Tonkawa

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The Titska Watitch or Tickanwatic ('Real, Real People'), better known as Tonkawa (read: 'TOHNK-ayh-wah', derived from the Waco tonk-a-weya - 'Those who stay together'), were a Native American tribe that originally lived in what is now east-central Texas . Many Tonkawa lived in Kay County , Oklahoma in the late 20th century . In the 15th century there were 5,000 tribal members, in the late 17th century 1,600 and in 1921 only 34. In 1993 the population had increased again to 186 people. Tonkawa is considered an isolated language, but some scholars assign it to the Hoka - Coahuilteco language.

history

The chiefs of the Tonkawa in 1898

Fight against the Apache

The Tonkawa first had contact with the Spanish conquistadors around 1530 . Between 1600 and 1700 they, like many other Texan tribes ( Caddo , Hasinai , Wichita , Jumano ), fell victim to the eastern Plains-Apache groups ( Jicarilla , Mescalero and Lipan ) advancing into the southern plains . The ongoing robbery and military campaigns of the mounted Apache had the consequence that they displaced the various groups of the Tonkawa and other tribes from the high plains and forced them to retreat further south. Around 1650, the Southern Plains, from the Dismal River in Nebraska in the north to the Colorado River in central Texas in the south, were the eastern part of the Gran Apacheria , the tribal area of ​​all Apache . The Tonkawa (in addition to the Wichita, Caddo and Pawnee living in the north ) were often sold by the Apache as slaves in eastern Texas to the French and in New Mexico to the Spanish. In the late 17th century, they also got into the colonial war between Spain and France, which was about control of Texas. But around 1700 the extremely warlike Comanche, together with the related Ute , advanced on the southern plains and made alliances with the Wichita, Caddo, Hasinai and the Tonkawa to wage war against the Apache on the plains. Through the alliance with the Wichita, the newly formed tribal alliance got French rifles, with the help of which they were superior to the Apache not only numerically but also technically.

Since the Apache were hated and isolated among all tribes due to their raids and slave hunts, they had to evade the now allied tribes more and more to the west, south-west and south. As a result, the Apache were increasingly forced to make a living through raids and looting of Indian and Spanish settlements, since access to the bison hunting grounds was becoming more and more difficult for them. In addition, the Apache came under pressure in the south, as the Spaniards forced several smaller tribes based in northern Mexico to settle either in missions or in settlements of neighboring presidios , in an alliance against the Apache. These tribes ( Sobaipuri , Akimel O'Odham , Tohono O'Odham , Opata , Coahuiltec , Karankawa and others) had to regularly provide auxiliary troops and scouts to the Spaniards in the fight against the Apache - and their settlements and families through the increasing raids of the Apache even threatened danger, the Spaniards (and later Mexicans and Americans) bravely and fearlessly supported them. From 1750, most of the eastern Apacheria had become the Comancheria , the dominion of the Comanche, who were now the so-called Lords of the Plains . This first had to be found out by their former allies, the Ute, who, after the displacement of the Jicarilla from the Plains, were soon viewed by the Comanche as rivals in the rich bison hunting grounds and in trade with the markets in New Mexico, and who are now bitter were fought. The Ute finally had to retreat mostly back to the mountains of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, where they formed a permanent defensive alliance against the Comanche, Kiowa , Kiowa-Apache with their former enemies, the Jicarilla .

Alliance with Lipan-Apache in the fight against the Comanche and Spaniards

The Tonkawa (as well as the Caddo and Pawnee) were no longer important for the Comanche as allies against the Apache and the interests and rivalries among the tribes began anew. The Comanche now inexorably robbed and warred the Tonkawa (they accused the Tonkawa of ritual cannibalism as a justification for their brutal campaigns - which had not previously bothered them). The Tonkawa now sought refuge with the Spanish and therefore lived near the San Gabriel Mission for some time before it was abandoned in 1758. In 1782, the Tonkawa formed an alliance with their former enemies, the Lipan Apache, under the leadership of El Mocho (a native Apache) . At a council meeting he organized with the Apache and Tonkawa, more than 4,000 warriors from both tribes came together. Thereupon they rose up against the Spanish colonial power. This rebellion could only be ended in 1784 when El Mocho was viciously murdered during peace negotiations in La Bahia, Texas. The Spaniards had also formed an anti-Apache alliance with the Comanche, Ute, Jicarilla, Diné (Navajo) and many settled tribes in Texas in 1786, aimed at the extermination and complete annihilation of the military power of the Mescalero and Lipan. Due to the alliance with the Lipan-Apache, the Tonkawa had placed themselves outside this pan-Indian-Spanish alliance and had suffered particularly from the campaigns of the anti-Apache alliance.

Scouts for Texans and Americans against Texas Plains Tribes

After Mexican independence in 1821, the Tonkawa and the Lipan-Apache became allies of the Anglo-Texans against the Comanche, Kiowa and Waco . In the fall of 1855, the Tonkawa were assigned two small reservations on the Clear Fork Brazos River along with Caddo , Kichai (also Keechi or Kitsai) , Waco , Tawakoni and Penateka-Comanche . Despite their alliance with the Texas Rangers against the hostile Southern Plains tribes, Texans raided the reservations, so that in 1857 the Tonkawa were brought to Fort Cobb on the Washita River in Indian Territory . When the Tonkawa were working as scouts for the US Army in 1859, American settlers again attacked their reservation, so that about 300 Tonkawa were again relocated to the Wichita reservation near Anadarko .

Tonkawa massacre

The so-called Tonkawa Massacre (October 23-24, 1862) occurred after an attack on the Confederate-held Wichita Agency in Fort Sill near Anadarko in Oklahoma , when a war troop of tribes loyal to the Union attacked the agency, the home of approx. 300 members of Tonkawa, which in the American Civil war on the side of the Confederates fought. Confederate Indian agent Leeper and several whites were killed during the attack on the Confederate Agency. After this attack, the Tonkawa attempted to flee south towards Confederate Fort Arbuckle , but were caught up on October 24 before they could escape to safety inside the fort. In the resulting massacre, an estimated 137 men, women and children, including Plácido ( Ha-shu-ka-na - 'You cannot kill him'), were killed. There are different accounts of the tribes who committed the Tonkawa massacre - Caddo , Shawnee , Lenni Lenape , Osage , Comanches , Kiowa and Seminoles are mentioned in different accounts.

Various reasons are given for the massacre, but there is some evidence that the main reason was the killing and ritual eating of two Shawnee in a cannibalistic ritual and the death and dismemberment of a Caddo boy, because the Tonkawa were cannibals among the neighboring tribes notorious. Others think it is their sympathy with the Confederate States of America. However, relations between the Tonkawa and neighboring tribes had been hostile for years for a variety of reasons, including the fact that the Tonkawa fought as scouts for the Texas Rangers and collectively against the tribes fighting for their freedom and homeland, including the Kiowa and Comanche, fought.

Many of the surviving Tonkawa fled to Confederate Fort Arbuckle, then in 1863 to Confederate Fort Belknap , Texas. The massacre completely demoralized the remnants of the Tonkawa, who lived in misery in Fort Belknap without a strong chief.

Reservations

The surviving Tonkawa were eventually resettled with the allied Lipan Apache at Fort Griffin, Texas, to protect them from total annihilation. In 1884, 92 tribe members, including the Lipan Apache, were temporarily relocated to the Sauk Fox Agency and then to Fort Oakland in the former Nez Percé Reserve, Oklahoma, in the spring of 1885 . This reserve was dissolved in 1896 and the land was released to white settlers.

In 1891, 73 Tonkawa members were allocated 994.33 acres (approx. 4.00 km²) of land and an additional 238.24 (approx. 0.9 km²) in individual parcels near the former Fort Oakland, today's Tonkawa , approx. 20 km west of Ponca City and approximately 160 km north of Oklahoma City . In 1908 there were only 48 tribe members, including some Lipan Apache who were married in. Today's reservation covers approx. 5.00 km², the tribal administration is located on the west bank of the Chikaskia River, approx. 4.00 km southeast of the township of Tonkawa and is now home to approx. 600 people, 481 of whom are officially registered tribal members.

Today the descendants of Tonkawa and some are Lipan Apache as the Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma one of the federal government recognized Indian tribe ( federally Recognized tribe ) with authorization for services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). In addition to several stores, the tribe also operates two casinos - the Tonkawa Indian Casino in Tonkawa, Oklahoma and the Native Lights Casino in Newkirk, Oklahoma. Today the Tonkawa language is extinct, and Apache is no longer spoken by the members. Most of the Tonkawa dances and chants have been lost. Most of the tonkawa on the reservation live below the poverty line.

Tonkawa groups

The Tonkawa were an amalgamation of several tribes, many of which are no longer known by name today. The following groups are generally counted among the Tonkawa:

  • Awash
  • Choyopan
  • Shark whale
  • Hatchuknni
  • Kwesh
  • Nilhailai
  • Ninchopen
  • Pakani
  • Pakhalateh
  • Sanukh
  • Talpkweyu
  • Titskanwatichatak.

Culture

The Tonkawa knew numerous divine beings. They may have been involved in cannibalism for religious reasons. Psychotropic plants ( peyote ) have played a role in their religious ceremonies since they were taken over from central Mexico (see also: Spread of the peyote cult ) .

The Tonkawa inhabited a cultural transition zone between plains, prairie and desert cultures and had therefore adopted many elements of the neighboring Caddo culture in the east, the plains culture in the north of the Apache and later the Comanche and the Coahuiltecan culture of northern Mexico.

Today their mother tongue has died out and their culture has been lost. Some Tonkawa are members of the Native American Church .

Commons : Tonkawa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Web links

literature

  • Barry M. Pritzker: A Native American Encyclopedia, History, Culture and Peoples. Oxford Univ. Press, 2000, ISBN 0-19-513877-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Handbook of North American Indians: Plains by Raymond DeMallie, William Sturtevant, p. 955.
  2. ^ Contrary Neighbors: Southern Plains and Removed Indians in Indian Territory by David La Vere p. 171.
  3. ^ Historical Atlas of Oklahoma by Charles Robert Goins, Danney Goble, John Wesley Morris p. 87.
  4. ^ The Indians of Texas: From Prehistoric to Modern Times by WW Newcomb, p. 359.
  5. ↑ Tonkawa Tribe of Oklahoma ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tonkawatribe.com
  6. ^ Website of the Tonkawa Indian Casino
  7. ↑ Native Lights Casino website

This article is based on the article Tonkawa ( memento of July 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) from the free encyclopedia Indianer Wiki ( memento of March 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) and is under Creative Commons by-sa 3.0 . A list of the authors was available in the Indian Wiki ( Memento from July 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).