The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 376
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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376
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
[Tonkawa],"5 by whom he had been very well received. He learned
from them that they just had had a battle with a part of the Cancy
into Texas and settled along the Brazos River in two villages, known in the last
half of the eighteenth century as El Quiscat and the Flechazos. These were in the
neighborhood of Waco. Stephen F. Austin, in the middle i82o's, wrote that the main
Waco village had thirty-three grass huts, scattered over about forty acres, and that
they had about 1oo men. An earthwork used for their defense as late as 1829 was to
be seen much later at present Waco, Texas. The United States-Wichita treaties of
1835, 1846, and 1872, when the Wichita Reservation of Oklahoma was established,
included the Wacos. In 1902 the government granted land allotments to them, and
they became citizens.
5sAnother group considered as Wacos.
6oThe Tonkawas were a prominent tribe that formed a linguistic family compos-
ing such sub-tribes as the Yojuane, Mayeye, and Eruipiame. When first known to
the Spaniards and French they were living in Oklahoma. Thereafter the Tonkawas
were hostile to the Apaches, a fact that caused them to be generally at peace and
in alliance with the Wichitas, Comanches, and Hasinais, as well as the Bidai,
Arkokisa, and the Xaraname of the Texas coast, and the many Coahuiltecan tribes
in southwest Texas. As their relations with the Comanches and Wichitas were
sometimes strained in the 18oo's, the Tonkawas became friends of the Lipan Apaches
and enemies of the Comanches and Wichitas. Francisco de Jesds Maria mentioned
the Yojuane, a Tonkawan tribe, among the enemies of the Hasinais of 1691. In 1714
they destroyed the Hasinais' main fire temple. It was through Du Rivage and La
Harpe, in 1719, that they became known to the French. The Tonkawas moved
southward into Texas. Their favorite location in 1770 was between Waco and the
Trinity at a hill called La Tortuga. In 1740 Spanish missionaries considered leading
them to the San Antonio missions, but they were too remote. Between 1746 and
1749 the Franciscan fathers established three missions on the San Gabriel River in
present Milam County, Texas, for them. The natives left the missions, which the
Spaniards abandoned; in 1758 the Tonkawas joined the Comanches, Wichitas, and
Hasinais in the destruction of the San Saba mission founded for the Apaches. The
Tonkawas tended to drift southward before Comanche and Osage pressure, and
became a southwest Texas tribe in the nineteenth century. They were warlike,
nomadic, raised no or few crops, lived on game, followed buffalo long distances,
and bore a bad reputation among the other Indians for their cannibalism; they
were uniformly at peace with Americans, were ill-natured, despised by other tribes,
were notorious for thievery, lived in scattered villages in skin tepees, were fine
horsemen and used bows, arrows, spears, leather jackets, shields, and helmets on
which were worn horns and plumage. Writing of their dependence upon the buffalo,
Athanase de Mezibres said: "The buffalo alone, besides its flesh, which takes first
place among healthful and savory meats, supplies them liberally with whatever they
desire in the way of conveniences. The brains they use to soften skins; the horns for
spoons and drinking vessels; the shoulder bones to dig and to clear off the land; the
tendons for thread and for bow-strings; the hoofs, as glue for arrows; from the
mane they make ropes and girths; from the wool, garters, belts, and various orna-
ments. The skin furnishes harness, lassos, shields, tents, shirts, leggins, shoes, and
blankets for protection against the cold." Athanase de M6zibres to Theodoro Croix,
September 22, 1779, in H. E. Bolton (ed.), Athanase de Mdzibres and the Louisiana-
Texas Frontier, 1768-1780 (2 vols.; Cleveland, 1914), II, 280. For about half a gener-
ation after the fall of the San Gabriel missions, the Spaniards regarded the Tonkawas
as open enemies. In the 1770's, through De M6zibres, Nicolas de la Mathe, Antonio
Gil Ibarvo, and Andrds de Courbi&re, they won the Tonkawas over and used them
as a balance to maintain peace with other tribes. In 1778 they were estimated to
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959, periodical, 1959; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101173/m1/443/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.