gifts were placed with the dead person. 



Sometimes, in the old days, the man's family would tie his favorite horse to the 

 grave. This is not done any more. We don't ever bury on a scaffold any more 

 either. 



Dorsey mentions a complete give-away at death as the Ponca 

 custom, but PLC stated that only a partial give-away was practiced 

 in his day. He also mentioned that the Ghost Lodge or Spirit-keeping 

 ceremony of the neighboring Dakota was unknown to the Ponca. 

 Mourning feasts did occur, however, and G. A. Dorsey (1905, p. 71) 

 witnessed one at the Ponca Sun dance which he attended. Presents 

 were distributed in the name of the deceased on this occasion. A 

 similar custom is mentioned by J. O. Dorsey (1894, p. 148): "If the 

 deceased was a male and a member of an order of young men, aU who 

 belong to it are invited to a feast where they sing songs." Skinner 

 (1915 c, p. 785) notes that: "The HeMska helps people mourn for 

 their dead, and makes collections of gifts for bereaved people to help 

 dry their tears," 



Deceased persons could be referred to by name (J. O. Dorsey, 

 1883, p. 273). Indeed, it was common for a Ponca to assum^e the 

 name of a deceased ancestor (J. O. Dorsey, 1894, p. 371). 



At certain times the spirit or soul of a dead person would be rein- 

 carnated. When this occurred, the child in which the soul was 

 reborn often grew up to be a shaman. In 1954, while visiting the 

 Southern Ponca, I was shown such a child. This boy, it was reported, 

 knew things which he could not possibly have learned except in a 

 previous life. He could speak in great detail of events which had 

 taken place long before his birth and he could also look into the 

 future. Mrs. Wilson D. Wallis reports a similar beUef among the 

 Canadian Dakota (personal communication, 1954). 



