Editing Ponca (section)

==Early history==
[[File:Moni chaki.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Thomas Cry (Moni Chaki), Ponca, Nebraska, 1898]]
At first European contact, the Ponca lived around the mouth of the [[Niobrara River]] in northern [[Nebraska]].<ref name=ok>Karr, Steven. [http://www.ponca.com/752.html A Brief History of the Ponca Tribe.] ''The Official Website of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma.''. Retrieved 8 August 2009.</ref> According to tradition, they moved there from an area east of the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] just before [[Christopher Columbus|Columbus]]' arrival in the Americas. Siouan-speaking tribes such as the [[Omaha people|Omaha]], [[Osage Nation|Osage]], [[Quapaw]] and [[Kaw (tribe)|Kaw]] also have traditions of having migrated to the West from east of the Mississippi River.  The invasions of the [[Iroquois]] from their traditional base in the north pushed those tribes out of the [[Ohio River]] area.<ref name="osage">Louis F. Burns, [http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS001.html "Osage"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102050914/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS001.html |date=2011-01-02 }} ''Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. Retrieved 2 March 2009.</ref>  Scholars are not able to determine precisely when the [[Dhegiha Siouan]] tribes migrated west, but know the Iroquois also pushed tribes out from the Ohio and West Virginia areas in the [[Beaver Wars]]. The Iroquois maintained the lands as hunting grounds.<ref>Rollins 96-100</ref>

The Ponca appear on a 1701 map by [[Pierre-Charles Le Sueur]], who placed them along the upper [[Missouri River|Missouri]]. In 1789, fur trader [[Juan Baptiste Munier]] was given an exclusive license to trade with the Ponca at the mouth of the [[Niobrara River]].  He founded a trading post at its confluence with the Missouri, where he found about 800 Ponca residing. Shortly after that, the tribe was hit by a devastating [[smallpox]] [[epidemic]].  In 1804, when they were visited by the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]], only about 200 Ponca remained. Later in the 19th century, their number rose to about 700.<ref name=ne>[http://www.poncatribe-ne.org/History About the Ponca Tribe.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211008083340/https://www.poncatribe-ne.org/History/ |date=2021-10-08 }} ''Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.''. Retrieved 6 January 2015.</ref>
[[File:The Ponca (Dhegiha) migration story according to oral tradition. (Map improved 2018).png|upright=2.2|thumb|[[Dhegihan History and Separation|Route of the Ponca Indians and other Dhegiha Siouan peoples]] (Quapaw, Osage, Kansa (Kaw) and Omaha) from the South to Nebraska according to oral traditions]]

Most of the leadership of the Ponca people was destroyed in 1824. Hostile Lakotas attacked a delegation of 30 leaders of various rank returning from a visit in a friendly Oglala Lakota camp. Only twelve survived. "Numbered among the dead were all the Ponca chiefs, including the famous Smoke-maker ...".<ref name=Howard1965>Howard, James H. (1965): ''The Ponca Tribe''. Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology. Bulletin 195. Washington.</ref>{{rp|27}}

Unlike most other [[Plains Indians]], the Ponca grew [[maize]] and kept vegetable gardens. Their last successful buffalo hunt was in 1855.<ref name=ok/>