2020 Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Walks on the Ground is a 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.
In Ponca heritage the history of individuals is told and passed along in songs of tribal members. Headman acquired information primarily when singing with known ceremonial singers such as Harry Buffalohead, Ed Littlecook, Oliver Littlecook, Eli Warrior, Dr. Sherman Warrior (son of Sylvester Warrior), Roland No Ear, and “Pee-wee” Clark. Headman’s father, Kenneth Headman, shared most of this history and culture with Louis. During winter nights, after putting a large log into the fireplace, Kenneth would begin his storytelling. The other elders in the tribe confirmed Kenneth’s stories and insights and contributed to the history Louis has written about the Ponca.
Walks on the Ground traces changes in the tribe as reflected in educational processes, the influences and effects of the federal government, and the dominant social structure and culture. Headman includes children’s stories and recognizes the contribution made by Ponca soldiers who served during both world wars, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
ISBN-13: 9781496212801
Media Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Nebraska
Publication Date: 02-01-2020
Pages: 570
Product Dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.38(d)
Louis V. Headman (Ponca elder) (Oklahoma) is the project coordinator of the Ponca Language Grant and pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Ponca City. He is the author of Dictionary of the Ponca People (Nebraska, 2019). Sean O’Neill is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. He is the author of Cultural Contact and Linguistic Relativity among the Indians of Northwestern California and the coeditor of Northwest California Linguistics, volume 14 of The Collected Works of Edward Sapir.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Sean O’Neill
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Phonetic Key
1. Beginnings
2. Niobrara
3. Trade Agreements, Indian Treaties, and Indian Removal
4. Chief Standing Bear
5. Indian Territory
6. The Selection of Ponca Chiefs
7. The Ponca Reservation in Oklahoma
8. Ethnography
9. The Ponca Giveaway
10. The Old Ponca Heđúškà
11. New Heđúškà Dance Paraphernalia
12. The Ponca Singers
13. Ponca Heđúškà Songs
14. Family Structure and Kinship System
15. Marriage and Property
16. Clans of the Ponca
17. Ponca Names
18. Toys, Games, and Sports
19. Arts and Crafts
20. The Ponca Native American Church
21. The Christian Church in the Ponca Community
22. The Spirit World
23. The Funeral Rites
24. Ancient Ponca Burials and Practices
25. Ponca Medicine
26. Journey to the School House
27. Into the School House
28. Warriors of the Ponca
29. Political Governance
Afterword
Appendix: U.S. Treaty Obligations to Indian Tribes
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Show More
