A visit with the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska

About this article: This article was originally published in the Lewis & Clark Trail Annual Report 2024.

A visit with the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska

This May, Brye Lefler, Trail Tribal Partnerships Specialist/Cultural Anthropologist, travelled to the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska’s Ponca Community Grounds, near Niobrara, Nebraska. There, he met with several Tribal staff who generously provided a tour with highlights including the Tribal bison herd, interpretive Education Trail, and a bronze sculpture by Benjamin Victor of Chief Standing Bear, a significant civil rights figure in Ponca and U.S. History. Another casting of the statue is on permanent display inside the National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol as one of two statues selected by the state of Nebraska.

Lefler met with Ricky Wright, Jr., Culture Director for the Tribe to discuss areas for future collaboration, including the panoramic mapping of key Ponca Community Grounds locations by Terrain360, a trail partner currently engaged in mapping areas along the entire Trail. Other areas of mutual interest include resource protection, interpretation and education, and language revitalization. Beginning in Fiscal Year 2025, the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska and Lewis and Clark Trail will begin collaborating on Indigenous place names research.