780 



TONKA WA 



r B. A. E. 



the party was a composite one of Cad- 

 doan and Tonkawan tribes, such as in 

 later times frequently went against the 

 Apache. From this time forth tlie Ton- 

 kawa were generally friendly with the 

 Frencli (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 ) r. , Texas. As early 

 as 1740 the missionaries had thought of 

 taking them to San Antonio, but con- 

 sidered them too remote (Descripciun, 

 1740, MS. in Mem. de Nueva Espafia, 

 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 XdvkrdcIIorcds'dds). While 

 there tliey suffered from a terrible epi- 

 demic of smallpox and from Apache raids. 

 On the other hand, they deserted the mis- 

 sions to go with the Hasinai against the 

 Apache, and got the Spaniards into 

 trouble hy selling Apache captives to the 

 Hasinai. By 1756 these missions were 

 abandoned and the protecting garrison 

 was transferred to the new Li pan mission 

 of San Saba. 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 de- 

 struction 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 time their customary range was be- 

 tween tlie middle and upper Trinity on 

 the N. E., and the San Gabriel and the 

 Colorado on the s. w., rather above than 

 below the San Antonio road. Their favor- 

 ite headquarters were about halfway be- 

 tween Waco and the Trinity crossing of 

 the San Antonio road, near an eminence 

 known to the natives as the Turtle 

 (Mezieres, Informe, July 4, 1772; Letter 

 to Croix, May 28, 1778; Gil Ybarbo to 

 Cabello, Dec. 5, 1778; Croix, Relacion 

 Particular, 1778, MSS. See Tortugas). 

 Since they first became known, the Ton- 

 kawa had perhaps d rifted gradually south- 

 ward, though this is not certain. It was 

 true of the Wichita tribes for the same 

 period, and would be a logical consequence 

 of pressure by the Comanche and the 

 Osage. Yet the testimony before 1770 is 

 not conclusive. Du Rivage saw the Ton- 

 kawa near Eed r. , but this may have been 

 a temporary location. In 1740 they and 

 the Yojuane were reported to be "not far 

 from [the] Texas," but whether w. or n. 

 we are not told. When in 1752 De Soto 

 Vermudez 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 ( Ta- 

 wakoni), and that beyond them followed 

 the Tancaguies and Yujuanes. If the 

 direction was correctly given as north- 

 ward, the Tonkawa were then clearly 

 farther n. than their central rendezvous oi 

 a later date. Similarly a co]»y 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 fre- 

 quented the missions on the San Gabriel, 

 associating there with related tribes na- 

 tive of the locality, which would indicate 

 that it was within the usual Tonkawa 

 range. Moreover, when in 1768 Solis 

 crossed Texas from Bexar to Nacog- 

 doches, he noted in his diary after passing 

 the Brazos that in this neighborhood 

 lived Tancagues, Yojuanes, and INIayeyes. 

 It would seem, therefore, that when Me- 

 zieres wrote, the country of the Turtle had 

 for some time been for the Tonkawa the 

 middle of a l(ing range from n. e. to s. w. 

 After this time, as the Apache receded, 

 there was apparently considerable south- 

 westward extension of their range, though 

 for some years they had headquarters e. 

 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 

 Descripcion, 1740, op. cit.; De Soto Ver- 

 mudez, Investigation, MS. in Archivo 

 Gen., 1752; La Fora map in Dpto. de 

 Fomento, Mexico; Soli's, Diario, MS. in 

 Mem. de Nueva Espana, xxvii, 277; 

 Davenport, Noticia, 1809, MS. in Archivo 

 Gen.;Teran, Noticia, 1828, in Bol. Soc. 

 Geog. Mex., 1890; Powell's map in 7th 

 Rep. B. A. E.). 



Ct(stoms. — The Tonkawa always bore a 

 bad reputation among both Indians and 

 whites, although toward the Americans 

 they were uniformly at peace The char- 

 acteristics assigned to them liy Du Rivage 

 in 1719 are those most frequently men- 

 tioned in later times, when they became 

 better known. They were warlike wan- 

 derers, 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 by concurrent tradition and 

 history, by their designation in the sign 

 language, and by the names applied to 

 them i)y other tribes. Mezieres said of 



