A Signpost Moment in the Fight for Indian Rights
The Washington Times › February 21, 2005
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Summary
When Lewis and Clark came up the Missouri River in 1804 they encountered a minor Plains tribe in present Nebraska called the Poncas. Unlike their more numerous and nomadic neighbors the buffalo- hunting Sioux (who frequently raided them), the Poncas combined elements of a hunting and agricultural economy.
When the Corps of Discovery found them they were recovering from a smallpox epidemic and numbered only a couple of hundred, yet they continued to increase in both population and prosperity through the first half of the 19th century. They defended themselves against their enemies, notably the Sioux and Pawnees, but there is no recorded instance of military aggression against the United States.See the full content of this document
Extract
A Signpost Moment in the Fight for Indian Rights
Starting in 1858 the Poncas began to lose their land to government treaties, and in 1877 Washington ordered them to move to a reservation in the Indian Territory of present Oklahoma. A prominent Ponca chief named Standing Bear ("Machunazha") initially...
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