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Best of Potpourri: a tale of forgotten Indian myths
By JOHN KIELY
A guy can learn and hear a lot of stuff just wandering around this place.
For example, last night, if a fellow happened into the University Theatre he might have heard a blonde in basic black talking about Abe Lincoln's year of mental illness, or a blonde in not-so-basic-lavender giving a montage of Berlin children's quotes about Christmas.
Or, he might have heard phrases that rolled like clear water over a pebbled river bank telling a tale—not quite as old as time—a tale of myth and ritual and Indian rites.
IF HE HEARD these things, he'd have wandered into the first half of this semester's Speech Potpourri, where six Speech I students each gave an informative speech and the rest of the Speech I students judged whose was best.
They said Wichita freshman Kirby Kemble's was best. His was the tale almost as old as time.
"A few miles south of Ponca City," began Kemble, "in Northern Oklahoma lies the outgrowth Indian reservation, White Eagle, home of the Ponca Indians.
"Most of the time, this tiny reservation is very quiet," and his voice was very quiet, "but, in late August each year, it resounds with gentle war cries and is shaken by near-forgotten rumblings, for," he began a crescendo, "that's when the Poncas hold a pow-wow.
"And," he paused slightly and began again, now in a staccato drum-like rhythm, "when the Poncas hold a pow-wow," again he paused, "the very earth moves to the rhythm of the drums."
HIS LEAD-IN BEGUN, he eased into his actual subject—the Sun Dance.
"Since that first pow-wow, no one knows how long ago, most of the songs remain the same, but a few have been lost forever.
Softly, he told the whole story. "It means much to me," he said. "The Pencas being my people and the Sun Dance part of my heritage."
He told of the warrior, Wanta, who's "exhibition of fortitude and strength made a deep impression on the tribe."
Wanta, fulfilling a pledge to the great spirits, danced a dance for four days. Each day he followed the path of the sun from dawn to dusk. And then he danced all night.
HE WAS TETHERED all this time, buffalo bone pins inserted in his skin, rawhide leading from the pins to a pole. He danced until the pins pulled free. Then he collapsed.
He had shown no sign of pain.
Kemble continued the story, adding to the dance the other rituals that myths dictated. Until:
"In 1909, the Federal government forbade the Sun Dance forever.
"And now the Poncas have no Sun Dance. But a Sun Dance isn't everything and after all they still have a pow-wow every year. . . Under the tall trees of the reservation, the Poncas pitch their tents and their teeepees and build their campfires and beat the drums softly and sing the old songs."
And he had finished his story, and the people applauded.
Daily Kansan Thursday, December 15, 1966
SEATING NOTE
NEW YORK — (UPI) The first grandstand ever erected for a fight was built for the bout between Tom Spring and Jack Langan, Jan. 7, 1824, on the outskirts of Worcester, England, seating about 4,000.
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