THE GEORGE CATLIN INDIAN GALLERY. 67 



Grateful for the aid rendered lrim and his people, Standing Bear called 

 upon the editor of the Omaha Herald, who had been his best friend, 

 and also on Messrs. Webster and Poppleton, and gave each of them a 

 present of remembrance. To the editor he gave a pair of beaded leg- 

 gins; to Mr. Webster a tomahawk, and to Mr. Poppleton a war bonnet. 

 His address to Mr. Poppleton was : 



STANDING BEAR TO MR. POPPLETON. 



I believe I told you in the court-room that God made mo and that I was a man. 



For many years we have been chased about as a dog chases a wild beast. God 

 sent you to help me. I thank you for what you have done. 



I want to get my land back. That is what I long for all the time. I wish to live 

 there and be juried with my fathers. 



When you were speaking in the court-room of course I could not understand, but 

 I could see that you were trying very hard to release me. I think you are doing for 

 me and my people something that never has been done before. 



If I had to pay you for it, I could never got enough to do it. I have here a relic 

 which has come down to my people through a great many generations. I do not 

 know how old it is; it may be two or three hundred years old. I desire to present it 

 to you for what you have done for me. 



The keepsake given by the chief to Mr. Poppleton is a rare gift, 

 being esteemed the most sacred, as it is the most venerable, object in 

 the possession of the tribe. It resembles a wig, and was worn by the 

 head chief at their most weighty councils. Curiosity-hunters have 

 often sought to secure it at any price in money, but he has to one and 

 all said that money could not buy it. Among occasions on which it 

 has been worn was that of the first treaty — in 1817, we believe — made 

 between the Poncas and the Government of the United States. Stand- 

 ing Bear, who is himself sixty years of age, stated that when he was a 

 little boy his father told him that no one in the tribe knew how old it 

 was, and that it had come into their possession in generations long past. 



The Interior Department never attempted to interfere with the Pon- 

 cas again, and Standing Bear and 170 of his people came back from In- 

 dian Territory, and are now at the Ponca Agency in Dakota. See 

 below. 



THE PONCAS. 



u The Poncas are good Indians. In mental endowment, moral char- 

 acter, physical strength, and cleanliness of person, they are superior to 

 any tribe I have ever met." — Eeport Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 



1878. 



PRESENT LOCATION AND NUMBERS, JUNE 30, 1885. 



Poncas or Ponca, Pawnee, and Otoe Agency, Indian Territory, 574. 

 Occupation, farmers and herders. Gradually increasing in numbers. 

 Poncas on the consolidated Santee, Plandreau, and Ponca Agency, in 

 Nebraska and Dakota, number 178; total, 752, 



