Page:The Indian Dispossessed.pdf/221

The Removal of the Poncas 675), as may be necessary for the settlement of that portion of the Ponca tribe under Standing Bear now on or residing near the old Ponca reservation, for their use and occupation, in the proportion and to the extent of as many tracts of 640 acres each as there are heads of families and male members now of the age of twenty-one years and upwards and unmarried."

No provision whatever was made for any Ponca Indians except those "under Standing Bear now on or residing near the old Ponca reservation." Nowhere is there a line to indicate that the act of Congress providing for their return was ever communicated to the Poncas. The official count two years later shows a net gain of twelve in the Indian Territory, while the Poncas on the old reserve barely hold their own. Not one Ponca was returned to the Missouri. The numbers remain in about the same proportion to this day. The Ponca country was cleared of Indians, with the exception of Standing Bear's band, and in a few years was opened to settlement.

This is the story of the Ponca removal, with inevitable sidelights on the Poncas' guardian. Whom do the facts concern more—the Poncas or the guardian? 201