NOTES ON THE HISTORY 
AND MATERIAL CULTURE 
OF THE 
TONKAWA INDIANS 
By William K. Jones 
Smithsonian Contributions 
to Anthropology 
VOLUME 2, NUMBER 5 

SMITHSONLiN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY 
VOLUME 2, Number 5 
Notes on the History and 
Material Culture of the 
Tonka^wa Indians 
William K. Jones 
SMITHSONIAN PRESS 
Washington: 1969 
A Publication of the 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 
United States National Museum 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CARD 71-601221 
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFHCE, WASHINGTON : 1969 
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office 
Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 55 cents 
Acknowledgments 
Appreciation is expressed to the National Endovraient for the Humanities 
which, through its intern program, provided the financial support for my research 
and to John G. Ewers, senior ethnologist for the Smithsonian Institution, who 
suggested the study and guided my work. Many others aided, including Mr. George 
S. Metcalf, supervisor of the Processing Laboratory of the Smithsonian Office of 
Anthropology, Miss Helen R. Purde, assistant curator of the Armed Forces Institute 
of Pathology Medical Museum and Mrs. Sarah Jackson, of the National Archives 
and Records Service. For their technical information, my thanks to Mrs. Roxie G. 
Laybourne, zoologist, Bird and Mammal Laboratory, Division of Wild Life Re?
search, Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wild Life, Department of Interior; Dr. Richard 
N. Jorgensen, principal wood technologist, Forest Products and Engineering Divi?
sion, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture; and Dr. Elson B. Helv/ig, patholo?
gist, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. 

Contents 
Page 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii 
NOTES ON THE HISTORY AND MATERIAL CULTURE OF THE TONKAWA INDIANS . . 65 
OBJECT DESCRIPTION 74 
CONCLUSIONS 77 
LITERATURE CITED 79 
Illustrations 
(Follow page 70) 
FIGURES 
1. Assistant Surgeon Henry McElderry, United States Army. Collector of 
the Tonkawa material described in this paper 
2. Tonkawa quiver, bow, and arrows 
3. Tonkawa arrow 
4. Top, Tonkawa bow; middle, rattle or "haw-whootes"; bottom, girdle 
5. Tonkawa bow and five arrows 
6. Tonkawa trade tomahawk 
7. Tonkawa trade tomahawk, detail of head 
8. Tinder pouch and striker 
9. Tonkawa wooden scraper handle 
10. Tonkawa war drum and drum sticks 
11. Tonkawa otter skin girdle 
12. Top, Tonkawa head ornament; bottom, head ornament 
13. Tonkawa head ornament 
14. Tonkawa dolls, front view 
15. Tonkawa dolls, back view 
16. Tonkawa George Miles, an old army scout and the last chief of the 
Tonkawa 
17. Tonkawa woman, Ocoya, wife of Standing Buffalo 
18. Tonkawa shelter, Ponca Agency, Oklahoma, 1901 
19. Tonkawa Lamar Richard's house, Ponca Agency, 1901 
MAPS 
1. Historic locations of the Tonkawa Indians 
2. Location of the Tonkawa Massacre in 1862 
3. Location of the Tonkawa Indian village near Fort Griffin Reserve, 
Texas, in 1871 

Notes on the History and Material Culture of the 
Tonka^wa Indians 
By William K. Jones 
One of the litde-known tribes of central Texas was 
the Tonkawa. Few objects made and used by the 
Tonkawa are preserved in museum collections, and no 
description of traditional Tonkawa material culture, 
based upon a study of actual specimens, has appeared 
in the literature. Nevertheless, a small but unique col?
lection of Tonkawa materials has been a part of the 
ethnological collections of the Smithsonian Institution 
for a century. I t is unique, not only because it is the 
earliest known Tonkawa collection, antedating the 
extermination of the bison on the Southern Plains, 
but also because the time, place, and conditions under 
which the collection was made in the field are well 
documented. In order to place this collection in a 
meaningful cultural and chronological context I have 
prefaced my description of the specimens with a brief 
historical sketch of the Tonkawa, with particular 
emphasis upon the years immediately preceding the 
acquisition of these materials by Dr. McElderry at 
Fort Griffin, Texas, in 1868. 
Although the Tonkawa call themselves Titskan 
wdtitch, "the most human people," the tribal name is 
derived from the Waco name for these people, Tonka-
weya, meaning "they all stay together." The Co?
manche and Kiowa, northwestern neighbors and 
longtime enemies of the Tonkawa, knew them by 
names which, in translation, meant "man-eating 
men" or "maneaters." The Tonkawan language 
apparently was affiliated with Karankawa, Come-
crudo, and Cotoname through the common Co-
ahuiltecan stock, although too litde is known of the 
languages of those extinct tribes to establish with 
certainty the closeness of their relationship to 
Tonkawan. 
Available data on Tonkawa population, covering a 
period of nearly 200 years, indicate that the Tonkawa 
were not a large tribe. A Spanish estimate in 1778 
gives 300 warriors. Sibley estimated the Tonkawa at 
but 200 men in 1805, and the tribal population con?
tinued to decline thereafter. Heavy war losses, epi?
demics, and loss of tribal identity through marriages 
outside the tribe, as well as other factors, contributed 
to this decline. Of the sixty-two Tonkawa Indians 
on the tribal rolls in 1961, only three individuals were 
believed to be fullblood Tonkawa. (Swanton, 1952, 
p. 327; Hasskarl, 1962, p. 228.) 
If archeological evidence of the Tonkawa exists, 
it may be represented in the Toyah Focus of the Cen?
tral Texas Aspect. Dr, Edward B. Jelks states that if 
the Toyah Focus material excavated at the Kyle Site, 
located on the Brazos River just above Whitney Dam 
in Hill County, Texas, can be related to a historic 
group, it is probably Tonkawa and/or Jumano. But 
he also believes that this focus may have come to an 
end in the late prehistoric period and another, yet 
undescribed, group may have taken its place. This 
later group, represented by triangular arrow points, 
Goliad Plain pottery, and other artifact styles, "may 
represent the archeological remains of the historic 
and protohistoric Tonkawa . . . ." Radiocarbon dates 
from the Toyah Focus at the Kyle Site range from 
A.D. 1276 ?165 years to A.D. 1561 ?130 years. 
(Jelks, 1962, p. 99.) 
The historic record of the Tonkawa Indians begins 
with Francisco de Jesus Maria. In 1691 he included 
them with the Yojuane as enemies of the Hasinai. 
(Hodge, 1910, p. 779.) Earlier meetings between the 
Tonkawas and Europeans are questionable. Cabeza de 
Vaca may have encountered a Tonkawa subgroup in 
his flight through Texas in 1542, and Joutel of 
65 
66 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 
LaSalle's party reported hearing about a group called 
the Meghy, possibly the Mayeye, another subgroup, 
in 1687. (Sjoberg, 1953, p. 281.) 
The first French encounter came in 1719, when 
Benard de la Harpe, while carrying out orders to 
enter into trade with the Spanish and to explore 
western Louisiana, came into contact with the 
Tancaoye, the Tonkawa. M. Du Rivage, La Harpe's 
lieutenant, met these Indians, along with representa?
tives of several other tribes seventy leagues up the 
Red River from Kadohadocho. (Smith, 1959, p. 375-
76.) Herbert E. Bolton, in his discussion of the 
Tonkawa in the Handbook of the American Indians, 
states that the Red River may have been a temporary 
location for the Tonkawa. (Hodge, 1910, p. 780.) 
During the early period of Spanish contact with the 
Tonkaway-speaking Mayeye, Yojuane, Ervipiane, 
and Tonkawa, these Indians were living a nomadic 
life along a broad belt from the San Antonio River on 
the southwest to the Neches River on the northeast 
and extending out about 125 miles either side of the 
Camino Real between San Antonio and Nacogdoches. 
They are reported being seen frequently along this 
road between 1727 and 1730, and from 1745 to 
1762 three missions were established for the Tonkawas 
on the San Xavier River, San Gabriel River today. 
(See Map 1.) (Bolton, 1914b, p . 327.) 
Up to the late 1750s relations between the Tonkawa 
and Spanish were fairly peaceful, but in the spring of 
1758 the Tonkawa for the only time in their history 
joined the Comanches to attack the Lipan Mission, 
on the San Saba River, near the present town of 
Menard, Texas. (Dunn, 1914, p. 404?11.) During the 
next ten years the Tonkawa lived along the San 
Gabriel River. On 4 July, 1772, Athanase de Mezieres 
sent a letter to Baron de Ripperda, governor of 
Texas, in which he describes the Tancaques, Tonkawa, 
as abhorred vagabonds, " a people without fixed 
homes, of undeveloped language, and disposed to 
thievery." (Bolton, 1914a, pp. 289-90.) At this time 
they were living between the Trinity and Brazos 
Rivers. 
Seven years later de Mezieres, writing to Theodore 
de Croix, commandant-general of the Interior 
Provinces, described a group of Tonkawas with 
whom he was traveling in the area of the San Andres 
River, Little River today. On this trip with Chief 
Mocho and seventy-five of his people, de Mezieres 
observed their dependence on hunting and gathering. 
The most important animal to the Tonkawa, as with 
the other Plains tribes, was the buffalo. In de Mezieres' 
letter to de Croix he describes their relationship to 
the buffalo as follows: 
In truth, one cannot exaggerate the inestimate benefits for 
which these natives are indebted to divine providence. The 
buffalo alone, besides its flesh, which takes first place among 
healthful and savory meats, supplies them liberally with what?
ever 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 hoof, as glue for arrows; from 
the mane they make ropes and girths; from the wool, garters, 
belts, and various ornaments. The skin furnishes harness, lassos, 
shields, tents, shirts, leggins, shoes, and blankets for protection 
against the cold?truly valuable treasures, easily acquired, 
quietly possessed, and lighdy missed, which liberally supply an 
infinite number of people, whom we consider poverty-stricken, 
with an excess of those necessities which perpetuate our struggles, 
anxieties, and discords. (Bolton, 1941a, p. 279-80). 
In the same letter de Meziere describes the offensive 
weapons and defensive armament carried by these 
people. The former are firearms, bows, and spears; 
the latter of "skins, shields, and leather helmets with 
horns and gaudy feathers." (Ibid, p. 278.) 
By 1778 the Mayeye division of the Tonkawa had 
separated themselves from the rest of the group and 
had moved to an area near the mouths of the Colorado 
and Brazos Rivers. Here they joined the Karankawan 
Cocos Indians and by 1805 were apparently com?
pletely incorporated into this tribe. During this same 
period the rest of the Tonkawan groups began to be 
considered a single tribe. (Sjoberg, 1953, p. 283.) 
The Tonkawa were wandering between the Trinity 
and Colorado Rivers in 1805. The approximately 200 
men of the tribe are described as good hunters prey?
ing primarily on buffalo and deer. They used the 
bow and were excellent horsemen. Their relationship 
with the Spanish seemed alternately friendly and 
hostile, and their economy was still based on gathering 
wild fruit and hunting. They are described as a 
physically strong, athletic people. (Sibley, 1832, p. 
723.) 
Two years later, while his Spanish captors were 
escorting him across Texas along the San Antonio 
Road, Zebulon Montgomery Pike became the first 
American to meet and to describe the Tonkawa, 
O n 16 June 1807, he encountered several near a small 
Spanish station on the Colorado River. The next day 
he visited a large encampment of more than forty 
lodges. He described the Indians as follows: 
The Tancards (Tonkawas) are a nation of Indians who rove on 
the banks of Red river (Colorado), and are 600 men strong. 
They follow the buffalo and wild horses, and carry on a trade 
with the Spaniards. They are armed with the bow, arrow, and 
lance. They are erratic and confined to no particular district: 
are a tall, handsome people, in conversation have a peculiar 
clucking, and express more by signs than any savages I ever 
visited: and in fact, language appears to have made less progress. 
They complain much of their situation and the treatment of the 
Spaniards; are extremely poor, and except the Appaches, were 
the most independent Indians we encountered in the Spanish 
territories. They possess large droves of horses. (Jackson, 1966, 
p. 79.) 
NUMBER 5 JONES: TONKAWA INDIANS 67 
Samuel Davenport in an 1809 report on the Indian 
populations in the Interior Provinces of Mexico 
stated that the Tancahuos, Tonkawa, ranged between 
the Brazos and San Marcos Rivers, above and below 
the Camino Real. He estimated the population at 
250 men and their families. They were hunters 
preying on deer and buffalo and doing no planting. 
Davenport also stated that the Tonkawa generally 
formed two groups. (Davenport, 1809, p. 204.) 
Between 1809 and 1820 the Tonkawa were ranging 
along the middle and lower reaches of the Guadalupe, 
Colorado, and Brazos Rivers. In 1820 two statements 
assessing their military prowess appear. One is an 
unsigned and undated document attached to an 
AprU 1820 paper in the Arkansas Territorial Archives. 
This document states that the "Toncowas (Ton?
kawa), . . . are considered to be the most expert with 
fire arms, and warlike Indians of any in the Province 
of Texas." (U.S. Territorial Papers, 1820, p. 198.) The 
other statement is made with equal force that "they 
are not so warlike as those Indians (Comanche and 
Lipan) . . . ." I t goes on to say that they wiU fight and 
do not lack valor, but they are "lazier and greater 
knaves" than the Comanche and Lipan. (Padilla, 
1919, p . 56.) 
The settlement of American colonists in Texas 
revolutionized the Tonkawa way of life. Beginning 
in the 1820s and for the next thirty years the Tonkawa, 
as other Texas tribes, would be more and more limited 
in their movement over their traditional lands, and 
in the late 1850s they would be removed from Texas. 
When Stephen F. Austin and his party arrived in 
Texas in 1822, they found the Tonkawa camping 
along the west bank of the Brazos River in the area 
of present Washington County. The relationship be?
tween these Indians and their new white neighbors 
was sometimes congenial and sometimes strained. In 
the fall of 1823 Austin, writing to Lucian Garcia, 
governor and political chief of Texas, stated that: 
A party of Tancahue (Tonkawa) Indians have made, towards 
the middle of last September an incusion up this river, and 
stolen from citizens their horses, several of them of American 
breed and very valuable. At the same time another party of the 
same nation went down the river, where settiers live very scat?
tered, and compelled them to give them com, etc., etc., with 
threats to kill them (Barker, 1922a, p. 702.) 
Austin reported that he inarched against the Tonkawa 
and forced their chief to give up the stolen horses 
and to punish the marauders with a severe lashing 
"in my presence." Also the Tonkawas were ordered 
to leave the Colorado and Brazos and to stop stealing 
or they would be shot, (Ibid, p. 702,) 
During the early 1820s the Tonkawa became closely 
associated with a segment of the Lipan Apache. The 
two tribes apparently agreed that each could hunt 
on the other's land. As the whites became increasingly 
annoyed by the Tonkawa, they decided to assemble 
all of them and move them away from the white 
settled areas. At the time when the Tonkawa were 
about to be forced to move, a group of Lipan arrived 
with a letter firom Austin making them guardians 
over the Tonkawa, The Lipan reportedly took them 
to an area between the upper Nueces and the Rio 
Grande, Both tribes remained in this area for several 
years but eventually drifted back toward the coast 
and white settlements. (Sjoberg, 1953, p. 283.) 
By 1827 the Tonkawa and Lipan moved back into 
the more setded areas south of the San Antonio 
Road. In February 1827, James Kerr reported to 
Austin that he had heard of a batde in which the 
Comanche and Waco attacked a party of Lipan and 
"nearly all the Tonkawas" on the San Marcos River 
about nine miles above the town of Gonzalez. The 
Lipan and Tonkawa suffered a defeat and lost 
between five and six hundred horses. (Barker, 1922b, 
p. 1607.) Another battie fought the same year farther 
east on Yequa Creek, in present Washington County, 
apparently turned out to be a draw between the 
Tonkawa and Waco. (Hasskarl, 1962, p . 222.) 
In November 1827, the Supreme Government of 
Mexico appointed General Manuel de Mier y Ter^n 
to command a field party to explore Texas and to 
survey the boundary between Mexico and the United 
States. Among the men appointed to this expedition 
were Jean Louis Berlandier, a botanist and zoologist, 
and Jos6 Maria Sanchez, a draftsman. Both of these 
men left unique records of the Tonkawa of 1828. 
The Mexican boundary party met an aged Tonkawa 
between the Navidad and Colorado Rivers, probably 
in present Colorado County, Texas, on 21 April 1828. 
Sanchez estimates the age of the man at between 
seventy and eighty years. The elderly Tonkawa wore 
a piece of deer skin around his waist and a pair of 
tequs of the same material. The Spaniards, after feeding 
him, learned that the camp of his brother was nearby. 
Three of the party, including Berlandier, went to 
the Tonkawa camp that day. Sanchez and General 
Teran waited until the following day to visit the camp. 
Sanchez recorded what they saw in his diary. They 
arrived at the Tonkawa camp about eight o'clock in 
the morning. 
It was situated in the center of a thick grove at the entrance of 
which several horses were tied, apparendy all very good. On 
arriving at the edge of the camp, Losoya, a soldier in our escort, 
uttered the wzu* cry used by these Indians in battie, and immedi?
ately the whole camp was in motion several even started to 
mount their horses, but as soon as they saw who we were they 
became quiet. They till came out to see us, and, while the gen?
eral talked to the chief of the tribe, I examined these Indians 
about whom I obtained greater information later. Their huts 
were small and barely numbered thirty, cdl conical in shape, 
68 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 
made of light branches, covered with the same material and an 
occasional buffalo skin. In the center of each is located the 
fireplace around which lie the male Indians in complete inaction, 
while the women are in constant motion either curing the meat 
of the game, or tanning the skins, or preparing the food, which 
consists chiefly of roast meat, or perhaps making arms for their 
indolent husbands. The elder women work the hardest because 
the younger ones have a few moments of rest at the expense of 
the wretched elders. The men wear ear rings and other orna?
ments on their neck and hair, made of bone, shells, or showy 
feathers, while the women wear only black stripes on their 
mouth, nose, back and breast. On the breast the stripes are 
painted in concentric circles from the nipple to the base of each 
breast. They wear nothing but a dirty piece of deer skin around 
their waist, leaving the rest of their bodies naked, and wearing 
their hair short. This tribe is small and poor, being composed of 
eighty families, but they are brave friends of the Lipanes and 
other tribes foimd in the vicinity of Nacogdoches and deadly 
enemies of the Comanches, Tahuacanos (Tawakoni), and 
Wacos. (Sanchez, 1926, p . 268-70.) 
Sanchez also left a visual record of two Tonkawa 
men and one woman. From his original drawing 
Sanchez y Tapia later did a watercolor.^ The drawing 
shows a woman in a very short skirt and bare painted 
breasts. One of the men is wearing a long breech-
clout, and the other man is wearing a shirt over the 
upper part of his body. The shirt extends down to 
cover the groin and resembles early leather armor. If it 
is armor it is one of the last evidences of such gar?
ments on the Southern Plains. 
During the next several years the Tonkawas raided 
white settlements and Indian camps for horses. 
Occasionally they aided whites in campaigns against 
other tribes. With their allies, the Lipans, they were 
reported to be hunting between the Brazos and the 
Colorado Rivers, probably south of the Camino Real. 
(Sjoberg, 1953, p. 283.) 
After declaring her independence from Mexico on 
2 May 1836, the new Republic of Texas immediately 
faced the problem of dealing with her Indian popula?
tion. One of the first steps was to survey the new 
wards. On 12 October 1837, the newly formed Stand?
ing Committee on Indian Affairs, chaired by I. W. 
Burton, sent to President Sam Houston a list of the 
names and a brief description of the Indians within 
the borders of Texas. The Tonkawa, Lipan, and 
Karankawa are lumped together in this survey as 
part of Mexico and "no longer to be considered as a 
different People from that nation." The location of 
these tribes is given as the western part of Texas. 
(Winfrey, 1966, vol. 1, p. 28-29.) 
O n the twenty-second of the following month the 
Republic reversed its attitude toward the Tonkawa 
and entered into a treaty with them, setting up a 
trading agent who would control the intercourse 
between the Tonkawa and the people of Texas. This 
control included licensing traders who wanted to deal 
with the Indians. The treaty appointed Nathanial 
Lewis as trading agent. The signers were Ouchcala, 
Gosata, and Harshokena for the Tonkawa and Henry 
W. Karnes, Indian Commissioner, for Texas. (Ibid., 
p. 49.) 
Five months later the Texas government entered 
into another treaty with the Tonkawas. In Houston 
on 10 April 1838, Secretary of War Barnard E. Bee 
and Colonel George W. Hockley met with General 
Campos, Colonel Oquin, and Placido Benvido to 
sign a treaty of peace and amity between Texas and 
the Tonkawa. It allowed the government to appoint 
an agent to deal not only with trade but also with all 
facets of tribal business. During the following years 
the agent's duties devolved to simply trying to keep 
the Tonkawa out of the white settiements. The treaty 
also contained the usual stipulations against killing 
or stealing livestock. After the treaty was signed, 
Secretary Bee authorized the expenditure of twenty 
dollars for a beef to be given to the Tonkawa delegates, 
and they were sent back home. (Ibid., pp. 46-49.) 
On 22 August 1843, William Bollaert, an English 
traveler, met a Tonkawa man near the Colorado 
River and wrote an account of this encounter. The 
young man was clothed only with a "girdle round 
his loins and a long narrow strip of cloth hanging 
before and behind; his body painted with Vermil?
lion, . . . ." (Hollon, 1956, p . 188.) The Tonkawa 
was making a cabresto, a rope of the mane of a mus?
tang, for a local settier. O n the same day Bollaert 
visited the boy's camp. 
The camp was composed of four or five families 
and was headed by the Tonkawa chief Campos. 
Most of the people were drying venison and beef 
over slow fires to preserve it for traveling. Campos 
informed Bollaert that his people had just returned 
from a buffalo hunt in the mountains. What moun?
tains he is discussing here is questionable?he may 
have meant the Edwards Plateau. The chief told 
Bollaert that he would soon move his camp to the 
coast so that he could see the ocean and hunt mus?
tangs and deer. (Ibid., p. 189.) 
The following day BoUaert visited Bastrop on the 
Colorado River and in present-day Bastrop County. 
He noted: 
There is only one store for dry goods in the town, and this was 
full of Tonkeways, bartering their buffalo robes, deer skins, 
moccasins, etc., for powder, cotton stuffs, beads, and such like 
finery for their squaws, and an occasional bottle of wiskey from 
the tippling shop. This last is against executive orders. (Ibid., 
p . 190.) 
Seven years after his visit to Texas, William Bollaert 
presented a paper entitied " Indian Tribes in Texas" 
1 Reproduced in Jean Louis Berlandier, The Indians of Texas in 
1830, edited by John G. Ewers. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1969, 
fol. p. 164. 
NUMBER 5 J O N E S : TONKAWA INDIANS 6 9 
before the Ethnological Society of London. In this 
paper he expanded some of his early observations 
on the Tonkawa. He begins by stating that "Ton-
cahuas (Tonkawa), appear to have descended from 
die Comanches." (Bollaert, 1850, p. 275.) Aside 
from this rather faltering start, his narrative about 
the Tonkawa of the 1840s is of some interest. 
Their present chief is named Campo, having some 100 warriors 
under his command. They roam about the white settlements 
for protection, and have suffered much from the Comanches. 
They are very active in fight and "to take to a bush like a 
Toncahua," is a common expression. In 1840, they assisted the 
Texans against the Comanches in fight on Plum Creek, and in 
an account of this affair, it is stated, that 80 Comanches fell, 
and that after the affray the Toncahuas busied themselves in 
cutting up the Comanches, roasting and eating part of their 
flesh. In another account, headed "The question settled," 
particulars are given of a Comanche having been killed by the 
Toncahuas on the Brushy River, his hands, arms, and thick 
parts of the thighs were cut off and carried to their camp as a 
feast for the women and children. The Toncaliuas say that all 
the wUd Indian tribes wiU eat of the flesh of their enemies. The 
Lipan Indians call the Toncahuas "Man-eaters." (Bollaert, 
1850, p . 275.) 
Bollaert's account points out two problems that 
would cause the Tonkawa trouble for the next fifty 
years. The first, and of more immediate consequence, 
was their need to stay near white settlements for 
protection and trade. On 14 December 1844, Cam?
bridge Green, agent to the Lipan and Tonkawa, 
wrote to Thomas G. Western, Superintendent of 
Indian Affairs, telling him that he. Green, had in 
February 1844, told the Tonkawa encamped on Cedar 
Creek to stay out of white settlements. Green had been 
instructed by Houston to give these orders. (Winfrey, 
1966, voL 2, p. 150.) 
Two months later, on 12 February 1845, Robert S. 
Neighbors was given the oath of office as the new 
agent for the Lipan and Tonkawa. In his letter of 
instruction to the new agent, Superintendent Western 
emphasized that "it is absolutely necessary that these 
Indians (Tonkawa and Lipan) should be removed out 
of the settiements, as fast as practicable, to this end 
you will select a Suitable place for their Camps on 
the St. Marks (San Marcos) Either above or below the 
San Antonio, . . .." (Ibid., p. 159.) After five months 
in office Neighbors was still receiving letters from 
Western instructing him to keep the Tonkawa away 
from white settiements. This situation eventually 
led to the removal of the Tonkawa from their tradi?
tional range to a reservation on the Clear Fork of the 
Brazos River. 
The second problem and of most lasting effect was 
the Tonkawa appetite for human flesh. This cannibalis?
tic trait seems to have had little effect on whites 
associated with the Tonkawa. In fact, official reports 
are unusually silent about it. The Indians on which 
the Tonkawa fed, usually Comanches, had an 
entirely different view of it and eventually settied the 
score by decimating over half the Tonkawa population 
in 1862. 
One Texan who witnessed the Tonkawa eating a 
Comanche in the 1840s recorded the incident as 
follows: 
The only one I ever witnessed was in Webber's prairie, the 
occasion being the killing of a Comanche, one of a par ty tha t 
had been on a horse stealing trip down into Bastrop. They were 
hotly pursued, and, reasoning about horses as the Chinaman 
does about boots?that the biggest must naturally be the best?? 
they mounted a warrior on Manlove's big horse, which was part 
of the booty, and left him behind as rear guard, while the bal?
ance hurried the stolen horses away. The Tonkawas joined in 
the pursuit and when the pursuers came in sight of the lone rear 
guardsman three of the most expert Tonks were mounted on 
the three fleetest horses and sent to dispatch him. This they soon 
accomplished, his steed being a slow one. After killing and scalp?
ing him they refused to continue the chase, saying they must 
return home to celebrate the event, which accordingly did by a 
feast and scalp dance. Having fleeced off the flesh of the dead 
Comanche, they borrowed a big wash kettle from Puss Webber, 
into which they put the Comanche meat, together with a lot of 
corn and potatoes?the most revolting mess my eyes ever rested 
on. When the stew was sufficiently cooked and cooled to allow 
of its being ladled out with the hands the whole tribe gathered 
round, dipping it up with their hands and eating it as greedily 
as hogs. Having gorged themselves on this delectable feast they 
lay down and slept till night, when the entertainment was 
conducted with the scalp dance. (Smithwick, 1900, p . 245.) 
Anthropophagy or cannibalism was not solely a trait 
of the Tonkawa in the Western Hemisphere or even 
in North America. The word cannibal is derived from 
the corruption of the name of the Carib Indians, who 
were the scourge of the Antilles when the Spanish first 
arrived in the New World. In the Eastern United 
States and Canada the eating of human flesh was 
associated with war ceremonies. The Miami had a 
cannibal society in which the members were obligated 
to eat captives delivered to them. (Mooney, 1901, 
p. 550.) On the plains the Cheyenne and the Kiowas 
practiced eating human flesh. In a Cheyenne cere?
mony the owners of certain shields could lift a taboo 
by eating the heart of an enemy. The heart was sliced 
and dried, then pounded into a fine powder. (Grinnell, 
1923, pp. 199-200.) Also the Kiowa had a secret 
brotherhood whose members were pledged to eat the 
heart of the first enemy they killed in battle. (Mooney, 
1901, p. 551.) 
The Texas coast and back country seem to have 
been a stronghold of cannibalistic activity. The 
Attakapa, Wichita, Lipan, and the Karankawa, as 
well as the Tonkawa, consumed human flesh. The 
French captives from La Salle's expedition witnessed 
a Karankawa feast. At the San Antonio Mission in 
1760, the priests added to the catechism the question 
"Have you eaten human flesh?" (Ibid., p. 551.) 
70 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 
Why then, if cannibalism was fairly widespread, 
were the Tonkawa so severely dealt with by their 
neighbors? One answer is probably that they were 
not secretive about their practice, and there did not 
seem to be much ceremonialism surrounding the act. 
As Smithwick's description indicates, everyone in the 
tribe participated?men, women, and children. Also 
other tribes displeased with the Tonkawas' coopera?
tion with whites, may have used their cannibalism 
as an excuse for revenge. The fault with this logic 
is that Indians often made war on each other without 
having to excuse it because of the strange habits of 
their enemies. The issue therefore is cannibalism 
itself Apparently this had a real and lasting effect 
on the Plains tribes. Even in recent years in discussing 
the Tonkawa at the Museum of the Southern Plains 
Indian at Anadarko, Oklahoma, Indians have ex?
pressed a general dislike for them. One woman called 
them "witches." 
In 1847, three years after Bollaert's travels 
through Texas, Colonel Pierce M. Butier and Major 
M. G. Lewis presented a report on the Indians of 
Texas and the southwestern prairies to the United 
States House of Representatives. On 12 September 
1845, four months before Texas was admitted to the 
union, these men had been ordered to negotiate a 
treaty with Texas Indians. A treaty with seven tribes 
was signed at Council Springs in Robertson County 
near the Brazos River on 15 May 1846. (U.S. House 
Document 76, 1847, p. 2; and Winfrey, 1966, vol. 3, 
p. 53.) The Tonkawa were then living between the 
San Marcos and San Antonio Rivers and were under 
close observation by Agent Neighbors. On 4 February 
1846, he noted in a letter to Superintendent Western 
that the Tonkawa were staying out of white settie?
ments and were traveling to the treaty council called 
by Butler and Lewis. (Winfrey, 1966, vol. 3, p. 13-14.) 
In the Butler-Lewis report to the House of Repre?
sentatives of their observation in Texas, they describe 
the Tonkawa as follows: 
. . , the Ton-que-was and Lipans: the first number about seven 
hundred souls, the latter about one hundred and twenty-five. 
They reside near San Antonio, in Texas, and have been uni?
formly the friend and allies of Texans. They rely upon game 
alone for subsistance; they do not cultivate the soil, or have any 
stationary place of abode. They are extremely depraved in their 
habits (this might mean cannibalism); great drunkards, and 
fond of gambling. Most of them speak the Spanish language with 
great fiuency. The vice of drinking ardent spirits is common 
only to those two tribes and the lonies, An no dar coes, and 
Caddos. (U.S. House Document 76, 1847, p. 7.) 
Agent Neighbors' interest in his wards led him 
into contact with Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, noted 
ethnohistorian. Through Neighbors, David G. Bur?
net, ex-President of Texas, began writing to School?
craft, On 20 August 1847, Burnet sent him a paper 
entitied "The Comanche and Other Tribes of Texas 
and the Policy to be Pursued Respecting Them." 
Burnet includes in this paper a brief description of 
the Tonkawa. He stated that the Tonkawa 
. . . are a separate tribe, having no traceable afiinity to any other 
band of Indians in the coimtry. They are erratic?live on game, 
and are quite indolent?and often in extremity of suffering. 
They have generally been friendly to the whites, though often 
suspected of having stolen horses from the frontier. A few of 
these accompanied our small army in the campaign against 
the Cherokees in 1839, and rendered good service. There are 
about 150 warriors of this tribe?they have usually warred 
within the limits of our settlements. (Schoolcraft, 1851, vol. 1, 
p. 239.) 
Two years later serious problems began to arise 
between the Texans and the Tonkawas. In January 
1849, it was determined that the Tonkawas had 
been stealing horses and mules and had killed several 
citizens, all depredations that had previously been 
blamed on the "wild Indians." White officials de?
manded that all property be restored and that indi?
viduals responsible for the thefts and killings be 
surrendered to white law enforcement officers. Instead 
of complying, the tribe's 130 warriors gathered the 
population, over 650 people, and moved to the upper 
Brazos. (Catiett, 1850, p, 31.) 
During the next five years the Tonkawa remained 
relatively peaceful, especially when compared to 
other Plains tribes who were marauding the Texas 
frontier. In the spring of 1854 the Tonkawa again 
became a problem. Believing that they were reformed, 
the Texas governor, E. M. Pease, answering a peti?
tion from the citizens of Burnet, Bell, McLennan, 
and Williamson Counties, acknowledged that the 
Tonkawa had misused their trusted position and 
would be removed from white settied areas. Pease 
advised that if a difficulty arose before the govern?
ment resettied the Indians, that the Texans should 
move " . . . promptly to turn out and punish them 
(Tonkawas) without waiting for a call from the 
executive." (Winfrey, 1866, vol. 3, p . 184-85.) 
As part of Pease's Indian program, Captain R. B. 
Marcey, United States Army, and R. S. Neighbors, 
who in 1853 had become supervising agent for all 
Texas Indians, were sent to the upper Brazos River 
to survey two Indian reservations. The one chosen 
for the Tonkawa consisted of 35,424 acres and was 
located in present Young County. The Tonkawa 
shared this land with the Caddo, Anadarko, loni, 
and other small tribes. By 1856 there were about 
1,000 Indians on the Tonkawa Reserve. (Ibid., vol. 
3, p. 193-209 and Hasskarl, 1962, p . 224.) 
Between 1856 and the summer of 1859 the Ton?
kawas on numerous occasions aided Texas Rangers 
and Federal troops in actions against the Comanches 
and other hostile tribes. In December 1857, fifteen 
FIGURE 1.?Assistant Surgeon Henry McElderry, United States Army. Collector of the Tonkawa material described in this paper. (United 
States Signal Corps, Photo no. l l -SC-83650 in the National y\rchives.) 
FIGURE 2.?-Tonkawa quiver, bow, and arrows. 
FIGURE 3.?Tonkawa arrow. (Peabody Museum at Salem, Massachusetts.) 
FIGURE 4.?Top, Tonkawa bow; middle, rattle or "haw-whootes"; bottom, girdle. 
..4L. 
. . emi" 
FIGURE 5.?-Tonkawa bow and five arrows. (USNM neg. no. 2053-H.) 
FIGURE 6.?^Tonkawa trade tomahawk. fUSNM neg. no. 2053-D.) 
2 I N. 
FIGURE 7.?Tonkawa trade tomahawk, detail of head. (USNM neg. 
no. 2053-E.) 
FIGURE 8.?Tinder pouch and striker. fUSXM net^. no. 2051-.-\ 
FIGURE 10.?Tonkawa war drum and drum sticks. (USNM neg. no. 2053-F.) 
FIGURE 11.?Tonkawa otter skin girdle. (Courtesy of Museum of the 
American Indian, Heye Foundation.) 
FIGURE 12.?-Top, Tonkawa head ornament; bottom, head ornament. (USNM neg. no. 2053-B.) 
FIGURE 13.?Tonkawa head ornament. (USNM neg. no. 6053-A.) 
2 IN. 
2 I N . 
FIGURE 14.?Tonkawa dolls, front view. Note long breechcloth on doll on the right. (USNM neg. no. 2050-D.) 
FIGURE 15.?Tonkawa dolls, back view. (USNM neg. no. 2050-C.) 
FIGURE 16.?Tonkawa George Miles, an old army scout and the last 
Chief of the Tonkawa, died in 1925. Note hair decorations hanging 
down the left side of his face and the long breechcloth hanging down 
to his feet. (Courtesy of Museum of the American Indian, Heye Founda?
tion, neg. no. 15272.) 
FIGURE 17.?Tonkawa woman, Ocoya, wife of Standing Buffalo. (Courtesy of Museum of the American Indian, Heye 
Foundation, neg. no. 15247.) 
FIGURE 18.?Tonkawa shelter, Ponca Agency, Oklahoma, 1901. (Courtesy of Museum of the American Indian, 
Heye Foundation, neg. no. 15205.) 
FIGURE 19.?-Tonkawa Lamar Richard's house, Ponca Agenc), 19U1. (Courtesy of Museum of the American Indian, 
Heye Foundation, neg. no. 15213.) 
M A P 1.?Historic Locations of the Tonkawa Indians. 
y^>2-'/(?t- < N A ? ^ - ^ /M, 
^ ? w 
N 
M A P 2.?^Albert Gatschet's sketch map of the location of the Tonkawa Massacre in 1862. (Smithsonian Office of Anthropology Archives. 
c^.-^ 
? Fart Grift^v*.J\2j^ 
-^ir .?--^ i / / ' -yjrf^ f..< Jyr ^?^* ? ' '^' ' / ' ^ r ^ - - - - ^ c-'*-, <-. ^ TK^-
MAP 3.-Fort Griffin Reserve, Texas, in 1871, showing the location of the Tonkawa Indian VUlage near the fort. 
(Courtesy of The National Archives.) 
NUMBER 5 J O N E S : TONKAVV^A INDIANS 71 
or twenty Tonkawas accompanied a detachment of 
the 7th United States Infantry on a scouting ex?
pedition through land occupied by Kickapoos. In 
April of the following year Chief Placido led a hundred 
Tonkawa and Shawnee scouts for a company of 
Texas Rangers moving against Comanches on the 
Canadian River. The Comanche, under Iron Jacket, 
were overtaken on 12 May 1858, and were defeated 
in an attack led by the Tonkawa. Iron Jacket was 
killed in this action. Later the same year the Tonkawa 
helped the Second Cavalry and Fifth Infantry to 
locate a Comanche village near present Rush Springs, 
Oklahoma. During this period the Tonkawa became 
the hated enemies of the Comanche, Wichita, and 
Caddo. (Ibid., vol. 3, p. 269.) 
Because of the increasing hostility between Indians 
and whites, in August of 1859 Neighbors and agents 
Samuel A. Blain, S. R. Ross, and Mathew Leeper 
began removing the Texas tribes across the Red 
River into Indian Territory. The Tonkawa were 
sent to the Wichita Reserve near Fort Cobb on the 
north side of the Washita River. Neighbors appointed 
Blain to take charge of the consolidated Wichita, 
Caddo, Tonkawa, and Penateka Comanche agencies. 
With Leeper and Ross, Neighbors returned to Bel?
knap. Shortiy after their arrival Neighbors was 
murdered allegedly because of his partisanship to 
the Indians. (Nye, 1943, p. 28.) 
In 1860 the Tonkawa continued to scout for Federal 
troops and Texas Rangers. In the summer of that 
year, along with a group of Caddos and Wichitas, 
they accompanied a detachment of Texas Rangers 
operating from Camp Radziminski in southern Indian 
Territory. The combined Indian and Ranger force 
attacked a Kiowa and Comanche camp on the 
Canadian River in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Ac?
cording to Ranger James Pike, as soon as the fight 
ended the Tonkawa began roasting and eating some 
of the slain Comanches. (Ibid., p. 28.) 
When the Civil War broke out the Union troops 
withdrew from Fort Cobb and the Wichita Reserva?
tion, but this did not end either the fort or the reserve. 
Mathew Leeper, Blain's successor, remained at the 
agency working for the new government in Richmond. 
To strengthen the Confederate position among the 
Plains tribes living in the Leased District, General 
Albert Pike was sent to arrange a treaty with these 
people.^ By December 1861, he had negotiated two 
treaties. The Tonkawa seem to have been completely 
won over to the Southern cause and, even during the 
final years, remained loyal. (Abel, 1915, vol. 1, p. 
199-202.) 
The year 1862 was the darkest one in the history 
of the Tonkawa tribe. It began quietiy. In January 
Agent Leeper reported to Superintendent of Indian 
Aff'airs Elias Rector that " the Tonkawa have warm 
comfortable houses made of poles and grass such as 
they had in Texas. And for the chief I built a good 
double log house with Chimneys to each room and a 
hall or passage in the center, in which he now lives." 
(Ibid., p. 340.) During the summer friction developed 
between Leeper and his wards when Indians sympa?
thizing with the North began arriving at the agency. 
Fearing trouble Leeper moved his family from Indian 
Territory. 
Years of animosity toward the Tonkawa finally 
came to a head on 23 October 1862. A combined force 
of Shawnees, Delawares, ELickapoos, Caddos, Co?
manches, and Kiowas attacked the agency and 
Tonkawa camp on the south side of the Washita 
River. The immediate causes of the attacks were 
apparently the return of Agent Leeper to the agency 
and the killing of two Shawnees by the Tonkawa.^ 
(Mooney, 1901, p. 552.) 
The attackers fell first on the agency. Its clerk and 
his two assistants were killed as they sat around a fire 
inside the main building. Hearing the shots, Horace P. 
Jones, agency interpreter, who had been sleeping in a 
nearby house, sprang to a horse and rode to warn 
Agent Leeper of the danger. A companion of Jones 
was killed, but Jones rode on toward Texas. Leeper 
hid in the bushes near his home until the next morning 
when he was found by friendly Comanches. After 
killing the four men, the attackers plundered the store 
and commissary and then burned the buildings to 
the ground.^ (Mooney, 1901, p. 552.) 
Having dealt with the agency, the attackers turned 
toward the Tonkawa. The 306 Tonkawa under Chief 
Placido were camping across the Washita River. A 
few of the young men had left the village to hunt 
buffalo and had apparendy taken most of the arms. 
The combined force was mounted and carried rifles 
of the "newest pattern"; they divided their force, 
and part of them came in from below the camp. At 
the first hint of daylight they attacked the Tonkawa. 
When the battie was over 137 men, women, and chil?
dren lay dead in the ruins of the village, and a number 
of children had been taken captive. Six years later 
the Quaker teacher, Thomas Battey, noted that bones 
and skulls were still visible in the timber around the 
2 The Wichita agency was located on land leased from the Choc?
taw and Chickasaw tribes. 
* There is some disagreement as to whom the Tonkawa had killed. 
Nye states that it was a Caddo boy, smd Albert S. Gatschet, referring 
to a statement by R. W. Dunlap, a local trader, says that several hogs 
belonging to a Shawnee, had been stolen and killed. (Gatschet, 1884, 
p. 53; and Nye, 1943, p. 30.) 
* Some accounts have Leeper killed during this engagement, see 
Abel: 184 and Hasskarl: 225, but both Nye and Mooney state that 
Leeper escaped and in 1875 was corresponding with Colonel R. S 
Mackenzie at Fort Sill. 
72 S M I T H S O N L \ N CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 
old camp.^ (See Map 2.) (Mooney, 1901, p. 553 and 
Battey, 1968, p. 58-59.) 
After the massacre the Tonkawa limped south, first 
to Fort Arbuckle and then to Fort Belknap. They 
remained at Fort Belknap until shortly after the Civil 
War. Following the Civil War the results of five years 
of federal inactivity on the frontier were immediately 
felt. To aid in solving the growing problems created 
by the interaction between whites and Plains tribes, 
the federal government established a chain of forts 
from Montana to Texas. The founding of Fort Griffin 
on the Clear Fork of the Brazos in Shackelford 
County, Texas, was part of this program. On 29 July 
1867, a detachment of the Sixth Cavalry, Companies 
I, K, and L, under the command of Lieutenant 
Colonel Samuel Davis Sturgis established Camp 
Wilson, later to be renamed Fort Griffin. The Ton?
kawa followed the Army to this new post. (Rister, 
1956, p . 59-77.) 
On 13 April 1867, four months prior to the estab?
lishment of Fort Griffin, the commanding officer of 
the Post of Jacksborro, an outpost of Fort Belknap, 
was ordered to take control of the Tonkawa. There 
were 150 Tonkawa living near Jacksborro who were 
"suffering for the want of proper attention and sup?
plies." Although Texas had been given money by the 
federal government to supply rations to them, the 
Texans were no longer to be responsible for the Indians 
and were to return the money to the Army. The order 
also provided that if the post of Jacksborro were 
abandoned the Tonkawa were to be moved to Fort 
Belknap for protection. (Taylor, 1867, Record Group 
98, National Archives.) 
At the time the 6th Cavalry left Fort Belknap in 
July 1867, Tonkawas were acting as scouts. They and 
the rest of the tribe soon moved near Fort Griffin. 
The fort was located on a hUl overlooking the Clear 
Fork of the Brazos River, while the Indian village 
lay below the hill on the banks of the river. (See 
Map 3.) Also accompanying the troops on the move 
to the new post was Assistant Surgeon D. Henry 
McElderry, the collector of the Tonkawa ethnological 
material described later in this paper. (McElderry, 
1867, Record Group 94, National Archives.) (See 
fig. 1.) 
At Fort Griffin the Tonkawa continued acting as 
scouts. Their enthusiasm is pointed out in a letter by 
their commander. 
I have the honor to inform you, that the term of enlistment of 
the Tonkawa Indian Scouts, expires on the 21st day of January 
next and respectfully request authority to re-enlist a sufficient 
number. Owing to the fact that these Indians are always anxious 
to accompany scouting parties, they are almost as serviceable 
without being enlisted and I deem fourteen a sufficient number 
for the wants of this Post. (Whiting, 1870, Record Group 98, 
National Archives.) 
While their men were scouting for the army, the 
Tonkawa women were finding limited employment 
at the post and later in the "wild town" below 
Government Hill. (Rister, 1956, p . 72.) 
Events leading up to McElde r r / s collecting the 
Tonkawa ethnological material began in Washington, 
D.C. on 15 January 1868. George A. Otis, curator 
of the Army Medical Museum, in an effort to increase 
the volume of Indian objects in the medical museum, 
sent the following request to the chief medical officer 
for the District of Texas. 
The Surgeon General has desired me to use every endeavor to 
augment our collection of Indian Crania, and also of Indian 
Weapons and implements. I have written to most of the Medical 
officers in the Indian Country inviting their cooperation in 
accomplishing this object. I am now writing to the Chief Medical 
Officers of Districts to urge the matter on their attention, and 
to request them to command it to the Acting Assistant Surgeons 
and others, with whom they may come in contact, who would 
be likely to aid in making such collections. 
Besides Crania, Bows & Arrows, War clubs & spears, imple?
ments of the chase, etc., we want stone arrowheads, axes & such 
like memorials of the extinct or fast disappearing tribes. (Otis, 
15 January 1868b, p . 167.) 
On the same day Otis wrote to Spencer F. Baird, 
Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution to 
request a dozen copies of George Gibbs' Instructions 
for Research Relative to the Ethnology and Philology of 
America, Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection, No. 
160. These, Otis wrote Baird, would be distributed 
"among the medical officers at the western posts." 
(Otis, 15 January 1868b, p. 108.) From the events of 
the next few months it is reasonable to assume that 
McElderry received orders from either Otis or Webster 
regarding making collections of Indian objects in his 
area. There is also the possibility that he was a re?
cipient of one of the twelve copies of Gibbs' book. 
On 8 June 1868, Otis wrote McElderry acknowledg?
ing the receipt of a letter from him advising the Army 
Medical Museum as to the contents of two boxes of 
specimens being sent from Fort Griffin. O n 13 August 
Otis wrote McElderry to thank him for the material 
and to list all items received. Besides the Tonkawa 
material McElderry included several Comanche items 
captured at Paint Creek, Texas, in a fight between a 
band of Kwahari Comanche and a detachment of the 
Sixth Cavalry. (Otis, 8 June 1868c, p . 327 and Otis, 
13 August 1868d, 373.) 
Less than six months after the Tonkawa material 
arrived in Washington, Joseph Henry, Secretary of 
' N y e says that the noise from the attack on the agency aroused 
the Tonkawa, and they began to flee to the east. Thinking they had 
reached safety they stopped, but the Shawnee and Delaware followed 
and fell on them. Gatschez also indicates on a crude map in his journal 
that the massacre did not take place in the Tonkawa camp but a 
short distance to the east. See Map 2. (Nye, 1943, p. 31 and Gatschez, 
1884, p. 156.) 
NUMBER 5 JONES: TONKAWA INDIANS 73 
the Smithsonian Institution, began negotiating to have 
this collection along with several others made in the 
west, transferred to the Smithsonian. On 21 January 
1869, the surgeon general of the Army approved the 
transfer of 309 specimens "illustrative of the manners 
and customs of the Indian of North America and of 
Indian archaeology," in the Army Medical Museum 
in exchange for an undetermined number of specimens 
"illustrative of human anatomy in the Smithsonian 
Collection." (Otis, 21 January 1869, p. 563.) This 
material was cataloged as part of the Smithsonian 
collection on 18 February 1869. 
McElderry sent the Army Medical Museum a total 
of sixty-eight items, among which were thirty-seven 
arrows. Four objects were of zoological interest and 
were turned over to Bvt. Lieutenant Colonel J . J . 
Woodward in the comparative anatomy section of the 
museum. McElderry indicated that a Tonkawa war-
pipe was sent, but it was not found in the material 
that arrived in Washington. (Otis, 13 August 1868d, 
p. 373.) 
When the collection was transferred to the Smith?
sonian, two objects were not included?a buffalo hide 
that had been dressed and painted and some berries 
called "Owwah-cholic" by the Tonkawa. These berries 
were supposed to be the fruit of the Mountain Laurel 
and were used as medicine and to produce "an ex?
hilaration" during dances. A search for these items 
was made at the Army Medical Museum in January 
1968, but they were not located. Both would have 
augmented the Tonkawa collection. 
Object Description 
The following abbreviations are used within this 
section: N M N H , National Museum of Natural His?
tory and MAIC, Museum of the American Indian 
Catalog. 
QUIVER, BOW CASE, BOW, & ARROWS, N M N H -
Ethn. 8448 (fig. 2).?The quiver is 68.5 cm in length 
and is made of mottied cowhide. I t is decorated with a 
fringe at the bottom and top and has seven feathers 
tied to the top. These feathers are: three flicker 
{Colaptes auratus), two golden eagle {Aquila chrysaetos), 
and two wild turkey {Melegagris [pts] qallopave sil-
vestris).^ Also at the top are a small (3.5 cm diameter) 
crudely scalloped concho and a leather thong deco?
rated with red, blue, and yellow beads. Inside the 
quiver was placed a pouch to protect the bottom of the 
quiver from the metal arrow points. This pouch is 
attached to a stick that could be an unfinished arrow. 
It has three shaft grooves running its length, similar to 
the other Tonkawa arrows. The stick is notched near 
the end so that the pouch could be tied to it. 
The bow case is 115 cm long and is made of the 
same material as the quiver. I t is fringed at the top and 
bottom. The quiver and the bow case are sewed 
together, and a carrying strap of the same material is 
sewn between them. 
The bow is 114.5 cm long and is made of Osage 
Orange {Madura pomifera [raf.] shn.) ^ Osage Orange 
was a preferred wood for bows throughout the Plains, 
and because of its limited habitat it became an 
important trade item. (Carlson and Jones, 1939, p. 
534.) The bow is a single curve, with a nearly square 
section. It tapers slightly toward the horns, is single 
notched on alternate sides, and is strung with four 
strands of twisted sinew. 
Three arrows were in the quiver. They are de?
scribed top to bottom in the figure. The top arrow 
is 67.2 cm long and .73 cm in diameter. Its metal 
head is 4.45 cm long and has a serrated shank. 
The arrowhead is lashed to the shaft with sinew. 
Three shaft grooves run from the head to the proximal 
end of the feathers. The feathers are turkey {Meleagris 
pt. gallopavo silvestris) and turkey vulture {Cathartes 
aura septentrionalis). The shaft is decorated with a 
narrow blue band and a broad red band. The nock 
is spreading and the notch is angular. 
The middle arrow is 62.9 cm long and averages 
.67 cm in diameter. The metal head is 4.3 cm long 
and has a plain shank. The head is tied to the shaft 
with sinew. Five shaft grooves run from the head to 
the proximal end of the turkey vulture feathers. The 
nock is damaged, and the notch seems to be angular. 
The arrow is completely covered with a blue pigment. 
The bottom arrow is 66.4 cm long and averages 
.67 cm in diameter The metal head is 3.59 cm long 
and plain shanked. The arrowhead is attached to 
the shaft with sinew. Three shaft grooves run from 
the head to proximal end of the feathers. The feathers 
are turkey vulture and are attached to the shank 
with sinew and glue. The nock is spreading and the 
notch is angular. This arrow is also completely 
covered with a blue pigment.? 
Bow, N M N H - E t h n . 8459 (fig. 4).?The bow was 
described by McElderry as a "boys bow." I t is made 
of Osage Orange {Madura pomifera \raf.] shn.) and 
is 96.1 cm long. The bow is a single curve. Its section 
is square and is single notched in alternate sides. 
RATTLE OR "HAH-WHOOTHES," N M N H - E t h n . 8449 
(fig. 4).?^The rattle with tail is 95 cm long. I t is made 
from one piece of cow's tail. The rattle end was made 
* Feathers identified by Mrs. Roxie G. Laybourne, Zoologist, Bird 
and Mammal Laboratory, Division of Wild Life Research, Bureau of 
Sport Fisheries and Wild Life, Department of the Interior. 
^ Wood identified by Dr. Richard N. Jorgensen, Principal Wood 
Technologist, Forest Product Utilization, Research Branch of the 
Forest Products and Engineering Division, Forest Service, Department 
of Agriculture. 
8 In May 1886 an arrow from this accession was given to the 
Peabody Museum at Salem, Massachusetts. This arrow is picttired 
in figure 3. 
74 
NUMBER S J O N E S : T O N K A W A INDIANS 75 
by turning the hide inside out and stitching it with 
sinew. It is decorated with nine blue spots. A short 
thong, attached to the base of the rattie, probably 
was used to tie it to the user's wrist. The Army Med?
ical Museum accession records state that the rattie 
was employed in " the war dance." (Army Medical 
Museum, Indian Curiosities, Item 149.) 
GIRDLE, NMNH-Ethn . 8450 (fig. 4).?The girdle 
is 156 cm long; its width ranges from 2.5 to 3 cm. A 
fringe 35 cm long is on each end of the girdle, and a 
small band of red flannel, ornamented with small 
dark blue and white beads, is at the point where the 
fringe begins. The girdle is made of three sections of 
hide tied together with sinew. According to Army 
Medical Museum accession records the material this 
girdle is made of is "tanned skin of Comanche In?
dian." {Ibid., I tem 150.) An analysis of the hide 
made by Dr. Elson B. Helwig of the Armed Forces 
Institute of Pathology could not conclusively deter?
mine the source of the hide, but it does exhibit 
characteristics of human skin. Pertinent sections of 
Dr. Helwig's report are included in footnote below.? 
B o w AND FIVE ARROWS, N M N H - E t h n . 8 4 6 1 (fig. 
5).?The bow is 133.8 cm long and made from 
Osage Orange. It is a recurve with a section nearly 
square, is single nocked on alternate sides, and tapers 
slightiy toward the horns. Above one nock is a cir?
cular extension 2 cm long. This extension is apparently 
decorative. I t is covered with a tuft of grass. The bow 
string is of twisted sinew. The five arrows are identical. 
They are 69.5 cm long and average .72 cm in diam?
eter. They are mounted with metal heads that are 
6 cm. long, and the head is tied to the arrow with 
sinew. The arrowheads have serrated shanks. The 
arrows all have three shaft grooves that run from the 
head to the proximal end of the feathering. Each 
arrow has three feathers which are wild turkey and 
turkey vulture. The shaftments are decorated with 
narrow red bands, broad blue bands, and narrow 
yellow bands. The nock is spread and whipped with 
sinew, and the notch is angular. 
TOMAHAWK, NMNH-Ethn . 8454 (figs. 6 and 7).? 
The overall length of the tomahawk is 51.3 cm. The 
height, referring to the vertical dimension of the head, 
is 15 cm, and the width, the widest point on the blade, 
is 6.5 cm. The head is a simple or belt axe. (Peterson, 
1965, p. 18-21.) I t is stamped "SHEFFIELDWORK 
J. English & H. & P. Huber." The use of the name 
Sheffieldwork seems to be an attempt by American 
cutiery manufacturers to benefit from the high regard 
for steel made in Sheffield, England. Both Huber and 
English were producing knives in Philadelphia in the 
late 1830s and 1840s. (Peterson, 1958, p. 160, 162, 
and 167.) The poll of the head is perforated and 
threaded. I t was apparently made to be used on a 
pipe-tomahawk. The head is attached to the haft 
with two square nails, one driven in the eye and the 
other through the threaded perforation in the poll. 
The haft is highly decorated. I t is wrapped with 
alternating bands of red broadcloth and gold velvet. 
The beading midway in the haft is made up of eight 
rows of blue and clear beads. A similar design is 
repeated at the butt with larger beads. The streamer 
attached to the butt of the haft is made up of one 
feather from an adult Golden Eagle {Aquila chrysaetis) 
and a strip of red broadcloth 49 cm long and 14 cm 
wide. This fabric is folded once and to it are attached 
six locks of hair, which are not human. A hand tie 
has been attached near the butt of the haft. 
TINDER POUCH, NMNH-Ethn . 8448 (fig. 8).?This 
tinder pouch was once attached to the above described 
quiver and bow case. In 1893 Otis Tufton Mason 
used this item to illustrate an article in the Annual 
Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian In?
stitution and his illustration shows the tinder pouch 
tied between the quiver and bow case. (Mason, 1894, 
plate 86.) The pouch is made from processed leather 
and is 11 cm high and 8 cm wide. It is decorated with 
fringe around the bottom and white beads around 
the outer edge. The strap over the top of the pouch 
is slit to enable it to fit over a small German Silver 
concho on the front. The pouch contains a steel 
"strike-a-light" and according to Mason it also con?
tained a flint in 1893. 
WOODEN SCRAPER HANDLE, NMNH-Ethn . 8460 
(fig. 9).?^The overall length of the scraper is 64.9 
cm. It is L-shaped and the scraper leg of the L is 
27.5 cm and the handle leg is 37.4 cm. The maximum 
diameter is 5.48 cm and from this maximum the handle 
tapers down to 1.33 cm. The wood it is made from 
is Hard Elm {Ulmus species), and according to Dr. 
Richard Jorgensen, wood technologist from the 
? Sections prepared from the specimen which you forwarded, your 
number 8450/A and AFIP 1268516, can be identified as skin but not 
as being definitely human. The tissue is altered as seen in a desiccated 
or tanned specimen. The epithelial cells can be recognized but cell 
detail is obscured. The epidermis is present in scattered areas and 
the cells and neclei are shrunken. A keratinized layer is absent and 
the rete ridges are effaced. No papillary layer is identifiable and 
irregular bands of fragmented acidophilic staining collagen without 
recognizable nuclei are present in the cerium. A few hair follicles 
are present that are consistent with those seen in human skin, but 
the hairs cannot be identified positively as those of the American 
Indian. 
An occasional structiire is consistent with that of a shrunken eccrine 
sweat gland. 
Desiccation of a specimen does not prevent species identification by 
means of a precipitin test but 3iny process leading to coagulation of 
protein interferes with such a test. The AFIP does not run precipitin 
tests. 
On the basis of the histologic appearance, the skin cannot be 
recognized as animal skin and is consistent with that of humans. 
76 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 
Forest Service, the L shape was achieved by bending 
the wood. He bases this conclusion on the fact that 
the wood shows signs of compression failure in the 
bend. McElderry indicated to Otis that the Tonkawa 
called this type of scraper "Wharts-how" and that it 
was used in dressing the hides of deer and buff"alo. 
W A R DRUM AND DRUM STICK, NMNH-Ethn . 8453 
(fig. 10).?^The drum is 10 cm in height and 46 cm in 
diameter. The shell is a bent hoop of wood. It has 
two rawhide heads that are stretched over the hoop 
and stitched together with sinew. The obverse side of 
the drum, side seen in the figure, is decorated with 
a green border around the edge of the head. Circling 
the inner edge of this border are sixteen red dots; 
connecting these dots is a series of small black dots. 
Extending in from the top and bottom of the drum 
head are two parallel rows of large black dots. There 
are four black dots in each line with two lines at the 
bottom and two at the top. The reverse side has a 
green band running through the center of the head. 
This band is wider on the two edges than in the 
middle. A twisted thong is attached to the shell forming 
a loop handle. The drum stick is now broken, but 
when the piece was collected the handle was 27.4 cm 
long and had a head of stuffed deer skin. The handle 
of the drum stick is wrapped with deer hide and 
decorated with pin heads. 
23 
GIRDLE, MAIC ^ ^ ^ (fig. 11).?The girdle is made 
of otter skin and is 244 cm long and 1.7 cm wide. 
There are bead decorations 30.5 cm in from each end 
of the girdle. The beads are strung over a piece of red 
flannel and are white and dark blue. This item and an 
arrow described earlier were given to the Peabody 
Museum at Salem, Massachusetts, in May of 1886. 
The girdle was later transferred to the Museum of the 
American Indian in New York City. 
HEAD ORNAMENT, NMNH-Ethn . 8446 (fig. 12), over?
all length 88 cm.?This head ornament is of twisted 
and braided hair and on one end has two strands of 
beads which are dark blue and white, alternating every 
fourth bead. On the other end is a cloth tie. The 
braided hair is decorated by small metal clasps. This 
type of head decoration was tied in the hair on the top 
of the head and allowed to hang down the side of the 
face. 
HEAD ORNAMENT, NMNH-Ethn . 8447 (fig. 12), 
length 23.5 cm (tie and decorated bob not included).? 
The head ornament is a leather strip to which are 
attached 16 German Silver conchos. The conchos 
range in size from 1.04 cm to 1.91 cm and are arranged 
in a size progression. Each concho has two perfora?
tions through which sinew is passed and then stitched 
to the leather backing. At one end of the ornament is a 
small beaded rosette or bob made of blue, white, and 
transparent beads. O n the opposite end is a small fluff 
of blue feathers and a short leather thong. T h e thong 
was used to tie the ornament in the hair similar to the 
above item. 
HEAD ORNAMENT, N M N H - E t h n . 8456 (fig. 13).? 
The ornament is the leg of a young Great Horned Owl 
{Bubo virginianus). There is evidence of a red pigment 
on the talons of the foot. 
DoLL, NMNH-Ethn . 8444 (figs. 14 and 15), 9 cm 
high.?The doll is apparently a male. I t has leather 
leggings that are fringed along the outside seam. Blue, 
white, pink, red, and green beads cover the front of 
the leggings. There is a suggestion of a hatch design in 
the beading, but this is not clear. The breechclout is of 
printed cloth and hangs longer than the length of the 
doll's legs.^? Around the waist is a maroon sash that 
hangs down as long as the breechclout. The shirt is 
brown broadcloth decorated with white beads which 
are arranged in a series of short lines, running up the 
arms of the shirt and across the front yoke. Around the 
doll's neck is a necklace of blue and white beads. The 
head is featureless except for a prominent nose. The 
eyes are two short lines marked on each side of the 
nose. At the point of the ears is a set of bead earrings 
with small metal amulets at the tips. The hair and 
scalp of the doll were found to be Mongoloid. Ac?
cording to the information sent with material by 
McElderry, the hair is Comanche. 
DOLL, N M N H - E t h n . 8445 (figs. 14 and 15), 10 cm 
high.?^This doll apparendy is also male. I t has red 
flannel leggings that are tight around the legs and 
flare out along the outside seam. The leggings are 
decorated with rows of white beads running around 
the front of the legs. The breechclout is printed fabric 
and hangs down longer that the legs. The doll's 
shirt is brown broadcloth. Its only decoration is a 
metal band around the upper part of the left arm. 
Circling the neck is a two strand necklace of blue and 
white beads. The ear decoration is of the same beads. 
Only one ear still has a bead decoration hanging 
from it, but the string for beading is attached to the 
other ear. The only feature of the face is a large 
pointed nose. The hair hangs in two braids down each 
side of the face. These braids are decorated with 
white string and red flannel. The hair is Mongoloid, 
O n the top of the head is a string of four white beads 
topped with a strip of red flannel. 
10 Long breechclouts were typical of the Tonkawa. See figure 16; 
also Sjorberg, 1953, p. 288; and Newcomb, 1961, p. 137. 
Conclusions 
Because of their geographical location in historic 
times (between the Great Plains and the Gulf Coast) 
and because of the relative paucity of ethnological data 
on this tribe, the Tonkawa have been differentiy 
classified by various scholars. George P. Murdock 
has grouped the Tonkawa with the Atakapa, Karan?
kawa, Coahuilteco, and Tamaulipeco tribes (living 
along the Gulf of Mexico from southwestern Louis?
iana to northeastern Mexico, and inland) and there?
fore in a Gulf Culture. (Murdock, 1960, p. 295, and 
map opp. p . 293.) Doubtiess he was influenced by 
Alfred L. Kroeber's earlier grouping of these same 
tribes under a classification of South Texas: North?
west Gulf Coast. (Kroeber, 1939, pp. 70-73.) Kroeber, 
however, evidenced considerable uncertainty about 
his own classification of the Tonkawa. In his descrip?
tion of the Southern Plains tribes he stated " the 
Tonkawa may have belonged here rather than in 
the South Texas area, at some time in their career." 
(Ibid., p . 79.) 
More recently William W. Newcomb, Jr . , influ?
enced by the concise summary of cultural data on the 
Tonkawa compiled by Sjoberg (1953), as well as his 
understanding of the archeology and cultural history 
of the central Texas region, has classed the Tonkawa 
as a Plains Indian tribe. (Newcomb, 1961, p. 134.) 
The data presented in the preceding pages of this 
paper appear to support the classification of Sjoberg 
and Newcomb and the second thoughts of Kroeber, 
rather than Murdock's grouping of the historic Ton?
kawa with the tribes of the Gulf Coast. 
De Mezieres' classic statement of the importance of 
the buffalo to the Tonkawa in the third quarter of the 
18th century, as well as the tribe's early acquisition of 
horses and their apparent use of them in warfare and 
hunting, certainly ally the Tonkawa economically with 
the nomadic tribes of the Southern Plains to the north?
west of them. On the other hand, there is no indica?
tion that the Tonkawa employed watercraft or de?
pended upon the resources of the sea as did the 
Karankawans to the south. Nor were the Tonkawa 
compelled to utilize the sparse animal and vegetable 
resources of the desert as were the Coahuiltecan tribes 
who lived to the southwest and remained footmen. If 
the Tonkawa depended upon deer to a much greater 
extent than did the Southern Plains tribes during the 
early nineteenth century, this probably was due to the 
historic contraction of the buffalo range, the expansion 
southeastward of the Comanche, and Tonkawa fear of 
meeting numerically superior Comanche parties on 
hunting excursions to the northwest, rather than to 
any decrease in Tonkawa desire for buffalo. This de?
sire had to be tempered by the realities of their un?
favorable military position vis-a-vis the aggressive 
Comanche. Certainly, also, the American settiers' 
invasion of Tonkawa territory as early as the 1820s 
was disruptive of traditional Tonkawa culture as well 
as conducive to the decline both in numbers and in 
importance of this relatively small tribe. 
My study of the small collection of Tonkawa arti?
facts collected in 1868 appears to support the argument 
for Tonkawa inclusion with the tribes of the Southern 
Plains in cultured classifications. Significantiy, the 
Osage orange bows of the Tonkawa in this collection 
are identical in material and similar in length and in 
details of manufacture to a Comanche bow in the 
U.S. National Museum, which is known to have been 
captured from a Comanche camp by the U.S. Army 
in that same year of 1868. (Jones, 1968, p. 44.) These 
are the short bows of an equestrian people. They con?
trast sharply with the long red cedar bows of the 
Karankawan footmen described by Gatschet as ex?
tending from the feet to the chins or eyes of the 
physically taller Karankawa warriors. (Gatschet, 1891, 
p. 12.) 
The narrow bands of beadwork appearing on some 
of the Tonkawa specimens appear to ally this woman's 
craft with that of the Comanche and Kiowa to the 
77 
78 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 2 
north. And the large double-headed drum is of a type 
found among Plains Indians in the late historic period. 
Nevertheless, other articles in this collection appear 
to be Tonkawan variants of typical Plains Indian 
artifacts or to be, so far as is known, rather uniquely 
Tonkawan. The long-armed wooden skin dressing 
tool differs from the L-shaped, adze-like scraper of 
wood or antier employed by Plains Indians from 
Texas to Alberta. The men's decorations attached 
to the hair at the top of the head and hanging down 
the cheek appear to be Tonkawan variants of South?
ern Plains accessories to costume. The long breech?
clout reaching virtually to the ground (pictured in 
the photograph of the dolls as well as in the portrait 
of George Miles, taken four decades after the dolls 
were collected, figures 14, 15, and 16), seems to have 
been both a peculiar and a persistent Tonkawan 
trait. Whether it was worn only on ceremonial or 
dress occasions, we do not know. But this lengthy 
garment would appear to be an impediment to an 
active hunter or warrior in the field. 
Finally, the probable use of human skin for making 
a girdle seems to add support to the unsavory repu?
tation of the Tonkawa for cruel treatment of their 
enemies, a reputation which was based primarily 
upon their practice of cannibalism. As I have indi?
cated, however, the Tonkawa were not unique among 
the tribes of Texas for this trait. Neighboring tribes 
of the Southern Plains, as well as the coastal Karan?
kawans, and the Caddo of the Louisiana-Texas 
frontier also ate their enemies, or selected portions 
of them, though perhaps less openly than did the 
Tonkawa. 
It appears most proper to classify these longtime 
residents of Texas, whose survivors now reside in 
Oklahoma, as a marginal Plains Indian tribe. This 
study of a collection of Tonkawa artifacts, as well as 
a review of the ethnohistorical record of the tribe, 
contribute to the conclusion. 
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