Ponca Tribes

The Ponca Tribe was located in villages along Ponca Creek near the Niobrara River in what is now northeastern Nebraska when they first encountered the European settlers.

They signed three treaties with the United States government -- the first in 1817; the second in 1825; and the third in 1858. Each was and attempt to affirm their peaceful intent and to regulate trade in the area in which they lived.

Treaties between the government and other tribes gave the land claimed by the Ponca to the Sioux. As a result, in 1877, the Ponca were forced to remove to Indian Territory, specifically to the Quapaw Reservation. Two groups were removed that year, for a total of just under 700 tribal members. The following year, the Ponca established their own settlement from land on both sides of the Salt Fork River, from the west bank of the Arkansas River. An agency was established on the Salt Fork River, two miles from where it joined with the Arkansas.

In the 1880s, the Ponca split into two -- the Northern Ponca Tribe on the Niobrara River in Nebraska and the Couthern Ponca in what is now Oklahoma.

Frederick Webb Hodge, in his Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, gave a more complete history of the Ponca tribe, with estimations of the population of the tribe at various time periods.

For additional history of the tribe, read more....

Ponca Reservation Ponca Tribal Executive Committee

History
1789 -- First contact with Europeans

1817 -- First Treaty with the U.S. government

1825 -- Second Treaty with the U.S. government

1858 -- Third Treaty with the U.S. government

1877 -- Forced Removal to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) of 681 Ponca.

1878 -- Reservation established on Salt Fork River west of the Arkansas River in Indian Territory

1878 -- Chief Standing Bear left the reservation in Indian Territory to take his son's body back to the tribe's traditional grounds for burial. His arrest resulted in a famous trial that recognized Indians as "persons."

Important Web Sites
Ponca Tribe Archives