Chief Placido Plácido ( ca . 1788 - 1862 ) was major Native American Chief of the Tonkawa Indians in Texas during the Spanish and Mexican rule , the Republic of Texas era , and with Texas as part of the United States . Early years in Texas . Plácido was born the son of a Tonkawa Chief and a Comanche female captive / slave . His Mother being Comanche , is highly ironic , in that he became the greatest enemy the Comanche had in Texas . Plácido , known in his own language as Ha - shu - ka - na ( " Can ' t Kill Him " ) , was the last major Chief of the Tonkawa Indians . The fierce Tonkawas became great friends of the white Texas settlers , helping them against all their enemies . Plácido rose to power among the Tonkawas during the Long expedition into Texas in 1819 . Warriors from several tribes , including Placido and his Tonkawa , joined in James Long ' s venture and gained horses , other plunder , and scalps in battles with the Spanish army . After Carita , a prominent Tonkawa leader , died in 1823 , Plácido was elected as head chief of his people by the chiefs and elders . The Chief and Stephen Austin . Plácido befriended Stephen F . Austin in the early days of Spanish Texas Settlement . His friendship was responsible for the Tonkawa support of the Texan forces , in the Texas War for Independence . Allied with the new Republic , the Tonkawa felt secure in their central Texas home , near the Springs of the San Marcos River . They provided service to the new Republic as Army and Ranger scouts against the Caddo , Wichita , Waco , and especially against their traditional Comanche enemies . Battle of Plum Creek . Though Texas histories make much of the Texas Militia fighting the Comanche at Plum Creek after the Great Raid , most of those histories forget to mention that the Texans would not have been in a position to intercept Buffalo Hump and the returning raiders except for the help of Plácido and his men . With the help of Chief Plácido and thirteen of his Tonkawa scouts , Texas militia from Bastrop and Gonzales ambushed the raiding party at Plum Creek ( near present day Lockhart , Texas ) . Abandoning some of their spoils , the surviving Comanche escaped north . Plácido begged the Texans to pursue them , but ironically , the same greed which had slowed the Comanche light horse sufficiently for the Militia to ambush them also saved them . Mules loaded with silver bullion were recaptured by the whites , and they simply stopped fighting , divided the money , and went home . Troubled Times in the New State . While Texas was a Republic , Tonkawa land was respected , especially since their help against the warlike Comanche was vital to the young Republic . But after Texas became a state , white settlers increasingly trespassed and settled on Tonkawa land . Plácido tried repeatedly and sometimes unsuccessfully to keep the peace , but his influence waned as his people ’ s aid against the Comanche was not vital once the U . S . Army , with its virtually limitless resources , assumed the guardianship of the frontier . In 1854 , he and his people went to a reservation on the Brazos created by Robert Neighbors . It was from that reservation that Placido and his people went forth to fight for the same Texans who drove them on the reservation . Battle of Little Robe Creek . The last battle the Tonkawa fought with and for the Texans was the Battle of Little Robe Creek . Texas Governor Hardin Runnels had campaigned for office in 1856 on a platform to put an end to the continuing Comanche and Kiowa raids from those bands of both tribes off the reservation . He publicly expressed astonishment and rage when the 2nd United States Cavalry was transferred to Utah , and ultimately disbanded altogether . Governor Runnels determined to reestablish disbanded Ranger battalions which were reduced after Texas ' annexation by the United States . The end result was that on January 27 , 1858 , Governor Runnels appointed John Salmon " Rip " Ford , a veteran Ranger of the Mexican - American War and frontier Indian fighter , as captain and commander of the Texas Ranger , Militia , and Allied Indian Forces , and ordered him to carry the battle to the Comanches in the heart of their homeland on the Comancheria . Ford , whose habit of signing the casualty reports with the initials " RIP " for " Rest In Peace , ” was known as a ferocious and no - nonsense Indian fighter . Commonly missing from the history books was his proclivity for ordering the wholesale slaughter of any Indian , man or woman , he could find . Ford ’ s reason for this was simple : Comanche raids were brutal in their treatment of settlers . Thus , Ford determined to meet brutality with brutality . Governor Runnels issued very explicit orders to Ford , " I impress upon you the necessity of action and energy . Follow any trail and all trails of hostile or suspected hostile Indians you may discover and if possible , overtake and chastise them if unfriendly . On March 19 , 1858 , Ford went to the Brazos Reservation , near what today is the city of Fort Worth , Texas , and recruited the Tonkawa into his forces . Tonkawa Indians , the latter commanded by their “ celebrated ” chief , Placido , are hailed today as the “ faithful and implicitly trusted friend of the whites ” ( with limited mention of their cannibalism ) . Without the Tonkawa , and their 100 experienced warriors , Ford simply did not have enough men to launch a campaign into the Comancheria . After recruiting Placido , Ford undertook a campaign with approximately an equal number of Texas Rangers and Tonkawa Warriors against the Comanches . Ford and Placido were determined to follow the Comanche and Kiowa up to their strongholds amid the hills of the Canadian river , and into the Wichita Mountains , and if possible , “ kill their warriors , decimate their food supply , strike at their homes and families and generally destroy their ability to make war . ” In April 1858 , Ford established Camp Runnells near what used to be the town of Belknap . Ford , still operating under Governor Runnell ’ s explicits orders to “ follow any and all trails of hostile and suspected hostile Indians , inflict the most severe and summary punishment , ” and to “ allow no interference from any source . ” ( That source was interpreted to mean the United States , whose Army and Indian Agents might try to enforce federal treaties and federal statutory law against trespassing on the Indian territories in Oklahoma ) . On April 15 , Ford ' s Rangers , accompanied by Tonkawa warriors , and Anadarko and Shawnee scouts from the Brazos Reservation in Texas , crossed the Red River into Indian Territory . The force then advanced into the portion of the Comancheria in the Indian Territories in Oklahoma . Ford led his men across the Red River , into the Indian Territory , violating federal laws and numerous treaties , but stating later that his job was to “ find and fight Indians , not to learn geography . ” At sunrise on May 12 , 1858 . Ford and his joint force of Rangers and Tonkawa began an all - day battle with a dawn attack on a sleeping Comanche village . The so - called Battle of Little Robe Creek was actually three distinct separate incidents which happened over the course of a single day . The first was the attack on the sleeping village . The second was a follow up attack on the village of Iron Jacket , somewhat further up the Canadian River . Iron Jacket , so named for the coat of iron mail he wore in battle was killed in this exchange , and the remainder of his village was saved by the timely intervention of Peta Nocona with a third force of Comanche who arrived to engage Ford while all the villages along the Canadian made a swift withdrawal . Before the withdrawal , a dozen Tonkawas were killed in single combat with Comanches whose challenge to single combat they accepted . Ford , enraged by the losses , finally forbid the Tonkawa to accept anymore . Peta Nocona knew that his warriors were no match for the Rangers in an even exchange of gunfire , and had no intention of engaging in such an exchange . He used every trick available to him , including attempting to lure the Rangers and Tonkawas into individual duals , to delay the enemy so the villages upriver would be able to withdraw safely . In this , he was successful . The Battle of Little Robe Creek was notable in that the Texan forces first , invaded the United States against every tenet of federal law and numerous Indian Treaties , attacked Indian villages without warning of any kind , and allowed their allied Indians , the Tonkawa , to eat some of the Comanche killed in battle . After Little Robe Creek . Despite their literally dying for the white Texans , the Tonkawa were endangered on the Brazos Reservation . Indeed , once a settler accused two Tonkawa warriors of killing a man , and Plácido fled , seeking refuge with other Indians - all of whom refused him sanctuary . Only the timely intervention of Robert Neighbors , who convinced the US Military not to pursue the matter , kept the settlers from hanging Plácido . Increasing harassment by white settlers had made Texas increasingly dangerous for the Indian . In 1859 , Indian Agent Neighbors convinced the United States to allow the displacement of all the Texas tribes , ( including Plácido and his Tonkawa ) , to a reservation in Indian Territory ( Oklahoma ) . In October 1862 , when Confederate Indian Agents arrived at the reservations , only the Tonkawa welcomed them , as Placido saw the Confederacy as an extension of his beloved Republic of Texas , which had valued his people . Unfortunately for the Tonkawa , other Indians never forgot the Tonkawa ’ s loyalty to the Texans , even if the Texans did . Despite pleas from the aging Placido to protect his people from their enemies , the Tonkawa were not allowed to return to their reservation on the Brazos , and remained on a reservation in Oklahoma with the Delaware , Shawnee and Caddo tribes . On October 23 , 1862 , warriors from these tribes , instigated and assisted by the Comanche and Kiowa , united to attack the Tonkawas . Sadly and ironically , unlike Federal Indian Agents like Neighbors , who had always protected the Tonkawas to the best of their ability , the Confederate Agents Placido had welcomed so happily did not make any effort to protect them at all . 137 out of the remaining 309 Tonkawas were killed in what was named the Tonkawa Massacre . Included in the dead was the elderly Placido . Plácido had two sons , Charlie and Little Spots . Their Mother had also been a Comanche captive . After the 1862 slaughter of much of their tribe , the survivors , led by Plácido ' s son Charlie , fled to Fort Belknap , Texas , and remained there until the end of the Civil War . Today , Today less than 15 families of Tonkawa remain on their reservation in Oklahoma .