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Tonkawa Indian Tribe History
Tonkawa. A prominent tribe, forming the Tonkawan linguistic family, which,
during most of the 18th and 19th centuries, lived in central Texas. According to
Gatschet (Karankawa Inds., 37, 1891) they call themselves
Titskan wátitch, while
the name Tonkawa is a Waco word,
Tonkawéya meaning 'they all stay together.'
Ethnology.-The ethnological relations of the tribe are still obscure. It
has been surmised that it was a composite of the remnants of other tribes, and
this is apparently true of their later organization at least; yet the fact that
their language and culture were so different from those of the great neighboring
groups indicates that fundamentally they were a distinct people. Closely
associated with them, and of similar culture, were lesser tribes or subtribes,
notably the Yojuane, Mayeye, and Ervipiame. It has recently been established by
a study of the records of the San Xavier missions that these tribes spoke the
Tonkawa language, but that the
Deadoses (Agdocas, Yadocxas), who were often
associated with the Tonkawa, spoke the language of the
Bidai and Arkokisa. The
Yojuane and Mayeye were apparently in part absorbed by the Tonkawa in the later
part of the 18th century. The Yakwal (Yakawana), remembered in Tonkawa
tradition (Gatschet, op. cit.), were very
probably the Yojuane. There was,
besides these, a large group of lesser tribes on the border between the Tonkawan
and Coahuiltecan territories, notably the Sana, Einet, Cavas, Toho, and Tohaha,
who, we are told in positive terms by competent early witnesses, did not speak
the Coahuiltecan language. There is strong probability that a study of the
surviving fragments of their language will prove them also to have been Tonkawan
(see Sana). Some of the traditions of the Tonkawa point to an early residence
on the Gulf coast, but their language does not bear the marks of such a
birthplace.
Until the 19th century the Tonkawa were almost always
hostile to the Lipan and other
Apache tribes, and this fact kept them generally
at peace with the Comanche,
Wichita, and
Hasínai, whom they
often joined in Apache wars. They were usually friendly also with the
Bidai,
Arkokisa, and
Xaraname (Aranama) to the south, and with the numerous Coahuiltecan tribes to the
south west. Relations with the Comanche and Wichita were frequently strained,
however, even during this period. In the 19th century relations with these
groups were reversed, the Tonkawa then being usually friendly with the Lipan and
hostile toward the Comanche and Wichita. When, about 1790, the Apache effected
an alliance with the Bidai, Arkokisa, and
Attacapa, the Tonkawa were brought
into hostile relations with these tribes (Gil Ybarbo to Gov. Muñoz, Mar. 22
and Apr. 26, 17911, MS. in Béxar Archives).
Relations with French and Spanish. In 1691 Francisco de Jesus Mar a
unmistakably included this tribe and their associates, the Yojuane, in his list
of enemies of the Hasinai, writing the names "Tanquaay" and ''Diujuan"
(Relación,
Aug. 15, 1691, MS) The Tonkawa seem not to be mentioned again unti11719, but the Yojuane appear in the interim, when, about 1714 (the chronology is not clear),
they destroyed the main fire temple of the Hasinai (Espinosa, Chrónica
Apostólica, 424, 1746; see also Dictamen Fiscal, 1716, in Mem. do Nueva España,
xxvii, 193). To the French the Tonkawa became definitely known through La Harpe's
expedition of 1719. His lieutenant, Du Risage, reported that 70 leagues up Red
river from the Kadohadacho he met several tribes, which he called respectively
the Tancaoye, Joyvan (Yojuan), Quidehais (Kichai?), Naouydiches (Nabedache?),
Huanchané, and Huane. They were wanderers, following the buffalo for a living.
Famous warriors all, the "Tancaoye" were the most renowned, and their chiefs
bore many battle scars. They were just returning from a war with the Apache,
which fact, together with the tribal names given, makes it seem probable that
the party was a composite one of Caddoan and Tonkawan tribes, such as in later
times frequently went against the Apache. From this time forth the Tonkawa were
generally friendly with the French (La Harpe in Margry, Dec., vi, 277-78, 1886).
With the Spaniards the Tonkawa first came into intimate contact through the
establishment of the missions on San Xavier (San Gabriel) river, Texas. As early as
1740 the missionaries had thought of taking them to San Antonio, but considered
them too remote (Descripción, 1740, MS. in Mem. do Nueva España, xxviii, 203).
Between 1746 and 1749 three missions were planted on the San Xavier, and among
the tribes there were the Mayeye, Yojuane, and Tonkawa (see San
Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas). While there they suffered from a terrible epidemic of
smallpox and from Apache raids. On the other hand, they deserted the missions to
go with the Hasinai against the Apache, and got the Spaniards into trouble by
selling Apache captives to the Hasinai. By 17,56 these missions were abandoned
and the protecting garrison was transferred to the new Lipan mission of San Sabá.
In common with the other foes of the Apache, the Tonkawa were converted into
enemies of the Spaniards by the establishment of this mission for the Lipan, and
they took part in its destruction in 1758.
Habitat. It has not been possible to determine with confidence the range and
headquarters of the Tonkawa before the decade between 1770 and 1780, when the
reports become full and satisfactory. At this tine their customary range was
between the middle and upper Trinity on the north east, and the San Gabriel and the
Colorado on the south west, rather above than below the San Antonio road. Their favorite headquarters were about halfway between Waco and the Trinity crossing
of the San Antonio road, near an eminence known to the natives as the Turtle (Mezicres,
Informe, July 4, 1772: Letter to Croix, May 28, 1778; Gil Ybarbo to Cabello,
Dec. 5, 1778; Croix, Relación Particular, 1778, MSS. See Tortugas). Since they
first became known, the Tonkawa had perhaps drifted gradually southward, though
this is not certain. It was true of the Wichita tribes for the same period, and
would be logical consequence of pressure by the Comanche and the Osage. Yet the
testimony before 1770 is not conclusive. Du Rivage saw the Tonkawa near Red
river,
but this may have been a temporary location. In 1740 they and the Yojuane were
reported to he "not far from [the] Texas," but whether west or north we are not
told. When in 1752 De Soto V'ermudez inquired of the Nasoni, on the
upper Angelina, what tribes lived to the northward, he was told that 20 leagues
away (northward by the implication of the question ) were the Tebancanas
(Tawakoni), and that beyond them followed the Tancaguies and Yujuanes. If the
direction was correctly given as northward, the Tonkawa were
then clearly farther north than their central rendezvous of a later date. Similarly a copy of
the La Fora map (ca.. 1767), but not the original, shows the Yojuane village
to have been near the upper Sabine, but the source and the date of this
annotation are not known. On the other hand, as has been shown after 1746 the
Tonkawa and Yojuane frequented the missions on the San Gabriel, associating
there with related tribes native of the locality, which would indicate that it
was within the usual Tonkawa range. Moreover, when in 1768 Solís crossed Texas
from Béxar to Nacogdoches, he noted in his diary after passing the Brazos that
in this neighborhood lived Tancagues, Yojuanes, and Mayeves. It would seem,
therefore, that when Mezières wrote, the country of the Turtle had for some time
been for the Tonkawa the middle of a long range from north east to
south west. After this
time, as the Apache receded, there was apparently considerable southwestward
extension of their range, though for some years they had headquarters east of the
Brazos. It is to be noted that writers have usually erred by calling the Tonkawa
a southwestern Texas tribe, which was not true for a century after they came
into history. On the other hand, the location assigned them on Powell's
linguistic map applies only to the latter part of the 19th century
(see Descripción, 1740, op. cit.; De Soto
Vermudez, Investigation, MS. in Archivo
Gen., 1752; La Fora Map in Dpto. de Fomento, Mexico; Solís, Diario, 518. in Mew.
de Nueva España, xxvii, 277; Davenport, Noticia, 1809, MS. in Archivo Gen.; Terán, Noticia, 1828, in Bol. Soc. Geog. Mex., 1890; Powell's map in 7th Rep.
B. A. E. ).
Customs. The Tonkawa always bore a bad reputation among both Indians and
whites, although toward the Americans they were uniformly at peace The
characteristics assigned to them by Du Rivage in 1719 are those most frequently
mentioned in later times, when they became better known. They were warlike
wanderers, planting few or no crops, living on game, and following the buffalo
long distances. When hard pressed they could eat food usually considered
revolting. Their general reputation as cannibals is borne out be concurrent
tradition and history, by their designation in the sign language, and by the
names applied to them by other tribes. Mezières said of them that they were
despised by other tribes as vagabonds, ill-natured, and disposed to thievery, a
character frequently given them in later times. They lived in scattered villages
of skin tipis, which they moved according to the caprice of the chiefs or the
demands of the chase. In the 18th century they were fine horsemen and had good
animals. Their offensive weapons then were firearms, bows and arrows, and the
spear; their defensive arms were the leather jacket (cuera), shield, and cap or
helmet, on which they often wore horns and gaudy plumage.
Once, when in their midst, Mezières wrote a statement of their dependence on
the buffalo that deserves to be recorded. "Besides their meat," he said, "it
furnishes them liberally what they desire for conveniences. The brains are used
to soften skins, the horns for spoons and drinking cups, the shoulder-blades to
dig up (cavar) and clear off the ground, the tendons for thread and bowstrings,
the hoof to glue the arrow-feathering. From the tail-hair they make ropes and
girths; from the wool, belts and various ornaments. The hide furnishes saddle
and bridle, tether ropes, shields, tents, shirts, footwear, and blankets to
protect them from the cold." They were great deer as well as buffalo hunters,
and when their buffalo range was partly cut off by the Comanche, their
dependence on this animal increased. A trader informed Sibley in 1805 that he
had obtained from the Tonkawa as many as 5,000 deerskins in one year, besides
tallow, robes, and tongues. Their market for hides in earlier times had usually
been the Tawakoni villages (Mezières, op. cit.: Sibley, lust. Sketches, 1806).
Spanish Relations after 1770. For about 15 years after the failure of the San
Xavier missions, the Tonkawa were regarded by the Spaniards as open enemies; but
in 1770 an equal period of nominal peace began, during which the Spanish
policy toward the tribe was marked by three main features:
(1) to win their
good-will by friendly visits and by sending them authorized traders with
supplies;
(2) to force them to keep peace with the Tawakoni, Yscani, and Kichai,
who were relied on to restrain the Tonkawa by good example or coercion;
(3) to
induce them, by persuasion and by threats of withdrawing the traders, to abandon
their vagabond life and settle in a fixed village.
The principal agents in this
work were De Mezicres, Gil Ybarbo, Nicolás de la Mathe, and Andres de Courbière, all
but one Frenchmen from Natchitoches, it will be noted. Their efforts at coercion
through trade were evidently made nugatory by clandestine French traffic that
could not be stopped.
Failure to successfully effect these policies was charged to the bad influence
of the noted Tonkawa chief of the day, Torque, or El Mocho. He was an Apache by
birth, who had been captured and adopted by the Tonkawa. During one of his
exploits against the Osage he had lost his right ear, whence his nickname, El
Mocho, " the maimed " or "cropped." By his prowess in war and his eloquence in
council he raised himself to a position of influence. Chance, in the form of an
epidemic, occurring in 1777-78, removed his rivals and left him head chief. His
baneful influence before this had won him the enmity of the Spaniards, and
Mezicres, under official orders, had bribed his rivals to assassinate him, but
he was saved by the epidemic mentioned. Now resort was had to flattery and
gifts. In 1779 Mezières held a long and loving conference with El Mocho at the
lower Tawakoni village, and the result was that they went together to Bexar to
see the governor. There, on Oct. 8, 1779, in the presence of more than 400
Tonkawa people, Governor Cabello with great ceremony appointed El Mocho "capitan
grande" of his tribe, decorating him with a medal of honor, and presenting him a
commission, a uniform, a baston, and a flag bearing the cross of Burgundy. In
return, of course, E1 Mocho made grave promises to obey and to form the desired
pueblo (Cabello, Informe,1784, ¶ 61, MS.).
The promise to settle down, however, remained unfulfilled, while El Mocho's
insincerity was still further proved by events of 1782. In that year the Lipan,
Mescaleros, and Apache, as the records give the names, desirous of better means
of acquiring arms, made overtures of peace to the Tonkawa, who easily obtained
weapons from the French. El Mocho consented to a meeting. The place appointed
was the bank of Guadalupe river; the time, the moons of November and December.
Cabello, unable to prevent the gathering, sent a spy in Indian disguise-probably
the great Indian linguist and interpreter, Andrés de Courbiere who reported the
proceedings in detail. According to him, more than 4,000 Indians attended, and
the barter of firearms for stolen horses was lively. But the
alliance was defeated by El Mocho's ambitions. He tried to induce the Apache tribes to make
him their head chief, in return for which he would rid the country of Spaniards.
This self-seeking aroused the jealousy of the Apache chiefs, quarrels ensued,
and on Christmas day the meeting broke up without the alliance being effected
(Cabello,
op. cit., ¶ 63).
This event, combined with personal jealousies within the Tonkawa tribe, was the
undoing of El Mocho, for return was now made by the Spaniards to the policy of
assassination. After much intriguing and waiting, El Mocho was taken unawares on
July 12, 1784, and murdered in the plaza at Bahía (Goliad), a place fated to be
in later days the scene of other equally atrocious deeds. It is to be remarked
that for the story of these dark dealings of both the Spanish authorities and
their enemy we have only the reports, entirely candid, of the former
(Cazorla,
Capt. of Bahía, to Cabello, July 12, 1784, Archivo General, Fist., vol. c;
Cabello to Neve, July 15, ibid.).
The removal of El Mocho was justified by subsequent events. By June, 1785,
Courbière was able to report that the new Tonkawa chief had established a
permanent village on Navasota river; and during the next 10 years "the village of
the Tancagues" was referred to as though it were a fixed and definite entity.
But thereafter the tribe was usually described as wanderers; thereafter,
likewise, they were alternately at peace and at war with the Spaniards
(Cabello
to Rengel, June 7, 178.5, Bexar Archives; Gil Ybarbo to Governor Muñoz, Mar. 22
and Apr. 26, 1791, Bexar Archives; Leal, Noticia, July 10, 1794, Bexar
Archives).
Population; Recent History. A junta held
at Béxar, Jan. 5, 1778, estimated the
Tonkawa at 300 warriors. In April of that year Mezières, when on his second
visit to the tribe, gave the same figure, including some apostate Xaranaine
(Aranama). In Sept., 1779, when again at their settlement, he reported that
since the recent epidemic of smallpox there remained 150 warriors. Three years
later a spy who spent several days at a gathering of Apache and Tonkawa on
Guadalupe river reported that only 600 Tonkawa were present, the rest having
remained at home. If he told the truth, he could hardly have meant that these
were all warriors. Sibley in 1805 gave their strength at 200 men; Davenport,
about 1809, placed it at 250 families, and Terán, 1828, at 80 families. In 1847
the official estimate was 150 men (see Cabello, Informe, 1784, 12, 63;
Mezières,
Letters to Croix, Apr. 5, 1.778, and Sept. 13, 1779, in Mem. de Nueva Espana,
xxvni, 272, 246; Sibley. op. cit.; Davenport, Noticia, co. 1809, SF8_ in Archivo
Gen.; Terhn, Noticia, 18218, in Bol. Sec. Geog. Mex., 266, 1870). In the fall of
1855 the Government settled them, together with the
Caddo, Kichai, Waco, Tanakoni, and Penateka Comanche, upon two small reservations on the Clear Fork
of Brazos river, Texas. In consequence of the violent opposition of the Texans,
culminating in an attack upon the agency, the Indians were removed in 1857 to
Washita river, Okla., the Tonkawa being temporarily camped about the mouth of
Tonkawa river, just
above the present Anadarko. In the confusion brought about by the civil war the
other tribes saw an opportunity to pay off old scores against the Tonkawa, who
were generally hated for their cannibalistic practices as well as for serving as
government scouts against the more western tribes. On the excuse that the
Tonkawa and their agent were in alliance with the Confederacy, a body of
Delaware,
Shawnee, and Caddo attacked the Anadarko agency and the Tonkawa camp
on the night of Oct. 25, 1862, killing two of the agency employees and
massacring 137 men, women, and children out of a total of about 300 of the
Tonkawa tribe. The survivors, after some years of miserable wandering, were
finally gathered in at Ft Griffin, Texas, to save them from complete
extermination by their enemies. In 1584 all that were left 92, including a
number of Lipan were removed to Oklahoma, being assigned the next year to their
present location at Oakland agency, near Ponca. In 1908 they numbered but 48,
including several intermarried Lipan.
The Tonkawa remember a number of subdivisions, which seem to have been subtribes
rather than gentes, as follows: Awash, Choyopan, Haiwal, Hatchuknni, Kwesh,
Nilhailai, Ninchopen, Pakani, Pakhalateh, Sanukh, Talpkweyu,
Titskanwatichatak.
Index of Tribes or Nations
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