'Remnants of Tonkawa Iinhabitants Plentiful' by Clay Coppedge/Temple Daily Telegram

Remnants of Tonkawa inhabitants plentiful

by Clay Coppedge

Temple Daily Telegram - August 15, 2005

The Tonkawa Indians have been gone from Central Texas for more than a century, but it's

hard to spend much time in Central Texas without finding evidence of the life they once

lived here.

From Mother Neff State Park in Coryell County to the San Gabriel River and Sugarloaf

Mountain in Milam County - and many points between and beyond those landmarks - the

Tonkawa left their mark here. They were generally friendly toward the Texas settlers

because they shared common enemies: the Comanche and Apache, who drove them from the

plains and the buffalo on which they had lived for centuries.

Tonkawa comes from a Waco name, Tonkaweya, which, in that simple but descriptive way

Indians named themselves, means 'they all stay together.' They called themselves

tickanwatic, which translates roughly to 'the most human of people.'

The Tonkawa were comprised a group of several independent bands, including the Mayeye,

Yojaune, Ervipiame and others in addition to the main tribe. They were referred to in

historical texts as Tonkewega, Tanacaoye, Tancaguas and Tonguay. A lot of early Texas

settlers simply called them Tonks.'

The Tonkawa and Spanish got to know each other in the mid 1700s through establishment

of three missions on the San Gabriel River, not far from the present-day community of

San Gabriel. The Spanish used the missions as a base of evangelical operations, and as

a defense against Apaches marauding from the west and the threat of French and English

encroachment from the east.

The Tonkawa paid dearly for their protection at the missions where Apache raids and

smallpox decimated the tribe. The Spanish abandoned the missions on the San Gabriel in

favor of a mission for the Lipan Apache at San Saba

Tonkawa war chief El Mocho and other Indians believed the Apache would use the mission

as a supply base for attacks on other tribes. El Mocho was a prime instigator of the

attack on the mission that destroyed it.

As offended as the Spanish were at this affront, the government was forced to recognize

El Mocho as the Tonka war chief. Smallpox had claimed Tonkawa peace chief Neques and

many of the elders, including some the Spanish had bribed to assassinate El Mocho.

After conferring him on the official title, the Spanish invited El Mocho to a

conference at the presidio of La Bah, where they killed him.

From that time on, the Tonkawa were considered among the most friendly of Indians not

only to the Spanish but also to the Texas settlers. Tonkawa proved especially valuable

as scouts in the Red River Wars in the Texas Panhandle.

The Tonkawa were described as slender and fleet afoot, able to walk or run long

distances with little or no food or water.

The Tonkawa ate fish and oysters, which most Plains Indians disdained, and they also

ate rabbits, skunks, rats, turtles and rattlesnakes. They were almost certainly

practiced ritualistic cannibalism, Comanche being their favorite human entree.

A reservation for the Tonkawa and other tribes was established on the Brazos River in

Young County but settlers, upset over recent Indian attacks against them, attacked the

reservation and killed many of the Indians living there.

In 1859, the Tonkawa were removed to a reservation in Indian territory where a group of

Delaware, Shawnee, Wichita, Caddo and other tribes attacked the Tonkawa to settle old

scores against the tribe. About half of the 300 native Tonkawa were killed in that

attack.

The Tonkawa straggled back to Texas and settled near Fort Griffin in Shackleford County

where they were used extensively as scouts in the last Indian wars in Texas.

When the Indian troubles were over, the Tonkawa were sent back to Indian territory,

where the surviving Tonkawa live today.

While the more aggressive tribes like the Comanche and Apache have survived in Texans'

memory as a noble enemy, the Tonkawa receive passing mention in most state histories.

Newcomb wrote that the Tonkawa had little to recommend them to memory, and what details

did survive, such as reports of cannibalism, did nothing to endear them to history.

'The southern plains were preempted by the Comanches, and soon the mission-weakened

Tonkawas were between a Comanche anvil on the west and the advancing hammer of the

American frontier on the east,' Newcomb wrote.

'Some other people might have made a better show of resistance, but such was not the

nature of the timid Tonkawa.'

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Clay Coppedge
and the
Temple Daily Telegram