The soldiers…forced us across the Niobrara…just as one would drive a herd of ponies…And so I reached the Warm Land [Oklahoma]. We found the land there was bad and we were dying, one after another, and…our animals died, and, oh, it was very hot. ‘This land is truly sickly…and we hope the Great Father will take us back [home] again.’ That is what we said. There were one hundred of us died there.
– White Eagle
Ponca chief, on Ponca removal from their lands along Nebraska’s Niobrara River.