THE GEOKGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 65 



The ages of these young brides were probably all between twelve and fifteen years 

 the season of life in which, most of the girls in this wild country contract marriage.— 

 Ibid., 214. 



98. Moiig-shdng-sha, the Bending Willow, one of the four wives of Hongs-kiiy-dee, 

 (No. 97), about thirteen years old, and wrapped in a buffalo robe prettily 

 garnished.* 1832. 



MR. CATLIN'S notes ON THE PONCA INDIANS. 



I landed at the Puncahs, a small tribe residing in one village on the west bank 

 of the river, 300 miles below this and 1,000 from Saint Louis. 



The Puiwcahs are all contained in seventy-five or eighty lodges, made of buffalo- 

 skins, in the form of tents, the frames for which are poles of fifteen or twenty feet in 

 length, with the butt ends standing on the ground and the small ends meeting at the 

 top, forming a cone, which sheds off the rain and wind with perfect success. This 

 small remnant of a tribe are not more than four or five hundred in number, and 

 I should think at least two-thirds of those are women, this disparity in numbers 

 having been produced by the continual losses which their men suffer who are pene- 

 trating the buffalo country for meat, for which they are now obliged to travel a great 

 way (as the buffaloes have recently left their country), exposing their lives to their 

 more numerous enemies about them. — Page 212, vol. 1, Catlin's Eight Years. 



DAKOTA OR SIOUX-PONCAS. 



The Poncas were originally part of the Omaha tribe, to whom they are related. 

 Lived originally on the Red River of the North, but were driven southwestwardly 

 across the Missouri by the Sioux, and fortified themselves on the Ponca River. United 

 for a time with the.Omahas for protection, but have generally lived apart. Were 

 so exposed to the forays of the savage Sioux that they were almost exterminated at 

 one time, but after the treaties of 1817 and 1825 rallied and began to increase. Were 

 estimated then at 750, which has remained their average number ever since. In 1858 

 sold their lands and went on a reservation near the Yanktons in Dakota, but being 

 too near their old foes, and not being able to raise any crops, were, under a treaty made 

 in 1859, in 1865 removed down to the mouth of the Niobrara for a permanent home, 

 where they now have three villages. Are still exposed to raids from the Sioux, 

 retarding very much their progress toward a self-supporting condition. Efforts are 

 being made to have them join their relatives, the Omahas. — W. H. Jackson, 1877. 



A splendid series of photographs of Ponca Indians was made by W. 

 H. Jackson, at Washington, E'ovember 4, 1877, some 19 in number. 

 Measurements of each were made, including their heads. They are 

 given on pages 123-4 of the Descriptive Catalogue of the Photographs 

 of North American Indians. Mis. Pub. IsTo. 9, IJ. S. Geol. Survey, be- 

 fore referred to. 



PONCA INDIAN LEGAL PROCEEDINGS OP 1879. 



No. 1083 is Ma-chee-un-zhee, or Standing Bear, who became famous 

 afterward as the Ponca chief who in 1879 gained a most signal victory 

 in resisting an order to return to Indian Territory. 



* The Poncas in Indian Territory, 1885, by the report of their agent, still practice 

 plural marriage, and marry at an early age. He states that an unmarried girl of four- 

 teen to fifteen years of age is not to be found, June, 1885. 

 6744— =5 



