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Our Catholic Heritage in Te:xas
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Tonkawas caused considerable alarm among the settlers in the area of present La Grange. They professed friendship for Americans, com- mitted no depredations, and expressed a desire for a treaty. Advantage of the proposal was taken, and before the end of the summer, a com- mission from Austin's colony visited their villages on the Brazos and negotiated a treaty. By December of 1824 Austin was able to sum- marize the situation in this significant but laconic sentence: "The In- dians are now beginning to fear us, but we cannot for some time yet hope for complete peace with them." 15 The Indian problem was further complicated by the relations with the much more numerous and aggressive Comanches. They ranged over a vast area west of the country of the Taovayas and the Wacos, and carried their raids as far south as San Antonio and Goliad. Bitter enemies of the Mexicans because of their past friendship with the Apaches, they were inclined to extend their ill feeling to the American settlements, although they tried to leave the new colonists alone. There was still another group to be considered : the Cherokees, Choc- taws, and Caddos-new arrivals in East Texas. These tribes had been driven into the area by the relentless advance of the pioneers in the United States. More sedentary in their habits and definitely more civil- ized than the others, these Indians were, nevertheless, constantly on the defensive against encroachments by white men. Austin proposed on several occasions alliances with the feuding In- dians in an effort to destroy the more obstinate tribes. His plan in 1826 called for a militia attack on the Waco villages on the Brazos at the same time that the Cherokees were to fall upon the Towakoni on the upper Navasota. But Colonel Ahumada disapproved the idea of using Indians as allies against Indians, because they might con- clude that the whites were dependent upon them for survival. The Fredonian Rebellion brought a relatively large group of Mexican troops into Texas in the spring of 1827. General Anastacio Bustamante resolved to use this force to solve the Indian problem, and planned a campaign of extermination. The various tribes either sensed the threat, or were informed by friends of their impending fate. Suddenly all made overtures for peace with the result that the projected campaign was abandoned. The Karankawas signed a new treaty of peace on May 13, 1827, fixing the eastern limits of their rovings to the Lavaca. By this same pact both the Karankawas and Cocos pledged themselves to ob- serve the peace. Father Miguel Muro of La Bahia signed for Chief 25"Austin's Blotter," December 20, 1824, cited by Barker, o;. cit., 107.
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