Week 11 Story: The Poncas Take the Plains

For the Plains Indians there were few things as important to them as the horse. This creature that would come to be synonymous with the tribes of the Western Frontier and our nation’s advancement beyond the Mississippi was not even native to this land. Although it was brought to these shores by invaders it would come to play a major role in the Ponca Nation. This is the story as to how the Poncans came to know the horse, or as they call it, shóⁿge.

There came a day when the Poncan elders began to receive visions, proclaiming that their true homeland followed a watery snake trail. This watery snake trail was actually the Missouri River, which lay northward of their current location. They followed this river to a place where they could step over the water and it is here that they crossed into their new homeland. During this time the Ponca had no animals aside from dogs to aid in their daily tasks and travel requirements. This was the case until the Ponca Nation came into contact with the Padouca (Comanche).

The Comanche were initially extremely confrontational with the Poncans. They first came to blows with one another as the two tribes were both hunting on buffalo on the plains. During these early confrontations the Poncans marveled at the skill in which the Comanche rode on the backs of these large and agile beasts. While the Comanche were fine horseman they were severely lacking in terms of skill with a bow and arrow, as well as having produced inferior quality weapons compared to the Poncans.

Their conflicts would continue for many moons, with neither side holding the advantage. The Poncans’ skill with the bow and arrow outweighed the advantages that should have belonged to the Comanche who were on horseback. Feeling that further conflict would lead to nothing, chieftains from either tribe came together on neutral ground to begin negotiating a peace with one another. When the two chiefs came together the Comanche spoke first, in perfect Poncan. This shocked the Ponca chief, who would soon learn that the two tribes were not as different as he once believed them to be.

Soon the once opposing tribes were trading with one another; most importantly they began to educate the other in specific areas where one excelled while the other struggled behind. The Poncans showed the Comanche how to construct a better bow and arrow, while the Comanche gave the Poncans horses and instructed them on how to ride.

For a while following this there was peace between the two tribes, with each preferring to stay within their own hunting lands. This was until a Comanche hunting party ventured too far from home, resulting in an altercation with a group of Poncans who were hunting in the same area. The Comanches' attacked first, leading to an altercation that would mark the end for the Comanche in the region. While no men died in this skimish, the Poncans took this as a direct attack on the tribe as a whole. The following evening a group of Poncan warriors crept their way into the Comanche camp, where they stole all of the tribe's horses and killed the men who had attacked their clan members on the hunting expedition.

This would mark the end of the Comanche in the region, resulting in the Ponca Nation establishing a permanent foothold over the lands the Comanche once held. Without the acquisition of the horse this would have never been possible. The Ponca would go on to thrive during their time on the open plains, with bountiful buffalo hunts and excursions. This would come to be a period of prosperity for the nation. 

Author’s Note: The original story is a Ponca Nation tale explaining how they came to be in possession of the horse, Tradition of the Finding of Horses. The story depicts multiple interactions with the Padouca (Comanche) and how these altercations lead to the Ponca Nation receiving the skills necessary to tame the horse. The original tale explains in detail how the Poncas used their new tool in the horse to drive the Comanche from their region of the plains to eventually establish a larger foothold of control for themselves. My narrative remains fairly close to the original, with minor changes made to the descriptions of the tribes’ altercations. A major portion of the story I did remove from my narrative was how the Comanches came to know the Ponca language. My story is less historically based and more approachable for the average reader. I chose to provide more of a backstory as to why the Poncas eventually drove the Comanche from the plains, whereas the original jumps to a quick conclusion with little explanation. Aside from this, the main addition I chose to make was of an opening paragraph describing the importance the horse played in the lives of plains people, as well as the effect on our perception of these nations it has left upon our history. This is an important story to tell, the horse being introduced to this society was similar to the introduction of the automobile to 20^th century society.

Bibliography: Myths and Legends of the Great Plains, Katharine Berry Judson (1913)  

Photo 1 Information: A plains' indian hunting the mighty buffalo 

Source: Wikipedia 
Photo 2 Information: Map of the Missouri River watershed 
Source: Wikimedia Commons  

Further Information: Omaha and Ponca Digital Dictionary