Tawakoni

Last updated
Tawakoni
Dave. Towoccaroes - NARA - 519125.tif
Dave, a Tawakoni man, 1872
Total population
fewer than 2,953 [1] (2018)
Regions with significant populations
Flag of Oklahoma.svg  Oklahoma, historically Flag of Kansas.svg  Kansas and Flag of Texas.svg  Texas
Languages
English, formerly Wichita
Religion
Native American Church, Christianity,
indigenous religion
Related ethnic groups
Caddo, Pawnee, other Wichita and Affiliated Tribes

The Tawakoni (also Tahuacano and Tehuacana) are a Southern Plains Native American tribe, closely related to the Wichitas. They historically spoke a Wichita language of the Caddoan language family. Currently, they are enrolled in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, a federally recognized tribe. [2]

Contents

History

At the beginning of the 18th century, the Tawakoni lived in villages in what is now Oklahoma and Texas. In his 1719 expedition, French explorer Jean Baptiste Bénard de La Harpe encountered a Tawakoni village in present-day Muskogee County, Oklahoma. The French wrote that the Tawakoni raised maize and tobacco. La Harpe negotiated a peace treaty between the Tawakoni, eight other tribes, and the French government. [3] Hostilities with the Osage pushed the tribe south into Texas. [4]

In Texas, the Tawakoni were closely allied with the Waco tribe. Until 1770, they were friendly to the French but hostile to the Spanish. [4] Chief Quiscat traveled to San Antonio in 1772 to try to make peace with the Spanish, but this did not have a lasting effect. [5] European-American settlers fought with the tribes in the 1820s, and disease and warfare had dramatically reduced their numbers. [2] Stephen F. Austin's Republic of Texas drove the tribes out from central Texas. The Tawakoni helped convince the Comanche and the Wichita to sign a peace treaty with the United States government, [3] which became the first treaty signed between Plains Indians and the US. [3] In 1835, they signed a treaty with the United States at Camp Holmes. This was the first time they were included with the Wichita peoples, [2] a practice that continued in subsequent treaties, signed in 1837 and 1846. [3]

Cawhacitsca, a Tawakoni man and son of Dave, 1872 Caw-hac-its-ca, Tawacanie (10143591245).jpg
Cawhacitsca, a Tawakoni man and son of Dave, 1872

In 1853 an Indian reservation was established on the upper Brazos River in Texas, but settlers ultimately forced the tribes off the reservation. In August 1859, 258 Tawakoni people were forced to relocate to Indian Territory. With the Wichita, Waco, Caddo, Nadaco, Kichai, and Hainai tribes, the Tawakoni settled on a reservation in 1872 between the Canadian and Washita Rivers. [3]

Although these tribes resisted the allotment policy outlines in the Dawes Act, their reservation was broken into individual allotments, and "surplus" lands were opened to non-Native settlers on August 6, 1901. [3]

In 1894, 126 Tawakoni people were recorded. [3] Under the 1934 Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act, they joined other Wichita peoples in organizing a new tribal government. [2]

Name

The Tawakonis' name translates to "river bend among red sand hills." [3] Their name has been also spelled as Touacara, Tahwaccaro, Tahuacaro, or Towoccaro, Tehuacana, [3] as well as Towakoni. Some French explorers called them the "Three Canes" or Troiscanne. [4]

Namesakes

Lake Tawakoni in Texas was named for this tribe. East Tawakoni, West Tawakoni and Quinlan, Texas are cities around this large lake. Also out of its dam comes the Sabine River which flows through northeast Texas and even works as the eastern border of Texas (From Center to Port Arthur, Texas). Tehuacana Creek, Tehuacana Hills, and Tehuacana, Texas are also named for this tribe, though using a Spanish spelling.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Territory</span> Evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans

The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States Government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign independent state. In general, the tribes ceded land they occupied in exchange for land grants in 1803. The concept of an Indian Territory was an outcome of the US federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the US government was one of assimilation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">American Indian Wars</span> Frontier conflicts in North America, 1609–1924

The American Indian Wars, also known as the American Frontier Wars, and the Indian Wars, were fought by European governments and colonists in North America, and later by the United States and Canadian governments and American and Canadian settlers, against various American Indian and First Nation tribes. These conflicts occurred in North America from the time of the earliest colonial settlements in the 17th century until the early 20th century. The various wars resulted from a wide variety of factors, the most common being the desire of settlers and governments for lands that the Indian tribes considered their own. The European powers and their colonies also enlisted allied Indian tribes to help them conduct warfare against each other's colonial settlements. After the American Revolution, many conflicts were local to specific states or regions and frequently involved disputes over land use; some entailed cycles of violent reprisal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medicine Lodge Treaty</span> 1867 resettlement agreement between the US government and southern Plains Indian tribes

The Medicine Lodge Treaty is the overall name for three treaties signed near Medicine Lodge, Kansas, between the Federal government of the United States and southern Plains Indian tribes in October 1867, intended to bring peace to the area by relocating the Native Americans to reservations in Indian Territory and away from European-American settlement. The treaty was negotiated after investigation by the Indian Peace Commission, which in its final report in 1868 concluded that the wars had been preventable. They determined that the United States government and its representatives, including the United States Congress, had contributed to the warfare on the Great Plains by failing to fulfill their legal obligations and to treat the Native Americans with honesty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caddo</span> Southeastern Native American tribe

The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wichita people</span> Confederation of Native Americans

The Wichita people or Kitikiti'sh are a confederation of Southern Plains Native American tribes. Historically they spoke the Wichita language and Kichai language, both Caddoan languages. They are indigenous to Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plains Indians</span> Native Americans/First Nations peoples of the Great Plains of North America.

Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains of North America. While hunting-farming cultures have lived on the Great Plains for centuries prior to European contact, the region is known for the horse cultures that flourished from the 17th century through the late 19th century. Their historic nomadism and armed resistance to domination by the government and military forces of Canada and the United States have made the Plains Indian culture groups an archetype in literature and art for Native Americans everywhere.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma</span> Federally recognized Kickapoo tribe in the United States

The Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma is one of three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes in the United States. There are also Kickapoo tribes in Kansas, Texas, and Mexico. The Kickapoo are a Woodland tribe, who speak an Algonquian language. They are affiliated with the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, the Kickapoo Tribe in Kansas, and the Mexican Kickapoo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kichai people</span>

The Kichai tribe was a Native American Southern Plains tribe that lived in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. Their name for themselves was K'itaish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Comanche history</span>

Comanche history is the story of the Native American (Indian) tribe which lived on the Great Plains of the present-day United States. In the 17th century the Eastern Shoshone people who became known as the Comanche migrated southward from Wyoming. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Comanche became the dominant tribe on the southern Great Plains. The Comanche are often characterized as "Lords of the Plains." They presided over a large area called Comancheria which they shared with allied tribes, the Kiowa, Kiowa-Apache, Wichita, and after 1840 the southern Cheyenne and Arapaho. Comanche power and their substantial wealth depended on horses, trading, and raiding. Adroit diplomacy was also a factor in maintaining their dominance and fending off enemies for more than a century. They subsisted on the bison herds of the Plains which they hunted for food and skins.

The Comanche campaign is a general term for military operations by the United States government against the Comanche tribe in the newly settled west. Between 1867 and 1875, military units fought against the Comanche people in a series of expeditions and campaigns until the Comanche surrendered and relocated to a reservation.

Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe was a French explorer who is credited with the discovery of Little Rock, Arkansas. He was the first known French explorer to set foot in the future state of Oklahoma.

The Treaty of Tehuacana Creek was signed at Tehuacana Creek on October 9, 1844 between representatives from the Republic of Texas and various Native American tribes. The tribes involved in the signing of the treaty were the Comanche, the Keechi, the Waco, Caddo, Anadarko, Ioni, Delaware, Shawnee, Cherokee, Lipan Apache, and Tawakoni tribes. Based on the terms of the treaty, both Native Americans and Texans agreed to cease all hostilities and establish more cooperative political and commercial ties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Texas–Indian wars</span> 19th century war in North America

The Texas–Indian wars were a series of conflicts between settlers in Texas and the Southern Plains Indians during the 19th-century. Conflict between the Plains Indians and the Spanish began before other European and Anglo-American settlers were encouraged—first by Spain and then by the newly Independent Mexican government—to colonize Texas in order to provide a protective-settlement buffer in Texas between the Plains Indians and the rest of Mexico. As a consequence, conflict between Anglo-American settlers and Plains Indians occurred during the Texas colonial period as part of Mexico. The conflicts continued after Texas secured its independence from Mexico in 1836 and did not end until 30 years after Texas became a state of the United States, when in 1875 the last free band of Plains Indians, the Comanches led by Quahadi warrior Quanah Parker, surrendered and moved to the Fort Sill reservation in Oklahoma.

Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 187 U.S. 553 (1903), was a United States Supreme Court case brought against the US government by the Kiowa chief Lone Wolf, who charged that Native American tribes under the Medicine Lodge Treaty had been defrauded of land by Congressional actions in violation of the treaty.

The Nadaco, also commonly known as the Anadarko, are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name, Nadá-kuh, means "bumblebee place."

The Taovaya tribe of the Wichita people were Native Americans originally from Kansas, who moved south into Oklahoma and Texas in the 18th century. They spoke the Taovaya dialect of the Wichita language, a Caddoan language. Taovaya people today are enrolled in the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Waco people</span> North American indigenous tribe

The Waco of the Wichita people are a Southern Plains Native American tribe that inhabited northeastern Texas. Today, they are enrolled members of the federally recognized Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, headquartered in Anadarko, Oklahoma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cherokee Commission</span> Three-person bi-partisan body created by President Benjamin Harrison

The Cherokee Commission, was a three-person bi-partisan body created by President Benjamin Harrison to operate under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, as empowered by Section 14 of the Indian Appropriations Act of March 2, 1889. Section 15 of the same Act empowered the President to open land for settlement. The Commission's purpose was to legally acquire land occupied by the Cherokee Nation and other tribes in the Oklahoma Territory for non-indigenous homestead acreage.

Yellow Wolf, Spirit Talker 's nephew and Buffalo Hump 's cousin and best support, was a War Chief of the Penateka division of the Comanche Indians. He came to prominence after the Council House Fight, when Buffalo Hump called the Comanches and, along with Yellow Wolf and Santa Anna, led them in the Great Raid of 1840.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Native American tribes in Texas</span>

Native American tribes in Texas are the Native American tribes who are currently based in Texas and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas who historically lived in Texas.

References

  1. Paul Gately, "Native Americans chose Waco for water and abundance, like others", 10 KWTX (8 July 2018).
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Wichita Memories: In the Beginning: 1540-1750." Archived 2010-07-02 at the Wayback Machine Wichita and Affiliated Tribes (retrieved 1 May 2010).
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Bennett-Jones, Julie. "Tawakoni." Oklahoma Historical Society's Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. (retrieved 28 Nov 2018)
  4. 1 2 3 "Tawakoni Indian Tribe." Access Genealogy. (retrieved 2 May 2010)
  5. Quiscat Handbook of Texas