Walks on the Ground: A Tribal History of the Ponca Nation

2020 Choice Outstanding Academic Title

Walks on the Ground is a record of Louis V. Headman’s personal study of the Southern Ponca people spanning seven decades, beginning with the historic notation of the Ponca people’s origins in the East. The last of the true Ponca speakers and storytellers entered Indian Territory in 1877, and most lived into the 1940s.

In Ponca heritage, the history of individuals is told and passed along in songs of tribal members, and so Headman learned through singing with ceremonial singers such as Harry Buffalohead, Ed Littlecook, Oliver Littlecook, Eli Warrior, Dr. Sherman Warrior (son of Sylvester Warrior), Roland No Ear, and ＂Pee-wee＂ Clark. Headman’s father, Kenneth Headman, shared most of this history and culture with Louis during winter nights of storytelling. Other elders in the tribe confirmed Kenneth’s stories and insights and contributed to the history Louis Headman has written about the Ponca.

Walks on the Ground traces changes in the tribe as reflected in educational processes, federal influences, and the dominant social structure and culture. Headman includes children’s stories and recognizes the contribution made by Ponca soldiers who served during both world wars, the Korean Conflict, the Vietnam War, Desert Storm, and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.

Louis V. Headman (Ponca elder, Oklahoma) is the project coordinator of the Ponca Language Grant and pastor of the Church of the Nazarene in Ponca City. He is the author of Dictionary of the Ponca People (Nebraska, 2019). Sean O’Neill is a professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. He is a coauthor (with Louis V. Headman) of Dictionary of the Ponca People (Nebraska, 2020).