The United States had escorted the Tonkawa…
October 1862 CE
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.
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