It was a fortified village built by the Ponca in the vicinity of present-day Niobrara, Nebraska, USA, in circa 1700 and occupied until about 1865.
The site is renowned among archaeologists for its resemblance to Middle Mississippian fortified towns found in Ohio which date from 800 through 1550.
[2] Nanza comprises numerous earth lodge sites encircled by a protective wall perhaps six feet high.
Guns, hatchets, knives, beads, kettles, cloth and other European goods have been recovered from Ponca Fort, and serve as a testimony to the village's important position in the local fur trade.
Pottery, stone mauls, mealing slabs and maulers, bone knives, hoes, tubes, shaft wrenches and picks, and strip bark in rolls from as far away as the Southeastern United States.