American settlers have removed the Tonkawa people to the southwestern frontier of the new Texas nation by 1837, when the Tonkawa are among the tribes identified in Mexican territory.

The Tonkawa have a distinct language, and their name, as that of the leading tribe, is applied to their linguistic family, once composed of a number of small sub-tribes that lived in a region that extended west from south central Texas and western Oklahoma to eastern New Mexico.

They had been one of the most warlike tribes during nearly two centuries of conflict with their enemy tribes on the Western plains and with the Spanish and, later, American settlers in the Southwest.

Their men are famous warriors, and their chiefs bear many scars of battle.

The Tonkawa women are also strong physically and vindictive in disposition.

The people of this tribe were nomadic in their habits in the early historic period, moving their tipi villages according to the wishes of the chiefs of the different bands.

They planted a few crops, but were well known as great hunters of buffalo and deer, using bows and arrows and spears for weapons, as well as some firearms secured from early Spanish traders.

They became skilled riders and owned many good horses in the eighteenth century.

From about 1800, the Tonkawa had been allied with the Lipan Apache and were friendly to the Texans and other southern divisions.

The Rangers have been trailing the Comanche war party for some time, unable to engage them because of their sheer numbers, but the three days of looting at Linnville have given the militia and Ranger companies a chance to gather.

Volunteers from Gonzales, Texas under Mathew Caldwell and from Bastrop under Ed Burleson, with all the ranger companies of east and central Texas, move to intercept the Indians.

They make contact at Plum Creek, near the city of Lockhart, Texas, on August 12, 1840.

The Comanches, who normally fare about as a fast and deadly light cavalry, are detained considerably by the captive, slower pack mules.

The normal Comanche tactic is to ride as fast as possible away from the scene of a victory, but on this occasion they had slowed to a gentler pace acceptable to the heavily laden pack mules

Thus, the militia and rangers catch the raiders, which normally they find impossible.

The battle of Plum Creek is really a running gun battle, where the Texans attempt to kill the raiders and recover loot, and the Comanches simply attempt to get away.

Although only a dozen bodies are recovered, the Texans report killing eighty Comanches, and the war party losses are probably higher than normal, but greed saves the Comanches in turn; when the militia discover the stolen bullion, they abandon the fight, divide their loot, and go home.

Tonkawas had fought alongside the Texas Rangers against the Comanche will do so again at the Battle of Plum Creek and again in 1858 at the Battle of Little Robe Creek.

The Tonkawa will often visit the capital city of Austin during the days of the Republic of Texas and during early statehood.

The United States had escorted the Tonkawa and a number of other Texas Indian tribes to a new home at the Wichita Agency in Indian Territory in 1859, and placed them under the protection of nearby Fort Cobb.

When the American Civil War started, the troops at the fort received orders to march to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, leaving the Indians at the Wichita Agency unprotected.

In response to years of animosity (in part regarding rumors that the Tonkawas engaged in cannibalism), a number of pro-Union tribes, including the Delawares, Wichitas, and Penateka Comanches, attack the Tonkawas as they try to escape.

The fight, known as the Tonkawa Massacre, kills nearly half of the remaining Tonkawas, leaving them with little more than one hundred people.

The reasons for the attack are varied with some suggesting that the Tonkawa had killed and eaten two Shawnees, and that they were responsible for the death and dismemberment of a young Caddo boy, as the Tonkawa were rumored to be cannibalistic.

Other accounts name the main reason as their being allied to the southern cause. The relations between the Tonkawa and neighboring tribes had been antagonistic for years for a variety of reasons, including the Tonkawa acting as scouts for the Texas Rangers, and fighting alongside them in actions against hostile tribes including the Comanche.

Many of the survivors of the Tonkawa massacre had fled to Confederate held Fort Arbuckle after the massacre, base of the pro-Confederate Chickasaw Battalion, then made their way to Confederate-held, Fort Belknap in Texas in 1863.

The massacre has completely demoralized and fractured the remnants of the tribe, who remain without a leader and live in squalor by Fort Belknap.

The tribe eventually is returned to ...

...Fort Griffin, Texas, where they will remain for the rest of the Civil War.

The United States had removed the Tonkawa from Texas, once again, in October, 1884, to the new Oakland Agency in northern Indian Territory, where they remain to this day.

This journey had involved going to Cisco, Texas, where they boarded a railroad train that took them to Stroud in Indian Territory, where they spent the winter at the Sac and Fox Agency.

The Tonkawas traveled on hundred miles (one hundred and sixty kilometers) to the Ponca Agency, and arriving on June 30, 1885, at nearby Fort Oakland, which is today Tonkawa, Oklahoma, twelve miles (nineteen kilometers) west of Ponca City.