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Piecing Together The Ponca Past Reconstructing Degiha Migrations To The Great Plains, Beth R. Ritter

Great Plains Quarterly

The twenty-first century presents opportunities, as well as limitations, for the American Indian Nations of the Great Plains. Opportunities include enhanced economic development activities (e.g., casino gambling, telecommunications, and high-tech industries) and innovative tribal programming such as language immersion programs made possible through enhanced self-governance initiatives. Limitations include familiar scripts that perpetually threaten tribal sovereignty and chronically underfunded annual appropriations for Native American health, housing, and social service programs.

The Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, terminated in 1965 and restored to federally recognized status in 1990,¹ embraces these challenges by exploring the limits of self-governance, economic development opportunities, and cultural …

Drawn By The Bison Late Prehistoric Native Migration Into The Central Plains, Lauren W. Ritterbush

Great Plains Quarterly

Popular images of the Great Plains frequently portray horse-mounted Indians engaged in dramatic bison hunts. The importance of these hunts is emphasized by the oft-mentioned dependence of the Plains Indians on bison. This animal served as a source of not only food but also materials for shelter, clothing, containers, and many other necessities of life. Pursuit of the vast bison herds (combined with the needs of the Indians' horses for pasturage) affected human patterns of subsistence, mobility, and settlement. The Lakota and Cheyenne, for instance, are described as relying heavily on bison meat for food and living a nomadic lifestyle …