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Ponca of Oklahoma - Oklahoma (U.S.)

Native American

image by Donald Healy, 27 January 2008

The band
The flag

See also:

The Band

map image by Peter Orenski based on input from Don Healy

Ponca of Oklahoma - Oklahoma

Those Ponca who remained in the "Indian Territory" - modern Oklahoma - when Chief Standing Bear and his clan returned to Nebraska form the basis of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma. The word "Ponca" means sacred head. The modern Ponca, descendants of those forcibly exiled by the federal government in 1877, now number more than 2,500.

The Flag

The flag of the Ponca of Oklahoma is a golden buff-yellow field bearing the tribal seal the center. The seal is essentially a white disk bearing three clustered tepees. When the Ponca went on their two annual buffalo hunts, they lived in tepees. The remainder of the year they resided in fortified towns that contained lodges of earth or covered with buffalo hides. At the top point where the three tepees meet there is a circle representing the sun. All these elements appear in the same golden yellow that constitutes the flag's field color.

In front of the tepees is a red pipe. In years past, the Ponca people lived in the area of Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota (ENAT, 196). Pipestone is a major source of the fiery red stone catlinite used to make the pipes employed by many tribes.

Circling the tepees and pipe is the term "Great Seal of the Ponca Tribe" around the upper portions of the seal, while the bottom contains the word "Oklahoma". The tribal seal is widely used by the Ponca. For example, the Ponca Tribal Police use a shoulder patch on their uniforms bearing the tepees and pipe emblem from the seal.

© Donald Healy 2008
information provided by Peter Orenski, 27 January 2008