Description
Book SynopsisA record of Louis V. Headman's personal study of the Southern Ponca people, spanning seven decades beginning with the historic notation of the Ponca people's origins in the East. The last of the true Ponca speakers and storytellers entered Indian Territory in 1877 and most lived into the 1940s.
Trade Review"There are many audiences for this volume,
but, read in tandem with Headman's
Dictionary of the Ponca People (2019), it speaks most powerfully to the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of the Ponca people. Here are the embers left to rekindle Ponca culture and language!"—Beth R. Ritter,
Great Plains Quarterly"Headman has produced an important work for the Great Plains region and for the growing literature of Indigenous-produced histories."—Phoebe Labat,
South Dakota History"This superb history of the Ponca Nation is part of the University of Nebraska Press’s effort to publish First Nations’ histories written by native historians, rather than outsiders. . . . Throughout Headman amplifies, clarifies, and enriches topics, emphasizing Ponca as a distinct nation, though reduced in numbers over time. This substantial volume should be absorbed, not skimmed."—A. B. Kehoe,
Choice"Headman positions himself as one in a long and ongoing chain of Ponca storytellers, and by bringing together voices of a prior generation of tribal elders and adapting those stories to a written format, Headman participates in the long history of Ponca resiliency and adaptation
Walks on the Ground narrates."—David Dry,
Chronicles of Oklahoma“This book is a jewel because it presents an insider’s view drawn from the insights of Ponca elders with whom the author talked during many years while simultaneously bringing outside scholarly assessments into the mix. Specialists on the American Indian, whether anthropologists, archaeologists, sociologists, political scientists, or historians, as well as the general reader, will gain insights from the work.”—Blue Clark, professor of American Indian Studies at Oklahoma City University
“A welcome model of how to do collaborative ethnography from within a culture and how to synthesize and evaluate information from multiple sources. . . . This volume, in an accessible way, leads the reader toward an understanding of how to see the Ponca as the Ponca see themselves.”—Regna Darnell, Distinguished University Professor of Anthropology and First Nations Studies at the University of Western Ontario
Table of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Phonetic Key
- Preface
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Beginnings
- Chapter 2 Niobrara
- Chapter 3 Trade Agreements, Indian Treaties, and Indian Removal
- Chapter 4 Chief Standing Bear
- Chapter 5 Indian Territory
- Chapter 6 The Selection of Ponca Chiefs
- Chapter 7 The Ponca Reservation in Oklahoma
- Chapter 8 Ethnography
- Chapter 9 The Ponca Give Away
- Chapter 10 The Old Ponca Heđúška
- Chapter 11 New Hedúškà Dance Paraphernalia
- Chapter 12 The Ponca Singers
- Chapter 13 Ponca Heđúška Songs
- Chapter 14 Family Structure and Kinship System
- Chapter 15 Marriage and Property
- Chapter 16 Clans of the Ponca
- Chapter 17 Ponca Names
- Chapter 18 Toys, Games, and Sports
- Chapter 19 Arts and Crafts
- Chapter 20 The Ponca Native American Church
- Chapter 21 The Christian Church in the Ponca Community
- Chapter 22 The Spirit World
- Chapter 23 The Funeral Rites
- Chapter 24 Ancient Ponca Burials and Practices
- Chapter 25 Ponca Medicine
- Chapter 26 Journey to The School House
- Chapter 27 Into The School House
- Chapter 28 Warriors of the Ponca
- Chapter 29 Political Governance
- Afterword
- Appendix
- Bibliography
