BULL. 30] 



TAWAKONI 



703 



markable for its numerous springs and 

 creeks. It seems that tiiis was the vil- 

 lage that in 1772 had been on the Trinity, 

 since for nearly half a century we do not 

 hear of the Trinity village (Mezieres, 

 Carta, in Mem. de Nueva Espafia, xxviii, 

 274-5). The lower village Mezieres 

 called Quiscat (q. v.), or El Quiscat, ap- 

 parently from its head chief, a name 

 which it kept at least as late as 1795. 

 Morfi (Hist. Tex., ca. 1782, MS.) errone- 

 ously (?) says that Quiscat was a village of 

 Kichai and Yscani. The upper village 

 was called Flechazo, and the inhabitants 

 Flechazos, which often appears as a tribal 

 name (Cabello, Informe, 1784, MS; Leal, 

 Noticia, July 10, 1794. See also Fle- 

 chazos) . 



The Tawakoni and the Waco speak dia- 

 lects of the Wichita language and some- 

 times have been considered the same 

 people. Mezieres remarked that they 

 lived apart only for convenience in 

 hunting (Informe, July 14, 1772, MS.; 

 Courbiere, Kelacion Clara, 1791, Bexar 

 Archives, MS.). This language, though 

 kindred, is very distinct from that of 

 their relatives, the Hasinai and the Ka- 

 dohadacho, as was noted in the state- 

 ment by an official at Nacogdoches in 

 1765 that two Hasinai chiefs "served 

 as interpreters in their language, which 

 I know, of what it was desired to ask the 

 chief of the Taguais [Tawehash] nation, 

 called Eiasiquiche" (Testiuionio de los 

 Diligencias, Bexar Archives, Prov. of 

 Texas, 1754-76). In connectiun with the 

 ethnological relations of the Tawakoni, 

 the Waco require mention. They were 

 apparently simply one of the Tawakoni 

 villages, perhaps the Quiscat of Mezieres' 

 day. The name Waco has not been 

 noted in early Spanish documents, nor 

 does it occur at all, it seems, until the 

 19th century, when it is first applied by 

 Americans to Indians of the village on 

 the site of modern Waco, who are dis- 

 tinguished from those called Tawakoni 

 living only 2 m. below (Stephen F. Aus- 

 tin, ca. 1822, Austin pajjers, Class D.; 

 Thos. M. Duke to Austin, June, 1824, 

 ibid.. Class P). 



The hereditary enemies of the Tawa- 

 koni were the Comanche, Osage, and 

 Apache, but toward the end of the 18th 

 century and thereafter the Comanche 

 wei-e frequenth' counted as allies. The 

 hostility of the Tawakoni toward the 

 Apache was implacable, and Apache cap- 

 tives were frequently sold by them to the 

 French of Louisiana (Macartij, letter, 

 Sept. 23, 1763). With the Hasinai and 

 Caddo, as well as the Tonkawa and Bidai, 

 the Tawakoni were usually at peace. 

 Their villages were market places for the 

 Tonkawa and a refuge for many apostate 

 Jaraname (Aranama) from Bahia del 

 Espiritu Santo. 



As in former times, the Tawakoni re- 

 semble in methods of agriculture and 

 house-building the other tribes of the 

 Wichita confederacy (q. v. ). The Span- 

 ish town of Bucareli on the Trinity de- 

 pended on them in part for food. Austin 

 (op. cit. ) reported at the Waco village 

 about 200 acres of corn fenced in with 

 brush fences. According to Mezieres 

 (Informe, July 4, 1772) the Tawakoni 

 ate their captives after the cruelest tor- 

 ture and left their own dead unburied in 

 the open prairie. 



Until about 1770 the Tawakoni, though 

 friendly toward the French, were hostile 

 to the Spaniards. In 1753, and several 

 times thereafter, they were reported to 

 be plotting with the Hasinai to kill all 

 the Spaniards of e. Texas ( De Soto Ver- 

 mudez, Investigation; Mezieres to Fr. 

 Abad, 1758, MS.). The founding of San 

 Sabd mission for the Apache increased 

 this hostility of the Tawakoni, and in 

 1758 they took part with the Comanche, 

 Tawehash, and others in the destruction 

 of the mission. In 1760 Father Cala- 

 horra, of Nacogdoches, made a treaty of 

 peace with the Tawakoni and Waco, 

 but they soon broke it. During the next 

 two years Calahorra made them other 

 visits and got them to promise to enter 

 a mission. Subsequently the mission 

 project was often discussed, but never 

 materialized (Testimonio de Diligencias, 

 Bexar Archives, Prov. of Texas, 1759-76). 



The transfer of Louisiana to Spain 

 wrought a revolution in the relations be- 

 tween the Spaniards and the Tawakoni 

 and other tribes. In 1770 Mezieres, an 

 expert Indian agent, and now a Spanish 

 officer, met the Tawakoni and other 

 tribes at the Kadohadacho village and 

 effected a treaty of peace in the name of 

 the governors of Louisiana and Texas 

 (Mezieres, Relacion, Oct. 21, 1770). In 

 1772 he made a tour among these new 

 allies and conducted the chiefs to Bexar, 

 where, by the Feather dance, they rati- 

 fied the treaty before Gov. Ripperdd. 

 This friendship was cemented by a more 

 liberal trading policy introduced by Gov. 

 Oreilly of Louisiana (Mezieres, Informe, 

 July 4, 1772). The Tawakoni were now 

 relied upon to force the Aranama (Jara- 

 name) back to their mission and to re- 

 strain the more barbarous Tonkawa and 

 induce them to settle in a fixed village, 

 which was temporarily accomplished 

 (Mem. de Nueva Espana, xxviii, 274). 

 Friendly relations remained relatively 

 permanent to the end of the Spanish 

 regime. In 1778 and 1779 Mezieres made 

 two more visits to the Tawakoni villages. 

 In 1796 the Tawakoni sent representa- 

 tives to the City of Mexico to ask for a 

 mission, and the matter was seriously 

 discussed but decided negatively (Archi- 

 ve Gen., Prov. Intern., xx, MS.). About 



