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Chief Yellow Berry’s Descendants
A river runs through the Ponca Reservation and we always followed that road to wind around and through it to our destination. Today new roads are cut directly off the highway and we simply make a turn to get to the cultural center where most funerals are held.
Molly Adkins lost her most beloved youngest son, Harvey Adkins, to cancer and we were called to the early morning breakfast after she sat up all night with his body. These are the descendants of Mother’s dear friend, Irene Warrior, who was off the Chief Yellow Berry. Years ago I visited with Irene outside the Baptist church and she told me there was a marker for Yellow Berry in the middle of the field across from the church.
Here is another descendant of Chief Yellow Berry, Mary Warrior Williamson:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg...&GRid=50178121 Mary is the one who told us that Chief Yellow Berry had three wives as was the Ponca custom.
This is the root reason for Big Snakes being killed by the military. It was said he was resisting registering his four wives because he knew he would have to give up three of them up.
While we tried to comfort Molly for her loss she introduced us to Amos Hinton, her son. This was a golden moment for interviewing him.
Amos is having fund raisers by selling Indian tacos on Friday at the previous women’s rehab. building. There has been a newly created agricultural department in the Ponca tribe. They are growing corn for the precious dried corn. This is being sold at the tribal building in White Eagle.
The telephone number to order tacos is 580-762-1750.
Amos has been working with the corn geneticist Department of Agriculture, Nebraska at Kearney, Nebraska, Here is the web page for these folks at Kearney, Nebraska. Click on the picture of the Ponca for more information:
http://www.archway.org/
Money has been funded for the raising of pigs to slaughter for the elders of the tribe so that a leaner less fatty meat will be used. Amos continued to say that in 1939 one in 6000 Natives had diabetes. Today 77% of the Natives are diabetic. His reasoning is that if this Ponca Department of Agriculture can raise healthier
meat and grains which will be much better than the government issued commodities.
There seems to be a breath of fresh air blowing over the governing folks on the council. Recently it was learned that three of the Katrina trailers were cleaned up and rented to three families in need, in fact, who are without housing. One family is a grandmother raising a grandchild, another is a published author and well-known artist who has health issues, and another mother, who has a son very active in volunteer work in the community. These were all at risk for having a warm place to come in out of the weather here as winter is approaching. The emergency housing is a great blessing for these folks and I’m so thankful for them. Also proud of the new housing director and council for having foresight and compassion for our folks in need.
Here is the obituary for Harvey Adkins:
http://www.poncacitynews.com/obits/O...----2012-11-11
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