Some
of the pioneer parties discovered the pipestone quarry, and many
traditions cling about this landmark. Subsequently they were driven across
the Big Sioux by the Yankton Indians, who then lived toward the confluence
of the Minnesota and Mississippi. The group gradually differentiated and
finally divided through the separation of the Ponka, probably about the
middle of the seventeenth century. The Omaha gathered south of the
Missouri, between the mouths of the Platte and Niobrara, while the Ponka
pushed into the Black Hills country.
The Omaha tribe remained within the great bend of the Missouri, opposite
the mouth of the Big Sioux, until white men came. Their hunting ground
extended westward and southwestward, chiefly north of the Platte and along
the Elkhorn, to the territory of the Ponka and the Pawnee (Caddoan); and
in 1766 Carver met their hunting parties on Minnesota river. Toward the
end of the eighteenth century they were nearly destroyed by smallpox,
their number having been reduced from about 3,500 to but little over 300
when they were visited by Lewis and Clark, their famous chief Blackbird
being one of those carried off by the epidemic. Subsequently they
increased in numbers; in 1890 their population was about 1,200. They are
now on reservations, mostly owning land in severalty, and are citizens of
the United States and of the state of Nebraska.
Although the name Ponka did not appear in history before 1700 it must have
been used for many generations earlier, since it is an archaic designation
connected with the social organization of several tribes and the secret
societies of the Osage and Kansa, as well as the Ponka.
Pages:
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73