158 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



35 years of age were able to supply data of value, while in the Okla- 

 homa group only a very few old people were able to do so. 



In my opinion the three principal factors responsible for this 

 differential proportion of White acculturation are: 



(1) The difference in the size of the two bands. 



(2) The large percentage of White intermarriage in that portion of the tribe 

 which became the Northern Ponca band. 



(3) Reinforcement of certain Indian traits among the Southern Ponca through 

 their participation in Pan-Indianism. 



The very considerable difference in the size of the two Ponca bands 

 is perhaps the main reason why the Northern Ponca have approxi- 

 mated White culture more closely than have their Southern kinsmen. 

 According to Dorsey and Thomas (1910, p. 279) 225 Ponca returned 

 to Nebraska, while 600 remained in the Indian Territory. Obviously, 

 all other factors being equal, the culture of a small group would tend 

 to be swallowed up by the dominant culture more quickly than that of 

 a large one. 



AU of the other factors were not equal, however, even at the start, 

 and this brings us to the second point. Although Chief Standing-bear 

 and a few of his close relatives were unmixed, many of those who 

 returned to Nebraska with him were of mixed Indian-White descent. 

 Also, the percentage of individuals of mixed Ponca- White descent in 

 the Northern band was considerably augmented at the time the 

 Northern Ponca reservation was created. 



The circumstances of this event, one of the "hidden pages" of 

 Ponca history, were explained by PLC and JLR in 1954. It seems 

 that in order to secure a reservation from the Government, Chief 

 Standing-bear needed considerably more personnel than had followed 

 him from Indian Territory. He therefore sought to enroll in his 

 band as many persons as possible of Ponca or part-Ponca descent in 

 order to qualify it as a "reservation size" band. Thus, many persons 

 of mixed descent, who before that time had formed a sort of "fringe 

 group" in the area and had, in fact, not even been moved to Indian 

 Territory with the main body of the tribe, were now enrolled as 

 Ponca. These individuals, mixed both biologically and culturally, 

 were gradually absorbed into the Northern Ponca band. 



The third factor listed, the influence of Pan-Indianism, is more 

 difficult to assess. One might begin by defining terms. By Pan- 

 Indianism is meant the process by which certain Indian groups are 

 losing their tribal distinctiveness and in its place are developing a 

 generalized nontribal "Indian" culture. Some of the elements in 

 this culture are modifications of old tribal customs ; others seem to be 

 innovations peculiar to Pan-Indianism. The Southern Ponca have 

 participated in this phenomenon from the start, which I would place 

 somewhere between 1915 and 1925. 



