Clans of the Ponca

[Alastair]

I was looking for some information on the site today and came across this article that Donna did for the site way back and thought you might like to read it. It can be found at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rica/ponca.htm

Alastair

[DonnaFlood]

I was looking for some information on the site today and came across this article that Donna did for the site way back and thought you might like to read it. It can be found at http://www.electricscotland.com/hist...rica/ponca.htm

Alastair

Alasatair,
There is controversy regarding these clans. When I did these it was way before Standing Bear Park here and other interest in the clans that claim there are only seven. These clans were given to me by an elder Melvin Hardman.

The man gave me the names not too long before he passed, along with some other information I've never shared regarding herbs and such. That seems to be such a feared topic.
I will say he talked about "Evening Primrose" the Indians used for the heart. I've read it is now
an accepted therapy used by the medical world. ? ?

He told me there were twelve peace pipes to go with each clan, which have all been lost now. I was named under the last one and since then it has disappeared. A man on line asked to will one to me. Gramma Lucille Big Goose Feathers about fainted when I asked her about that.

"OH no don't let him send it to you, that will cause all kinds of trouble!" ? ?

There are folks who agree with me when I say, "so much has been lost, the culture isn't even the same.

Donna

[Alastair]

I've never agreed with censorship Donna. Since creating the site I've had several approaches to remove information I have posted up on some clans and asked to substitute new text. While I am happy to post up new text I've resolutely refused to remove the old text. Mind you I am a single guy with no family or living relatives so certainly anything I do won't affect family only myself and thus I'm willing to make that call.

I'm also interested in finding information on herbs and other wild plants as to both there medical properties and use in dyes or any other uses. I only find snippets here and there but keep looking.

I just believe it's so important that we don't lose our history. I'm always been shocked at how so much of our oral history was disregarded and then the historians woke up that it might actually be of use the people that knew it had died so we lost it forever. I always remember that story one old collector related on how one person that knew some 1,000 old stories and could recite them left for America and died some 4 years later. It was estimated at the time that at least 500 of those stories had never been recorded and so were lost for all time.

Just the other day I learnt that an old person that died in the Burntisland part of Scotland was the last person who could speak and understand the old local dialect. As I understand it not much of that had been recorded and so more has been lost. It's just criminal.

Alastair

[Rick]

This is also one of the reasons that it is so difficult to assemble an accurate history of the aboriginal peoples of Canada. All were oral cultures that had no written language so the history, traditions and knowledge were transmitted orally. While these records were very strictly verified in some of the more complex aboriginal societies, they were more loosely maintained in other pre-contact cultures. And regardless, epidemics, forced re-locations, residential school educations and other factors disrupted the chain of memory to the extent that much of the pre-contact history and post-contact interpretation, has been lost. Fortunately perhaps, compulsory education in Scotland provided scores of colonial record keepers whose journals and records provide much of the reliable surviving historical record.