In 1700 the Ponka
were indicated on De l'Isle's map, though they were not then segregated
territorially from the Omaha. They, too, suffered terribly from the
smallpox epidemic, and when met by Lewis and Clark in 1804 numbered only
about 200. They increased rapidly, reaching about 600 in 1829 and some 800
in 1842; in 1871, when they were first visited by Dorsey, they numbered
747. Up to this time the Ponka and Dakota were amicable; but a dispute
grew out of the cession of lands, and the Teton made annual raids on the
Ponka until the enforced removal of the tribe to Indian Territory took
place in 1877. Through this warfare, more than a quarter of the Ponka lost
their lives. The displacement of this tribe from lands owned by them in
fee simple attracted attention, and a commission was appointed by
President Hayes in 1880 to inquire into the matter; the commission,
consisting of Generals Crook and Miles and Messrs William Stickney and
Walter Allen, visited the Ponka settlements in Indian Territory and on the
Niobrara and effected a satisfactory arrangement of the affairs of the
tribe, through which the greater portion (some 600) remained in Indian
Territory, while some 225 kept their reservation in Nebraska.
When the cegiha divided at the mouth of the Ohio, the ancestors of the
Osage and Kansa accompanied the main Omaha body up the Mississippi to the
mouth of Osage river. There the Osage separated from the group, ascending
the river which bears their name.
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