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| The initial claim was that the abduction of the Simpson children was the "triggering" event that, in 1842, led to the City of Austin inviting the Tonkawa to camp in Republic Square for Austin's protection from the Comanche. But the Simpson children were abducted in 1844, not 1842. |
This is a summary of a review I did for Bob O'Dell's "When the Tonkawa Lived in Austin, 1842–1843. Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 130, Number 1, July 2026, pp. 659-689. I want to thank Emily
C. Laskowski, Managing Editor, Southwestern Historical Quarterly,
Texas State Historical Association, for inviting me to submit this review.
The full review is available on the Internet Archive. There my comments are highlighted in yellow with text in the comments panel, right-hand sidebar.
https://archive.org/details/critial-review-when-the-tonkawa-lived-in-austin-1842-1843-southwestern-historical-quarterly-2026
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Summary
Bob O'Dell has in support of his film created a questionable
history of Austin and the Tonkawa tribe concerning a camp at Republic
Square based on a single paragraph from a 1924 interview of William
C. Walsh, but where O'Dell rejects the reason given by Walsh for the
camp and instead builds a narrative presumably in support of his
film. There is no question the Tonkawa were in and around Austin
since it's founding, and their friendship with, and support of, early
settlers is documented; a great example is Come! Kingdom Go! On
the Texas Frontier, Eugene V.
Giles and Mary Jourdan Atkinson, Eakin Press, 1980. At
issue is O'Dell's claim of a
camp in 1842, at the
invitation of the City of
Austin,
for Austin's protection, of
sufficient size to double the population of Austin, with sufficient
warriors to deter Comanche raids,
thereby saving Austin (“How the Tonkawa Tribe Saved Austin's
Capital Status” Sep 17, 2024
podcast). That
narrative requires a fair amount of historical gymnastics, as
illustrated in this article, to accommodate primary sources of the
time about the tribe's whereabouts 1842-1845.
Detail
While the Tonkawa in Austin is an under-told story, and I applaud
Bob O'Dell in wanting to research this topic (he has obviously put a
lot of work into researching the tribe) it deserves an accurate
telling. Bob O'Dell's various publications, podcasts, interviews and
city events on this topic starting in 2023 to the present 2026 SHQ
article seems more like a counterfactual historical fiction to
support his film: Tonkawa: They All Stay Together.
Before Travis County Historical Commission (TCHC) met with O'Dell
in 2024 he had already orchestrated Austin-Tonkawa Friendship Day
contacting Austin's mayor and Travis County Commissioners, given an
interview with the newspaper (Austin American Statesman, 05/07/2024),
done podcasts, news interviews, etc. This was all in motion when
O'Dell first approached the TCHC for a marker at Republic Square.
That was the first opportunity to see what he had written. The first
problem was found within minutes of seeing his manuscript and the newspaper's interview of him: the claim that the City of Austin had invited the
Tonkawa to camp at Republic Square for Austin's protection, the "triggering event"
for the invitation a "famously vicious [Comanche] raid in
the summer of 1842" in which two Simpson children were abducted.
But the Simpson children, William and Jane Simpson, were abducted in
1844, not 1842.
That revelation resulted in the need to revise his white-paper at
the Austin Historic Center (AHC), and the remnants of that claim
persist in this SHQ article as "Given the Tonkawa’s tracking
expertise, their presence in Austin might have saved the [Simpson]
girl’s life". Counterfactual and not related to actual
history, but makes for a great story.
In working w/ O'Dell since 2024 (myself, Bob Ward, Chair of the
TCHC; we also contacted the Chair of the Bastrop County
Historical Commission) there have been changes to the story line to
adjust for facts as research progressed:
Simpson kids abduction was not a
"triggering" event for Austin inviting the Tonkawa to
encamp for Austin's safety. While O'Dell did update his AHC paper
concerning the Simpson kids, it was too late to retract the claim
posted in the newspaper. Such newspaper misinformation is for
example what started the Treaty Oak myths which conflated San Felipe
de Austin in Austin County with the city of Austin (The Austin
Statesman March 16, 1923), and which are sadly perpetuated
in O'Dell's SHQ article.
In the SHQ article claims of an invitation, which he admitted
he had no proof of, have been toned down
There is less emphasis on "saving Austin" from
certain destruction as in this podcast snippet “How the Tonkawa
Tribe Saved Austin's Capital Status”. O'Dell describes how
the City of Austin "invited" the Tonkawa to Austin for
protection thereby ensuring Austin remained the Capital of
Texas. https://youtube.com/shorts/MVjKm5s24W4?si=sCnYf0nF7gDnvrl2
But the central problem remains: O'Dell's interpretation of the
1924 Walsh article. The sole primary source for O’Dell’s claim
with respect to a camp in 1842-1843 is a single paragraph from a news
article (Austin American-Statesman, 20 Apr 1924, Page 8). The
article is an interview of William C. Walsh (1836-1924) published in
1924. But O'Dell rejects the reason given for the camp and
instead builds a narrative in support of his film. The paragraph:
"The Tonkaway (sic) Indians were,
from the first settlement, friendly to the whites and thereby secured
the enmity of the Lipans, Comanches and other inimical tribes. In
1842, these Indians made an united attack on the Tonks (sic) and
almost entirely wiped them out. A short time afterwards, the remnant,
about two hundred and fifty, came to Austin and for mutual protection
camped in the city limits. Their camp was situated in a live oak
grove on West Fourth Street, on ground now occupied by what is known
as the "Walker Properties." [generally today's Republic
Square] The treaty was brief. The Tonks (sic) were to refrain from
pilfering, were to act as watchmen and give the alarm if danger
approached; were also to join in pursuit of depredators and act as
guides. In return, they were privileged to trade meat and pecans and
wild fruit for corn, potatoes and other foodstuff. During the next
two years of their residence in the city they held faithfully to the
above terms."
The attempt to "wipe out" the Tonkawa is clearly the
Tonkawa massacre; O'Dell points this out in his paper on file with
the Austin History Center (Bob O'Dell. How The Tonkawa Tribe Came
to Live in Austin Texas, August 2, 2023). The problem is
that the Tonkawa massacre happened in 1862, not 1842, which is easily
explained: Walsh misspoke, or the reporter misheard and/or made a
one-digit typo.
The time-line for a Tonkawa camp after the massacre fits what is
known historically. One factor cited for the 1862 massacre was the
Tonkawa's support for the Confederacy, the tribes that attacked them
being pro-Union. Fleeing to Austin, a fortified city in the
Confederacy during the Civil War, made sense. Walsh at this time was
about 27 years old, and an officer in the Confederacy serving in
Austin; he would have been familiar with the return of the Tonkawa to
Austin after the massacre. Walsh noted it was a mutually beneficial
arrangement: Texas' frontier defenses were stretched thin by the
Civil War; a Tonkawa presence bolstered defense. Walsh's camp of two
years at Republic Square corresponds to an arrival of the Tonkawa ca.
1863 (TxDOT tribal histories project, report
written in conjunction w/ the tribe), staying until the end of
the Civil War when Union forces retook Austin in 1865 (1863+2=1865).
The Tonkawa were then escorted out of Austin in 1867, documented by
government records (Indian Papers) and news accounts.
The number of Tonkawa that were escorted from Austin was 135: so 250
arrive in 1863, and 135 are escorted out in 1867. The decrease can be
reconciled with Tonkawa that went elsewhere at the end of the war, or
fled before they could be escorted back north.
Nowhere does Walsh say the camp of 250 was during the partial
evacuation of Austin starting in 1842. No where does Walsh say Austin
invited the Tonkawa. No where does Walsh say it was exclusively for
protection from Comanche raids (during the Civil War there were
concerns Union forces might take Austin). These are claims that
O'Dell reads into the 1924 article.
O'Dell ignoring the reason Walsh gave for the camp then
requires a fair amount of historical gymnastics to get the story to
fit historical facts and leads to questions, many of which he tries
to explain away in this paper:
Why did they leave in 1843/1844? If Austin invited the Tonkawa for protection, that need had not changed in 1843/1844.
Why did eye witnesses to Austin in 1842-1845, like William
Bollaert, not mention seeing the camp?
Why did the 1905 Mary Mitchell article describe a camp of 2
months, not 2 years?
Why did the article of 1913 describe a camp of 400 to 500
(rather than 250) for one or more years?
Why was Walsh confused about a mass attack by other tribes on
the Tonkawa in 1842 (which did not happen)?
Why has the story remained overlooked for so long?
Why did Joseph W. Robertson, resident in Austin at the time
and mayor from 1843-1845, make no mention of the camp (e.g. his
papers at the Briscoe Center for American History)? Or Julia Lee
Sinks (charter member, vice president, and honorary life member of
the Texas State Historical Association) who also resided in Austin
at the time?
Why do official records documented in the Indian Papers
make no mention? Or newspapers of the time?
Why does the Tonkawa tribe have no oral history of this
event? The TxDOT report developed with the tribe makes no mention;
Bob Ward, TCHC Chair reached out to the tribe; I reached out to the
Texas Historical Commission tribal liaison, and also several
professors in Native American and Indigenous Studies at University
of Texas, Austin.
All of these issues are resolved if you take Walsh at his word: the Tonkawa came to Austin seeking refuge after the Tonkawa massacre.
In 1924, the year he died, Walsh was 88 years old. If indeed he
was remembering events from his childhood in 1842, that was 82 years
prior when he was a child of 6. And having arrived in Austin at age
4, it is plausible some memories of Tonkawa in and around Austin
before 1842 are in his interview (O'Dell mentions one encampment in
this article from 1841 when Walsh was 4; p.674). It is also quite
plausible some Tonkawa did stay in Austin during its partial
evacuation; Walsh's memories of the deaths of Dolson and Black in
1842 seem to confirm that. But the question is, was
it a camp at the invitation of Austin, for Austin's
protection, of sufficient size to double the population of
Austin, for two years, with sufficient warriors to deter Comanche raids as claimed
by O'Dell.
That's an
exceptional claim that seems
to be lacking evidence.
It's
also reasonable to conclude
that Walsh's 1924 article
"Austin in the Making" would include not only his
childhood memories of the
Tonkawa, but also memories of their return in 1863 while he was an
officer in the Confederacy stationed in Austin.
Worth noting, the Walsh article was written by a reporter, not by
the hand of Walsh; as is often the case, newspapers don't always get
the story right.
To sum up, in his preface to the series in 1924 Walsh said upfront
“... I shall endeavor to tell the truth and nothing but the truth
[about old Austin], but I fear to trust the memory of an old
man..." (The Austin Statesman, Jan 27, 1924). The article
standalone has enough uncertainty that when O'Dell approached TCHC
for a marker, we kept asking for additional primary sources to
corroborate. As none was forthcoming we tried to prove the story
(O'Dell's claims) ourselves but could not, with a final realization
that Walsh probably meant exactly what he said, the Tonkawa came to
Austin seeking refuge after the Tonkawa massacre, and the "1842"
was a simple one-digit typo. With that the need for historical
gymnastics goes away.
I wish this story had received historical scrutiny before
it turned into such a media event. My fear is this will, like Treaty
Oak, wind up as a new chapter of Austin history that makes for a
great story, but is not true. Unfortunately, O'Dell even perpetuates
the Treaty Oak myth in his paper ("Before Austin was built, the
Tonkawa... negotiated treaties [under] the landmark Treaty Oak...",
p.663).
The Tonkawa tribe and Austin deserve a correct telling of their
history; unfortunately O'Dell's research seems to have focused on
proving a point for the film rather than being a critical historical
investigation.
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