BUSHNELL] VILLAGES WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI 87 
to their fall, winter, and spring hunts; such as guns, particularly 
those of Mackinaw, powder, ball, and flints, beaver traps, brass, tin, 
and camp-kettles, knives, hoes, squaw-axes and tomahawks. 
“ Having obtained these implements, they go in pursuit of deer, or 
apply themselves to trapping for beaver and otter. Elk was some 
time since an object of pursuit, but these animals are now rather rare. 
in the Omawhaw territories. 
“This hunt continues until towards the close of December, and 
during the rigours of the season they experience an alternation of 
abundance and scarcity of food.” 
The skins secured during the late autumn hunt would be carried 
to the traders and left as payment for the goods previously obtained 
on credit, and also given in exchange for blankets, wampum, and 
various other articles. Thence they would return to their permanent 
village “in order to procure a supply of maize from their places of 
concealment, after which they continue their journey, in pursuit of 
bisons. .. . This expedition continues until the month of April, 
when they return to their village as before stated, loaded with provi- 
sions. It is during this expedition that they procure all the skins, 
of which the bison robes of commerce are made; the animals at this 
season having their perfect winter dress, the hair and wool of which 
are long and dense.” (James, (1), I, pp. 200-221.) 
Such was the life of the Omaha a hundred years ago, and it may 
have been quite the same for many generations, omitting, of course, 
the visits made to the traders.. But their systematic hunts had prob- 
ably been performed ever since the Omaha reached the valley of the 
Missouri, and possibly long before. 
PONCA. 
That the Ponca and Omaha were formerly a single tribe is ac- 
cepted without question, and that the separation took place long after 
they crossed the Mississippi from their ancient habitat is established 
by the ‘traditions of the two tribes. Probably the two tribes in later 
years, after the separation, continued to resemble one another to such 
a degree that the villages of one could not have been distinguished 
from those of the other. ; 
A deserted village of the Ponca was discovered by members of the 
Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804, and according to the narrative 
of the expedition on September 5 they arrived at the “river Pon- 
cara,” which entered the Missouri from the south, and at its mouth 
was 30 yards in width. “Two men whom we despatched to the vil- 
lage of the same name, returned with information that they had 
found it on the lower side of the creek; but as this is the hunting 
season, the town was so completely deserted that they had killed a 
71934°—22——-7 
