Skip over navigation
Encyclopedia
Dictionary
Thesaurus
Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Ponca
Ponca, Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). According to tradition the group lived in the Ohio valley but migrated to the mouth of the Osage River. There the Ponca and the Omaha separated from the main Siouan group and went to SW Minnesota. War with the Sioux forced the Ponca to flee to the Black Hills, in South Dakota. The Ponca subsequently rejoined their allies and moved to the mouth of the Niobrara River, in Nebraska. The Ponca remained there, but the other groups moved on. Lewis and Clark met them in 1804 when the Ponca, recovering from a smallpox epidemic, numbered only some 200. The Ponca's culture was of the Plains area; they farmed corn and hunted buffalo. Raids by the Sioux forced the Ponca to migrate to Oklahoma in 1877. A commission appointed (1880) by President Rutherford B. Hayes studied the land claims of the Ponca; as a result most of them remained in Oklahoma, while a group numbering some 200 returned to their former home in Nebraska. In 1990 there were about 2,800 Ponca in the United States.

See J. H. Howard, The Ponca Tribe (1965); J. Jablow, Ethnohistory of the Ponca (1974).

Wikipedia search results for: Ponca
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ponca are a Native American tribe of the Dhegian 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 traditions and historical accounts suggest 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. The term Ponca was the name of a clan among the Kansa, Osage, and Quapaws. The meaning of the name is unknown. At first European contact, the Ponca lived around the mouth of the Niobrara River in northern Nebraska. Karr, Steven. A Brief History of...more »
Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Ponca
Results 1 - 6  of 6
  • Ponca City

    Ponca City, city (1990 pop. 26,359), Kay co., N Okla., on the Arkansas River; founded 1893 with the opening of the Cherokee Strip, inc. 1899. It is a trade, processing, and shipping hub in a g...

  • Omaha, indigenous people of North America

    Omaha, Native Americans whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). They, with the Ponca, migrated from the Ohio valley to...

  • Iowa, indigenous people of North America

    Iowa, Native North Americans whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages); also called the Ioway. They, with the Missouri, t...

  • Osage, indigenous people of North America

    Osage, indigenous people of North America whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). In prehistoric times they lived with...

  • Cherokee Strip

    Cherokee Strip or Cherokee Outlet, a narrow piece of land in N Oklahoma. Bounded on the north by the Kansas border, it has an area of more than 6 million acres (2.4 million hectares). Measurin...

  • Quapaw

    Quapaw, Native North Americans, also called the Arkansas, whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages). The Quapaw were esse...

Reference Center To Go

Get Dictionary at your fingertips!

Download the Toolbar Now
About This Page | Browse Directory | Tell Us What You Think
© 2009 ReferenceCenter.com. All Rights Reserved.