TONKAWA
778
TONKAWA
In 1719 the historian La Harpe stopped at the Tonica
village and found Father Davion still there and " very
much revered", although preaching fearlessly against
their polygamy and heathen ceremonials. They had
given up theii' worst heathenisms and the head chief,
with his famOy, was a daily attendant at the sermons.
Charlevoix visited their principal town in 1721 and
describes the chief, Cahura-Joligo, as devoted to the
French, wearing civiUzed dress, wealthy, and having
the full confidence of the commandants. The houses
were built around an open space used for games.
Father Davion had some time before left them for
the last time, in despair at their indifference, and not-
withstanding their afTection for him, which was not
disturbed even when in his zeal on one occasion, he
had burned their sacred fire temple.
In the various difficulties with the powerful Nat- chez, beginning in 1716, the Tonica, almost alone of the Indian tribes, rendered efficient service to the French. In the final war, beginning in 1729, they again supported the French. In retaliation a large body of fugitive Natchez, aided by the Chickasaw and Koroa, fell upon the Tonica (1731) and defeated them in a desperate battle, killing their best warriors and their head chief Cahur-JoUgo. They never recovered from this blow. In 1758 they still counted about 250 souls in a village above Pointe Couple but some time between 1784 and 1803 the remnant removed to the neighbourhood of Marksville, LouLs- iana, on the Red River, where some thu-ty mixed bloods stiU remain, besides a few others scattered in the Choctaw Nation, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. In 1886 Dr. Albert Gatschet of the Bureau of American Ethnology collected from the survivors the first recorded vocabulary of the language, by which he was enabled to classify it as constituting a distinct stock. This was supplemented in 1909 by Dr. John R. Swanton, of the same Bureau, who also obtained several interesting mj'ths. The Tonica were an agricultural tribe and in arts, customs and general culture closely resembled their neighbours, theNatchez and Taensa. Both sexes had the head artificially flattened, went nearly naked except on ceremonial occasions, and wore the hair at full length down the back. The men did most of the heavy work, spend- ing most of their time in the corn fields and rarely hunting, so that they ate but httle meat. They buried in the ground and kept a light burning, and a watch beside the grave for fom' nights until the soul was supposed to have reached the spirit world. They had a temple with a sacred fire, and according to Father Gravier, had nine principal gods, viz. the Sun, Thunder, Fire and the gods of the four cardinal points, Sky, and Earth. There is no record of the bloody rites characteristic of the Natchez and Taensa.
French, Hist. Colls, of Louisiana (New York, 1851) ; Le P.vge DtT Pratz, Hist, de la Louisiane (3 vols., Paris, 1758); Eng. tr. (London, 1763, 1774) ; Dicouvertes et etabtissements des fran^ais (Penicaut, Iberville, Sauiulli), vd. .Mabqry (6 vols., Paris, 1879- 86); .Shea, Disc, and Kj ' ' 1/, .. Valley (New York, 1852; Albany, 1903); Idem, // ' /■../tan Aftssions (New York,
1855, 1870); Sibley. / ,' m Louisiana (Washington,
1806, with Message fr. -i i ['r -i !. m; rommunicating discoveries by Lewis and Clark); .Swanton. Indian Tribes of the Lower Mt.fsissippi (Bull. 43, Bureau Am. Ethnology, Washington, 1911).
James Moonet.
Tonkawa Indians. — A tribal group or confeder- acy, of low culture status and constituting a distinct linguistic stock, formerly ranging about the middle Trinity and Colorado Rivers, in Eastern Texas, and now represented by a single rapidly dwindling rem- nant of about forty souls. They may have numbered originally 2000 souls, including the Tonkawa proper, the Yojuane, Mayeye, Ervipiame, and others. The origin and meaning of the name Tonkawa are un- known. They call themselves Tilskan-u-atich, "na- tives". They were inveterate rovers, planting
nothing, but subsisting entirely by the buffalo and
other game, the fruit of the mesquite and cactus, and
wild roots. They dwelt in buffalo skin tipis or brush-
wood shelters, were notable horsemen, and carried the
bow, spear, shield, with the usual head-dress of feath-
ered cap and buffalo horns on ceremonial occasions.
They were superior hunters and brave and active
warriors, but were hated by all the neighbouring
tribes by reason of their cannibal habit, on account of
which they were universally known among the other
Indians as the "Man Eaters". Of their cannibal
jiractices there is abundant record and it is this pro-
pensity which led to their outiawTy and final destruc-
tion. Almost nothing is known of their myths and
ritual, beyond the fact that they had a Wolf Dance
and claimed the wolf as an ancestor. They were
also leaders in the ritual cult of the peyote, a cactus
eaten with ceremonial accompaniment to produce
waking visions.
The Tonkawa are first mentioned by name in a Spanish document of 1691. In 1719 they first became known to the French through La Haye's expedition into what is now Eastern Oklahoma. In response to their request, the Franciscan Father Francisco Ano de los Dolores in 1748 established for their benefit the Mission of San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas on San Xavier (now San Gabriel) River, about nine miles north-west of the present Rockdale Nilamco, Texas. Shortly afterward the Tonkawa together with other tribes of Central Texas, were greatly wasted by a smallpox epidemic. The mission also suffered from the attacks of the Lipan Apache, in consequence of which and another epidemic most of the inmates were removed to a mission on Guadalupe River about 1755. Another band of the same connexion, the Ervipiame, established on request of their chief in the Rlission of San Francisco-Xavier de Ndxera on San Antonio River in 1722, had later been consoli- dated with the larger body at the second San Xavier. With the decline and abandonment of the Texas missions, 1790-1800, the mission Indians for the most part rejoined their tribes and relapsed into barba- rism. In 1778 the Tonkawa were still estimated at about 1200 souls, but another smallpox epidemic immediately thereafter cut them down one-half. In 1855 the Government settled them, with several other tribes, on a reservation on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, but in consequence of the opposition of the Texans it was found necessary to remove them in 1857 to a new reservation on Washita River, Okla- homa, the Tonkawa camp being just above the present Anadarko. Taking advantage of the confusion of the Civil War, a combination of the neighbouring tribes — who had a hatred toward the Tonkawa on account of their cannibalism and their activity as scouts for the troops — surprised the Tonkawa camp in a night attack, 25 October, 1862, kilhng 137 out of a total of 305. They never recovered from this blow. After years as refugees about Fort Griffin, Texas, under military protection, the remnant numbering only 90, were gathered together in 1884 and again removed to a small reservation in Oklahoma, near the present Ponca. They are now citizens, with lands allotted in severalty. Our knowledge of the Tonkawa language is based chiefly on Gatschet's studies of manuscript material with the Bureau of American Ethnology.
Bolten's Zonkawa, San Francisco Xavier de Horca- sitas. etc., in Handbook of Am. Inds., ed. HonoE. for Bull. Bur. .im. Ethnology (Washington. 1907-10); Annual liepts. Commissioner of Ind. Affairs (Washington); Gatschet, Remarks upon the Tonkawa Language in Am. Philos. Soc. Proc. (Phila., 1877); La Mate, Journal historique. etc. (New Orleans. 1831). tr. in French Hist. Colls, of La., Ill (New York, 1851) ; Moonet, Our iMst Cannibal Tribe in Harper's Mao. (New York, Sept., 1901); Sibley, Hist. Sketches of the Ind. Tribes in La., etc., with original Presidential Message conveying report of Leuns and Clark discoveries (Washington, 1S06).
James Moonev.
