I'm pretty sure that Dobie debunked the "Tonks as cannibals" deal , but I don't know the particular book.It seems he said the Kronks were the only tribe that routinely practiced it.
...and I wouldn't suggest, as Smithwick seems to, that cannibalism among the Tonks was just another menu option. I suspect it was done for occultic reasons, and that even the likes of a Placido didn't kill a Comanche every day, or maybe even every year.
But we have a number of references to Tonkawas engaging in the practice, including two more than thirty years apart.
Robert Hall, wounded in the thigh by a Comanche rifle at Plum Creek, gives us a particularly lucid description....
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/plumcreek.htm#halldescrip The Tonkaways brought in the dead body of a Comanche warrior, and they built a big fire not far from where I was lying. My wound had begun to pain me considerably, and I did not pay much attention to them for some time.
After awhile they began to sing and dance, and I thought that I detected the odor of burning flesh. I raised up and looked around, and, sure enough, our allies were cooking the Comanche warrior. They cut him into slices and broiled him on sticks.
Curiously enough the eating of the flesh acted upon them as liquor does upon other men. After a few mouthfuls they began to act as if they were very drunk, and I don't think there was much pretense or sham about it.
They danced, raved, howled and sang, and invited me to get up and eat a slice of Comanche. They said it would make me brave. I was very hungry, but not sufficiently so to become a cannibal. And in the 1870's Comanche captive Herman Lehmann ("Nine Years Among the Indians") described the almost hysterical Comanche response to finding partially consumed Comanche remains at the campsite of a Tonkawa war party.
Upon detecting the Comanches on their trail, the small party of Tonkawas, armed with rifles, took refuge in a ravine. Whereupon the Comanches, heedless of their own further losses to rifle fire, overran and wiped them out.
Speaking of Comanches being heedless of their own losses, those three other notable Texan victories over Comanches (John Bird at Bird's Creek '39, Jack Hays on the Guadalupe in '41 and at Walker's Creek in '44) all occurred when mounted Comanches repeatedly attacked in the face of accurate gunfire.
These were anomalies, the Comanche norm was something more akin to successful fighter pilot doctrine: 1) "Fair" fights can get you killed. 2) Always seek surprise and overwhelming advantage and 3) if surprise and advantage are not present, always disengage.
At Plum Creek the Comanches did turn to confront the pursuing Texans under conditions that conferred neither surprise nor advantage, and if 4-500 Comanches was an enormous force, so in context must 200 rifle-armed Texans have been to the Comanches. What then one wonders was the reason that caused them to take a stand? After all, immediately subsequent to this action they would effectively disengage once again.
The reason may have been the big pile-up of laden mules in a swampy area of the Clear Fork. It would appear that in their haste to escape pitched battle, the Comanches had inadvertently driven part of their herd into this wet ground, such that witnesses later reported the mired animals were so jammed together it would have been possible to cross the area on their backs. More than the mules and plunder, it seems likely that there would have been associated Comanches, including women and children, working to free these animals. Thirty Comanche women and children were captured during the running chase following the intitial fight.
Huston obligingly dismounted his force for about thirty minutes rather than charge the Comanche blocking force. Although in hindsight this was obviously the wrong thing to do, it appears that the majority of Texans certainly FELT like they were in a fight for that thirty minutes, and they were steadily whittling down the Comanches during that time. Both Huston and Robert Hall, neither of whom participated directly in the prolonged running fight afterwards, estimated forty Comanche warriors killed against slight Texan losses.
These deaths probably occurred during this thirty-minute interval and at the beginning of the charge after the Texans mounted up again.
Birdwatcher
