1840, at Plum Creek, at the invitation of famous Texas Indian fighter Ed Burleson, a party of thirty Tonkawas under their Chief Placido, ran twenty five miles overnight to take part in that fight. In the battle, it was this small group of Tonkawas that inflicted most of the Comanche and Kiowa casualties and who captured ALL of the horses recovered.
It might be hard to argue that they didn't earn those horses, running 25 miles!
I’m pretty sure the Tonkawas were culturally and maybe linguistically allied to the Waco and Pawnee; farmers living in villages on the fringe of the plains.
It was common practice to go out into Comancheria on foot, expecting to return on Comanche horses. Placido himself presumably acquired his two Comanche wives this way.
Knowing what they were like, Ed Burleson went out of his way to invite Placido. Fehrenbach in his book does mention the Tonkawas showing up at Plum Creek, but pretty much writes them out of the script.
"...if the gentlemen of Virginia shall send us a dozen of their sons, we would take great care in their education, instruct them in all we know, and make men of them." Canasatego 1744
