The Outcast

Author’s Note

The accounts of the Tunkua in the King journals have puzzled anthropologists and historians. Some say there was no such tribe. In Nate King’s defense, a few observations are in order.

First, it is uncontested that before the coming of the white man, North America was home to hundreds of tribes. Exactly how many went extinct is uncertain, but the number is great. Some died of disease. Some were wiped out in war. Some assimilated into other tribes.

Migrations were another factor. Tribes drifted to better hunting grounds or fled from hostile tribes or moved to get away from the whites or were moved by force by the whites.

It is interesting to note that at one time there lived along the Texas coast a tribe called the Tonkahans. They were believed to be cannibals. No one knows what became of them. An account by an early Texas settler suggests they migrated “north.”