190 DAKOTA GRAMMAR, TEXTS, AND BTHNOGRAPITY. 
battle of Ticonderoga, together with large numbers of the Ojibwa and other 
Western bands. 
OMAHA AND PONKA. 
These tribes have a common dialect and are closely related to the 
Osage, Kansa, and Kwapa. The first are the Maha of the old French 
maps. ‘The five tribes form the (hegiha (or Dhegiha) group of the Siouan 
family. According to their traditions, their ancestors dwelt east of the 
Mississippi River, on the Ohio and Wabash. When they reached the 
mouth of the Ohio, part went down the Mississippi, becoming the Kwapa 
(Uyaqpa, Ugaqpa), or “* Down-stream People,” who afterwards met De Soto. 
The others ascended the Mississippi; hence the name ‘“ Up-stream People,” 
or U-ma"-ha® (Umanhay), now Omaha, applied at first to those who subse- 
quently became four tribes (Omaha, Ponka, Osage, and Kansa). Another 
separation occured near the mouth of the Osage River, where the Omaha and 
Ponka crossed the Missouri, and went north, being joimed on the way by a 
kindred tribe, the Lowa. These three wandered through Iowa and Minne- 
sota till they found the Great Pipestone Quarry, where they made a set- 
tlement. At that time the Yankton (perhaps including the Yanktonnai) 
dwelt in a wooded region near the source of the Mississippi, being called 
“People of the Forest” by the Omaha and Ponka.' 
The three tribes were finally driven off by the Dakota, wandering 
westward and southwestward till they reached the Missouri River, which 
they followed as far as the mouth of White Earth River. There the Ponka 
left their allies, ascending the White Karth River till they drew near the 
Black Hills, which they found in the possession of the Crows.  Retracing 
their course, they joined the lowa and Omaha, and all three went down 
along the southwest side of the Missouri River till the Niobrara was reached. 
There was made the final separation. ‘Che Ponka remained at the mouth 
of the Niobrara; the Omaha settled on Bow Creek, Nebraska; the Iowa 
went beyond them till they reached Ionia Creek (probably Jowa Creek at 
first), where they made a village on the east bank of the stream, not far 
from the site of the present town of Ponka. The subsequent migrations of 
these tribes have been given in the paper mentioned in the preceding foot- 
note ("), as well as in the Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology 
(p. 213). The three tribes occupied different habitats as far back as Mar- 
quette’s time, and they are thus located in his autograph map of 1673. 
'The migrations of the Kansa, Kwapa, Osage, ete., have been treated by the editor in a recent 
paper, “‘ Migrations of Siouan Tribes,” which appeared in the American Naturalist for Mareh, 1886 
(Vol, 22, pp. 211-222). See “ Omaha Sociolovy,” in the Third Ann. Rept. of the Director Bur. Eth., 
pp. 211-213.—J. 0. D. 
