Dawes introduced a bill (s. 1298) for the relief of the Ponka, which was referred to the select committee to examine into the removal of the Northern Cheyenne and by it reported back favorably, when it was placed upon the calendar where it rested.28 At the 3d session of the same congress (January 28, 1881) Senator Dawes introduced a bill (s. 2113) "to establish the rights of the Ponca tribe of Indians and to settle their affairs", which was referred to the same committee.29 On the 23d of February Senator Kirkwood, on behalf of a minority of that committee, introduced a bill (s. 2215) "for the relief of the Ponca Indians." 30 On the 18th of December, 1880, President Hayes appointed a commission consisting of Brigadier General George Crook, Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles, William Stickney, of the District of Columbia, and Walter Allen, of Massachusetts, "to ascertain the facts in regard to their [the Ponka's] removal and present condition, so far as is necessary to determine the question what justice and humanity require should be done by the government of the United States, and report their conclusions and. recommendations in the premises." The commission made a majority and a minority report on the 25th of January, 1881, which were referred to the committee named above. Both reports represented that the Ponka had been wrongfully removed from their old reservation and recommended that, by way of restitution, one hundred and sixty acres of land, to be selected by them from their old reservation or

27 Congressional Record, v. 10, pt. 1, p. 912; ibid, pt. 4, p. 3950. The department of Indian affairs presented to congress a liberal bill for the same purpose on the 3d of February, 1879. (Report Secretary of Interior 1879, v. 1, p. 78).

28 Kirkwood of Iowa; Dawes of Massachusetts; Plumb of Kansas; Bailey of Tennessee; Morgan of Alabama. (Cong. Record, v. 10, pt. 1, p. 19--2d sess. 46th Congress).

29 Ibid., v. 11, pt. 2, p. 988.

30 Ibid., pt. 3, p. 1965.

from their new one in the Indian Territory, should be given to every member of the tribe and in addition thereto, that the annual appropriation of $53,000 should be continued for five years after the passage of an act allotting them lands, and that $25,000 should be appropriated for the purpose of providing farm implements, stock and seed."1 Carl Schurz, secretary of the interior, was a firm friend of the Ponka, and in his reports for 1877, 1879, and 1880, he warmly advocated that they should be reimbursed for the loss of their reservation.

The Sioux gave evidence of contrition on account of their part in the cruel treatment of this defenseless little band of former kinsmen, and on the 20th of August, 1881, representatives of the Ogalala, Brulé, and Standing Rock tribes signed an agreement at Washington to relinquish enough of the old Ponka reservation to provide heads of families and males over twenty-one years of age, belonging to the Standing Bear band and residing on or near the old reservation, a section of land apiece. But the requisite signatures of three-fourths of all the adult male Sioux interested in the reservation were apparently not obtained.32 It was not until 1888 that the demand of justice to the Ponka was substantially recognized. The act of congress of April 30 of that year, which divided the great Sioux reservation into six distinct reserves, contained the following provision:

"Each member of the Ponca tribe of Indians now occupying a part of the old Ponca reservation, within the limits of said great Sioux reservation, shall be entitled to allotments upon said old Ponca reservation as follows:

31 Senate Documents 1880-81, v. 1, doc. 30, pp. 1-13. The proceedings of the Commission, including the testimony of representatives of the tribe, are published in the same document, beginning at page 13, and in Senate Miscellaneous Documents, 1880-81, v. 1, document 49.

32 House Executive Documents, 1881-82, v. 10, doc. 1, p. 39; ibid., 1882-83, v. 11, p. 52.

To each head of a family, one-quarter of a section; to each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; to each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; and to each other person under eighteen years now living, one-sixteenth of a section... And said Poncas shall be entitled to all other benefits under this act in the same manner and with the same conditions as if they were a part of the Sioux nation receiving rations at one of the agencies herein named."

The Sioux, however, refused to ratify this provision, and so it did not become effective. A provision for the same purpose was incorporated in the act of March 2, 1889, further dividing and curtailing the Sioux reservation; and it was accepted by the Sioux according to its conditions. By this act, each head of a Ponka family then occupying a part of the old Ponka reservation was granted three hundred and twenty acres of said reservation; each single person over eighteen years of age, one-fourth of a section; each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-fourth of a section; and each other person under eighteen years of age now living one-eighth of a section.33 Accordingly, 27,236 acres of the land in question were allotted to one hundred and sixty-eight Indians, and thereupon, on the 23d of October, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison issued a proclamation which declared that "the Indian title is extinguished to all lands described in said act of March 28, 1882, not allotted to the Ponca Indians. . "In the proclamation the president reserved from entry "that tract of land now occupied by the agency and school buildings of the old Ponca agency, to-wit: the south half of the southeast quarter of section twenty-six, and the south half of the southwest quarter of section twenty-five, all in town

33 U. S. Statutes at Large, v. 25, pp. 99, 892.

Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1911, Interior Department, Administrative Reports, v. 2, p. 82.

ship thirty-two north, range seven west of the sixth principal meridian." 35 The act of 1889, cited above, provided for relinquishment by the Sioux.

This was the final act of the acquisition comedy, and also of the Ponka tragedy. Though the domains of the Ponka of Nebraska were greatly circumscribed by the white man's more urgent land-hunger and superior power, yet they received generous additional gifts in money and goods, and their selection of land is said to have been wise.

"The Ponca Indians located at this agency are fortunate in having good land. Nearly all the land taken by these Indians is situated along the Niobrara or Running Water river and Ponca creek, and lies mostly in broad and fertile valleys, just undulating enough to have good drainage. "They have received a large body of the choicest land on the reservation." 36

No longer harassed by Sioux ferocity or fear of rapine by their white fellow citizens, they are slowly increasing in numbers. Their aggregate in 1912 was three hundred.""

35 U. S. Statutes at Large v. 26, p. 1560.

3 Statements of the agent and of the teacher, Report of the Secretary of the Interior 1890, v. 2, pp. 146, 147.

17 Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1912, Interior Department, Administrative Reports, v. 2, p. 76.

ADDRESSES BY JAMES MOONEY

Of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Washington, D. C.

[Delivered at the annual meeting of the Nebraska State Historical Society, January 10-11, 1911.]

LIFE AMONG THE INDIAN TRIBES OF THE PLAINS

It has been announced that I am to speak of my life with the Indian tribes of the plains. That is a very large subject and could not be exhausted in an evening's talk. I shall not attempt to go into details, but try merely to suggest a few things of Indian life that may help to give you an impression that an Indian community is not a mere aggregation of individuals, but is an organization, and that Indian life runs along channels as definite as those of civilized life.

The Indian is more than an Indian; he is a member of a tribe; and each tribe is practically a small, distinct nation, usually with a distinct language. In North and South America we have nobody knows how many tribes, because they never have been counted. We have at least a thousand different languages: putting it in another shape, we may say there are a thousand ways to say the word "dog" in Indian. In Europe there are not more than fifty languages. In the United States we had over two hundred distinct Indian languages, each unintelligible to those speaking the others. Most of these languages are still in existence; but some of them have been wiped out.

I have been with tribes all the way from Dakota to central Mexico, and west into Arizona and Nevada; but the most of my work and acquaintance has been with the