OCR Text |
Show 74 ing shirt, or frock. No estimate can be made of their number. . Thirty or forty years ago the Spaniards used to make slaves of them when they could take them; a considerable number of then1 were brought to Natchitoches and sold to the French inhabitants at 40 or 50 dollars a head, and a number of them are still living here, but are now free. Ab~ut. 20 years ago an order came from the king of Spain that no more Indians should be made slaves, and those that were enslaved should be emancipated; after which some of the women who had been servants in good fmnilies, and taught spinning, sewing, &c. as well as managing household affairs, married maitiffs of the country, and became respectable, well be.h.aved wo~en, and have now growing up decent fan11hes of children: have a language peculiar to thems~lves, an~ are l!nder~tood, by signs, by all others. 1 hey are In amity With all other Indians except the Hietans. TANKA WAYS (or l'ANKS, as the French call them) have no land, nor claitn the exclusive right to any, nor have any particular place of abode, but are always moving, alternately occupying the country watered by the ·rrinity, Braces and Colerado, towards St. a Fe. Resemble, in their dress, the Cances and ' Hietans, but 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 n;e that he had received 5000 deer 5kins from them 111 one year, exclusive of tallow, rugs and tongues. They plant nothing, but live upon wild fruits and flesh: are strong, athletic people, and excellent horsemen. TAW AKENOES, or THREE CANES. They ~e called by both names indifferently; live on the west 75 side of the Braces, but are often, for some months at a time, lower down than their usual place of residence, in the great prairie at the Tortug,1, or rrurtle, called so fi·om its being a hill in the prairie, which, at a distance, appears in the form of a turtle, upon which there are some remarkable springs of water. Their usual residence is about 200 miles to the westward of Nacogdoches, towards St. a Fe. They are estimated at 200 men: are good hunters; have guns, but hunt principally \vith the bow: are supplied with goods from Nacogdoches, and pay for them in rugs, tongues, tallow and skins. 'They speak the same language of the Panis, or Towiaches, and pretend to have descended from the same ancestors. P ANIS, or TO WIA CHES. The French call them Panis, and the Spaniards Towiaches; the latter is the proper Indian name. 'They live on the south bank of Red River; by the course of the river upwards of 800 miles above Natchitoches, and by land, by the nearest path, is estimated at about 340. They have t\\'o towns near together; the lower town, where the chief lives, is called Niteheta, and the other is called Towaahach. They call their present chief the Great Bear. They are at war with the Spaniards, but friendly to those French and American hunters w?o have lately been an1ong them. ~rhey are Iike\~' Ise at war with the Osages, as are every other nation. For manv hundreds of miles round then1, the country is rich i)rairie., covered with luxuriant grass, which is green su1n1ner and ,,·inter, with skirts of Wood on the river bank, by the springs and creeks. They have 1nany horses and mules. They raise more corn, pun1pkins, beans and tobacco, than they want for their own consumption; the surplusage they exchange with the Hietans for buffaloe rugs, horses and mules: the pumpkins they cut round in their shreads, and when it is in a state of dryness that it is so tough it will not break, but bend, they plait and work |