Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma

Last updated
Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma
Flag of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma.png
Flag of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma
Total population
3,783 [1]
Regions with significant populations
Flag of the United States.svg United States ( Flag of Oklahoma.svg Oklahoma)
Languages
Omaha-Ponca language, English
Religion
traditional tribal religion, Native American Church, Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Omaha, Otoe, Missouria, Ho-Chunk, Iowa, and other Siouan peoples

The Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma, also known as the Ponca Nation, is one of two federally recognized tribes of Ponca people. The other is the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska. Traditionally, peoples of both tribes have spoken the Omaha-Ponca language, part of the Siouan language family. [2] They share many common cultural norms and characteristics with the Omaha, Osage, Kaw, and Quapaw peoples.

Contents

Government

The Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma has a democratically elected committee. The government offices are headquartered in White Eagle, near Ponca City, Oklahoma. Their tribal jurisdictional area includes parts of Kay and Noble counties. [3] [4] As of 2018, there were 3,783 enrolled tribal members. [5] Membership in the tribe requires a 1/8 minimum blood quantum, according to rules developed by the tribe. [6]

Current administration

According to their written constitution, the seven-member governing council of the Ponca Tribe, called the Business Committee, is democratically elected for four-year terms. [7] Among these, one person is elected as chairman. Other offices include vice-chairman, and secretary/treasurer. [8]

The current tribal administration includes:

Economic development

The Ponca tribe first opened a casino in Ponca City, which is no longer operational. The Ponca opened a second casino in the same location, which also went out of business because of the 2008 recession.

In September 2020, the tribe opened up a casino in Perry, Oklahoma after a months-long delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [9] [10] [11]

Language and culture

In 2009 an estimated 33 tribal members spoke the Ponca language. [12]

Since 1876 the tribe hosts an annual homecoming powwow. It takes place in August in Ponca City. [13]

History

Standing Bear, his wife, and their son, all from Nebraska Standingbear.jpg
Standing Bear, his wife, and their son, all from Nebraska
Brent Greenwood, contemporary Ponca artist Brent greenwood ponca chickasaw.jpg
Brent Greenwood, contemporary Ponca artist

The Ponca tribe was one of five tribes (Ponca, Omaha, Osage, Kansa, and Quaqaw) that inhabited the area northeast of the Mississippi River. The Ponca and the Omaha tribe split from the others in the early 18th century as they were migrating west from the Great Lakes region prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The Ponca eventually settled in present-day Nebraska and South Dakota. After European settlement, smallpox, measles, influenza and other introduced European diseases took a heavy toll on the numbers of the tribe repeatedly in the 18th and 19th centuries, as they had no immunity to these diseases. The more powerful Sioux, also known as the Lakota, took these opportunities to encroach on their land areas.

Treaties

The Ponca never went to war with the United States. They signed their first peace treaty with the US in 1817. In the 1825 they signed a trade agreement. Treaties in 1858 and 1865 ceded lands. The 1860s and 1870s were a difficult time for the Ponca tribe, as the buffalo were disappearing, droughts destroyed crops, and warfare with the Sioux combined to threaten the Ponca with starvation. [2] [15]

Removal

The US broke most of their treaty obligations to the Ponca. They gave land reserved for the Ponca to the Sioux in 1868, as part of the Great Sioux Reservation. The government relocated the Ponca to Indian Territory in 1877. [2] [15]

The forced removal of the Ponca from their former reservation in South Dakota to Indian Territory (in Oklahoma) was unacceptably mismanaged. The U.S. government failed to work with tribal leaders, and did not accept any input from them. Among the repercussions to the Ponca tribe were that they arrived too late to plant crops, the government failed to provide them with adequate supplies, and their assigned location was plagued with malaria. An estimated 158 Ponca died the first year after relocation: almost a third of the entire tribe. [16] [17] [18] Among them was the oldest son of Standing Bear, a Ponca chief. [19] [20]

Standing Bear took his son's body back to Nebraska for burial in traditional lands. There he was arrested by the Army for having left the reservation, but he gained the sympathy of Brigadier General George Crook. With help from prominent attorneys working pro bono, Standing Bear filed a habeas corpus suit challenging his arrest. The US District Court judge's decision in Standing Bear v. Crook (1879) established the right of Indian people to exercise habeas corpus and their legal status as citizens under US law. [21] [2] [15]

White Eagle, a principal Ponca chief, settled on a 101,000-acre (410 km2) reservation in what would later be organized as Kay and Noble counties in Oklahoma. He was pressured under the allotment act to lease much of the land to the 101 Ranch for pasture (and later, oil development). In the 1890s missionaries and government agents tried to make the Ponca abandon their traditional tribal dances and ways of life in an attempt to "Americanize" them. [2]

In 1892, under the Dawes Allotment Act, the US government registered the members of the tribe, and allocated individual plots of land to each household. This was intended to introduce them to fee ownership and subsistence farming, as well as extinguish Indian tribal land claims in Oklahoma prior to its becoming a state. The government declared the remaining reservation land as "surplus" and sold it to European-American settlers, who were able to use it productively. [22]

20th century to present

The discovery of oil on Ponca lands in 1911 had mixed results for the people. Some became wealthy but others were taken advantage of by speculators and quickly lost their land. [2]

Peyote religion was introduced in the 1910s. In 1918, Louis MacDonald and Frank Eagle, both educated Ponca, co-founded the Native American Church. [2] [23]

After many Ponca served in World War I, returning Ponca veterans founded the American Legion chapter Buffalo Post 38. In their community they revived traditional war dances, such as the heluska dance. [2] [24]

Under the 1936 Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, the tribe reorganized their government. They ratified their constitution in 1950 and became federally recognized. Tribal headquarters were established in White Eagle, located south of Ponca City. [2] [25] [26]

Clyde Warrior, a Ponca, cofounded the National Indian Youth Council. He promoted self-determination and inspired many young Native activists during the 1960s and 1970s. [2] [27] [28]

In the years since allocation of plots under the Dawes Act, these land holdings and interests became highly divided among heirs. In addition, the departments of Interior and Treasury were found in the late 20th century to have mismanaged the fee accounts and payments due to holders of land for drilling and mineral leases. In 2009 the US government settled a major class action suit against it brought by Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet) in 1996, known as the Cobell v. Salazar suit. [29] [30]

The Ponca are participating in the Department of Interior's Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations, developed as part of this settlement. In August 2016, Interior officials announced that it had offered approximately $7 million in purchase offers to "more than 1,300 landowners with fractional interests at the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma" as part of the Land Buy-Back Program for Tribal Nations (Buy-Back Program). Recipients had 45 days to complete the transaction. This program is designed to purchase fractionated interests and transfer land back to tribes in trust, to increase their communal holdings and ability to better use the land. [31]

In 2017, the Ponca Nation enacted a Rights of Nature law which is a resolution that gives the Ponca Tribal Court the power to punish crimes against nature with prison and fines. [32] [33]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Territory</span> Evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans

The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign independent state. In general, the tribes ceded land they occupied in exchange for land grants in 1803. The concept of an Indian Territory was an outcome of the US federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the US government was one of assimilation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iowa people</span> Native American Siouan people

The Iowa, also known as Ioway, and the Bah-Kho-Je or Báxoje are a Native American Siouan people. Today, they are enrolled in either of two federally recognized tribes, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fort Hall Indian Reservation</span> Indian reservation in United States, Shoshone-Bannock

The Fort Hall Reservation is a Native American reservation of the federally recognized Shoshone-Bannock Tribes in the U.S. state of Idaho. This is one of five federally recognized tribes in the state. The reservation is located in southeastern Idaho on the Snake River Plain about 20 miles (32 km) north and west of Pocatello. It comprises 814.874 sq mi (2,110.51 km2) of land area in four counties: Bingham, Power, Bannock, and Caribou. To the east is the 60-mile-long (97 km) Portneuf Range; both Mount Putnam and South Putnam Mountain are located on the Fort Hall Reservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ponca</span> Plains Native American tribe

The Ponca are a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Dhegihan branch of the Siouan language group. There are two federally recognized Ponca tribes: the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. Their oral history states they originated as a tribe east of the Mississippi River in the Ohio River valley area and migrated west for game and as a result of Iroquois wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Standing Bear</span> Native American leader

Standing Bear was a Ponca chief and Native American civil rights leader who successfully argued in U.S. District Court in 1879 in Omaha that Native Americans are "persons within the meaning of the law" and have the right of habeas corpus, thus becoming the first Native American judicially granted civil rights under American law. His first wife Zazette Primeau (Primo), daughter of Lone Chief, mother of Prairie Flower and Bear Shield, was also a signatory on the 1879 writ that initiated the famous court case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blood quantum laws</span> American laws of race

Blood quantum laws or Indian blood laws are laws in the United States that define Native American status by fractions of Native American ancestry. These laws were enacted by the federal government and state governments as a way to establish legally defined racial population groups. By contrast, many tribes do not include blood quantum as part of their own enrollment criteria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma</span> One of two federally recognized tribes for the Iowa people

The Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma is one of two federally recognized tribes for the Iowa people. The other is the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. Traditionally Iowas spoke the Chiwere language, part of the Siouan language family. Their own name for their tribe is Bahkhoje, meaning, "grey snow," a term inspired by the tribe's traditional winter lodges covered with snow, stained grey from hearth fires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Cunningham Fletcher</span> American ethnologist, anthropologist, social scientist

Alice Cunningham Fletcher was an American ethnologist, anthropologist, and social scientist who studied and documented American Indian culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Sioux Reservation</span> Former Indian reservation in the United States

The Great Sioux Reservation initially set aside land west of the Missouri River in South Dakota and Nebraska for the use of the Lakota Sioux, who had dominated this territory. The reservation was established in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. It included all of present-day western South Dakota and modern Boyd County, Nebraska. This area was established by the United States as a reservation for the Teton Sioux, also known as the Lakota: the seven western bands of the "Seven Council Fires".

<i>Cobell v. Salazar</i>

Cobell v. Salazar is a class-action lawsuit brought by Elouise Cobell (Blackfeet) and other Native American representatives in 1996 against two departments of the United States government: the Department of Interior and the Department of the Treasury for mismanagement of Indian trust funds. It was settled in 2009. The plaintiffs claim that the U.S. government has incorrectly accounted for the income from Indian trust assets, which are legally owned by the Department of the Interior, but held in trust for individual Native Americans. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The original complaint asserted no claims for mismanagement of the trust assets, since such claims could only properly be asserted in the United States Court of Federal Claims.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susette La Flesche</span> Native American writer, lecturer, interpreter and artist

Susette La Flesche, later Susette LaFlesche Tibbles and also called Inshata Theumba, meaning "Bright Eyes" (1854–1903), was a well-known Native American writer, lecturer, interpreter, and artist of the Omaha tribe in Nebraska. La Flesche was a progressive who was a spokesperson for Native American rights. She was of Ponca, Iowa, French, and Anglo-American ancestry. In 1983, she was inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame. In 1994, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Tibbles</span>

Thomas Henry Tibbles was an abolitionist, author, journalist, Indians’ rights activist, and politician who was born in Ohio and lived in various other places in the United States, especially Nebraska. Tibbles played an important role in the trial of Standing Bear, a legal battle which led to the liberation of the Ponca tribe from the Indian territory in Oklahoma in the year 1879. This landmark case led to important improvements in the civil rights of Native Americans throughout the country and opened the door to further advancement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph LaFlesche</span>

Joseph LaFlesche, also known as E-sta-mah-za or Iron Eye (1822–1888), was the last recognized head chief of the Omaha tribe of Native Americans who was selected according to the traditional tribal rituals. The head chief Big Elk had adopted LaFlesche as an adult into the Omaha and designated him in 1843 as his successor. LaFlesche was of Ponca and French Canadian ancestry; he became a chief in 1853, after Big Elk's death. An 1889 account said that he had been the only chief among the Omaha to have known European ancestry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ponca Tribe of Nebraska</span>

The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is one of two federally recognized tribes of Ponca people. The other is the Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American tribes in Nebraska</span>

Native American tribes in the U.S. state of Nebraska have been Plains Indians, descendants of succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples who have occupied the area for thousands of years. More than 15 historic tribes have been identified as having lived in, hunted in, or otherwise occupied territory within the current state boundaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omaha Reservation</span> Indian reservation in United States, Omaha

The Omaha Reservation of the federally recognized Omaha tribe is located mostly in Thurston County, Nebraska, with sections in neighboring Cuming and Burt counties, in addition to Monona County in Iowa. As of the 2020 federal census, the reservation population was 4,526. The tribal seat of government is in Macy. The villages of Rosalie, Pender and Walthill are located within reservation boundaries, as is the northernmost part of Bancroft. Due to land sales in the area since the reservation was established, Pender has disputed tribal jurisdiction over it, to which the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in 2016 that "the disputed land is within the reservation’s boundaries."

The Ponca Reservation of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska is located in northeast Nebraska, with the seat of tribal government located in Niobrara, Knox County. The Indian reservation is also the location of the historic Ponca Fort called Nanza. The Ponca tribe does not actually have a reservation because the state of Nebraska will not allow them to have one. However, they do in fact have a 15-county service delivery area, including counties spread throughout Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winnebago Reservation</span> Indian reservation in United States, Winnebago

The Winnebago Reservation of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska is located in Thurston County, Nebraska, United States. The tribal council offices are located in the town of Winnebago. The villages of Emerson, south of First Street, as well as Thurston, are also located on the reservation. The reservation occupies northern Thurston County, Nebraska, as well as southeastern Dixon County and Woodbury County, Iowa, and a small plot of off-reservation land of southern Craig Township in Burt County, Nebraska. The other federally recognized Winnebago tribe is the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee Commission</span> Three-person bi-partisan body created by President Benjamin Harrison

The Cherokee Commission, was a three-person bi-partisan body created by President Benjamin Harrison to operate under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, as empowered by Section 14 of the Indian Appropriations Act of March 2, 1889. Section 15 of the same Act empowered the President to open land for settlement. The Commission's purpose was to legally acquire land occupied by the Cherokee Nation and other tribes in the Oklahoma Territory for non-indigenous homestead acreage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chief White Eagle</span> Ponca chief and civil rights leader

Chief White Eagle was a Native American politician and American civil rights leader who served as the hereditary chief of the Ponca from 1870 until 1904. His 34-year tenure as the Ponca head of state spanned the most consequential period of cultural and political change in their history, beginning with the unlawful Ponca Trail of Tears in 1877 and continuing through his successful effort to obtain justice for his people by utilizing the American media to wage a public relations campaign against the United States and President Rutherford B. Hayes. His advocacy against America's Indian removal policy following the Ponca Trail of Tears marked a shift in public opinion against the federal government's Indian policy that ended the policy of removal, placing him at the forefront of the nascent Native American civil rights movement in the second half of the 19th century.

References

  1. ↑ Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma.. Retrieved 10 Jan 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Van de Logt, Mark. "Ponca" Archived 2012-01-14 at the Wayback Machine , Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture. 2009 (6 August 2009)
  3. ↑ "Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma". www.spthb.org. 10 April 2017. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  4. ↑ "Tribes of OK - Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma" (PDF). sde.ok.gov.
  5. ↑ "Ponca History". www.ponca.com. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  6. ↑ "Enrollment". www.ponca.com. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  7. ↑ "Constitution". www.ponca.com. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  8. ↑ "Ponca Business Committee". www.ponca.com. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  9. ↑ Eagle, Mia Goulart. "Ponca Tribe's casino opening near Enid". Tahlequah Daily Press. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  10. ↑ "Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma". www.worldcasinodirectory.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  11. ↑ "Ponca Tribe on track to get back into Indian gaming industry". Indianz. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  12. ↑ Anderton, Alice, PhD. Status of Indian Languages in Oklahoma. Archived 2010-09-17 at the Wayback Machine Intertribal Wordpath Society. 2009 (6 August 2009)
  13. ↑ Ponca Nation. The Official Website of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma. (retrieved 6 August 2009)
  14. ↑ "Urban Indian 5." US Department of the Interior, Indian Arts and Crafts Board. (retrieved 15 Oct 2011)
  15. 1 2 3 "The Story of the Ponca". www.nebraskastudies.org. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  16. ↑ "Ponca Removal Trail Map · Chief Standing Bear Map". chiefstandingbearmap.com. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  17. ↑ "The Removal of the Ponca Indians | Native American Netroots" . Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  18. ↑ Clark, Stanley (March 1943). "Ponca Publicity". Journal of American History. 29 (4): 495–616. doi:10.2307/1916600. JSTOR   1916600.
  19. ↑ "Chief Standing Bear - Missouri National Recreational River". U.S. National Park Service. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  20. ↑ "Biographies of Plains Indians: Standing Bear - 1829-1908 - American Indian Relief Council is now Northern Plains Reservation Aid". www.nativepartnership.org. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  21. ↑ Davis, Jennifer (2019-11-21). "Chief Standing Bear and His Landmark Civil Rights Case | In Custodia Legis: Law Librarians of Congress". blogs.loc.gov. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  22. ↑ "American Indians In Oklahoma - Dawes Act". www.okhistory.org. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  23. ↑ M. A., History; B. A., History. "Why Can the Native American Church Still Use Peyote?". Learn Religions. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  24. ↑ "Buffalo Post 38 Organization | The American Legion Centennial Celebration". centennial.legion.org. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  25. ↑ "Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture". www.okhistory.org. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  26. ↑ "[USC02] 25 USC Ch. 45A: OKLAHOMA INDIAN WELFARE". uscode.house.gov. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  27. ↑ Stremlau, Rose (2017-02-19). "Clyde Warrior: Tradition, Community, and Red Power". Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  28. ↑ "Warrior, Clyde | The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture". www.okhistory.org. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  29. ↑ "Cobell v. Salazar - Department of Justice" (PDF). December 7, 2009.
  30. ↑ "Cobell v. Salazar Class Action Website". www.indiantrust.com. Retrieved 2021-03-08.
  31. ↑ "More than $7 Million in Buy-Back Offers Sent to Landowners with Fractional Interests at Ponca Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma", Press Release, 18 August 2016, Department of Interior; accessed 26 November 2016
  32. ↑ Kauffman, Craig M.; Martin, Pamela L. (2021). The Politics of Rights of Nature - Strategies for Building a More Sustainable Future. Cambridge: MIT Press. p. 181. ISBN   9780262542920.
  33. ↑ Brown, Alex (October 30, 2019). "Cities, Tribes Try a New Environmental Approach: Give Nature Rights". PEW Stateline. The Pew Charitable Trusts. Retrieved June 13, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.