Note III'-12 — Chapter III · ITINERARY, CONCLUDED: THROUGH TEXAS TO NATCHITOCHES ON THE RED RIVER OF LOUISIANA, JUNE 1ST-JULY 1ST, 1807.

The "Tancards" of whom Pike speaks on the 16th and 17th, also called Tankahuas, Tonkawans, Tankaways, etc., were a remarkable people—a sort of Ishmaelites who roamed about, and seemed to belong nowhere in particular. Powell styles them a "colluvies gentium" or fusion of tribes; and what little we know of their local habitation is derived mainly from Dr. Sibley's notes, supplemented by the above passages in Pike's narrative. Dr. Sibley's historical letter to General Dearborn, dated Natchitoches, Apr. 5th, 1805, and first published with other tracts in Jefferson's Message to Congress of Feb. 19th, 1806, is one of the bases of the literature on this subject. "The Tankaways (or Tanks, as the French call them)," says Sibley, p. 45 of the London ed., 1807, "have no land, nor claim the exclusive right to any, nor have any particular place of abode, but are always moving, alternately occupying the country watered by the Trinity, Braces [Brazos], and Colerado, towards St. a Fé. Resemble, in their dress, the Cances [Kanzas] and Hietans [Comanches], but [are] all in one horde or tribe. Their number of men is estimated at about 200; are good hunters; kill buffaloe and deer with the bow; have the best breed of horses; are alternately friends and enemies of the Spaniards. An old trader lately informed me that he has received 5000 deer skins from them in one year, exclusive of tallow, rugs and tongues. They plant nothing, but live upon fruits and flesh: are strong, athletic people, and excellent horsemen." The history of the tribe dates back of Sibley and Pike nearly a century, if the first mention of these Bedouins of the Texan sands in 1719 be taken as its starting-point. In 1876 Gatschet had collected a vocabulary of about 300 words, upon which linguistic material he classed the people as a separate stock called Tonkawa, from the Caddoan or Wakoan word tonkaweya, implying that these Indians kept by themselves, aloof from other tribes. The Tonkawan family is recognized by Powell as one of the 58 distinct linguistic stocks he adopts in his classification; his map locates the tribe agreeably with the above indications, and his text adds: "About 1847 they were engaged as scouts in the United States Army, and from 1860-62 (?) were in the Indian Territory; after the secession war till 1884 they lived in temporary camps near Fort Griffin, Shackleford County, Texas, and in October, 1884, they removed to the Indian Territory (now on Oakland Reserve). In 1884 there were 78 individuals living; associated with them were 19 Lipan Apache" (Seventh Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn., 1885-86, published 1891, p. 126). Two other Tonkawan tribes, the Mayes and Yakwal, are extinct or merged in the former; and several minor bands have been known by name.