Some anecdotal evidence suggests the Tonkawa used Republic Square as a camp, though specific dates are uncertain.

An 2024 Austin American-Statesman^[1] article posited the City of Austin invited the Tonkawa to camp at Republic Square in 1842 while Austin was partially evacuated for protection from the Comanche.^[2] The article, based on an interview for the film Tonkawa: They All Stay Together, claimed the "triggering event" for the invitation was 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.^[3][4][5]

The source for the camp is a paragraph from a 1924 interview of William C. Walsh. Walsh describes the camp as being near the "Walker Properties" and having been the result of the Tonkawa seeking refuge for two years after the Tonkawa massacre of 1862: "[secured by] the enmity of the Lipans, Comanches and other inimical tribes... these Indians made an united attack on the Tonks (sic) and almost entirely wiped them out." The 1924 article, however, makes an obvious historical error citing a date of 1842, perhaps misspoke or misquoted by the paper. Nothing else in the paragraph suggests a connection to the evacuation of Austin in 1842, including the posited invitation by the City of Austin.^[6][7]

Evidence of the Tonkawa using Republic Square as a camp between the years 1842-1845 while Austin was partially evacuated is lacking with primary sources of that time indicating they were elsewhere.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]}

In 1905 Mary Smith Mitchell wrote that 200 of the tribe were camped for months "in a grove of live oaks on the... old court house square", today's Republic Square, but does not give a date or a reason for the camp. Mitchell's camp of months doesn't align with Walsh's camp of two years.^[17]

Primary sources from 1867 including government records document the Tonkawa in Austin several decades after the Tonkawa massacre of 1862, until 1867 after the end of the Civil War, at which time the Tonkawa were escorted out of Austin to Jacksboro, Texas. March 1st and 3rd, 1867, John L. Lovejoy, State Agent for the Tonkawa Tribe, visited the Tonkawa "camp" in Austin in preparation for escorting them to Jacksboro, but does not specify the location of the camp.^[10][18][11]

The best known story associated with Treaty Oak concerns Stephen F. Austin: "Though proof is lacking, it is said that Stephen F. Austin signed the first boundary agreement between the Indians and the settlers under these trees."^[19] But as the Daughters of the Republic of Texas pointed out as early as 1925, Stephen F. Austin died in 1836 before either Waterloo or Austin were founded and "[he] never held any conferences with Indians as far west as Austin."^[20] In 1936 the Texas Centennial Historical Commission concluded the story was "unfounded romance ... without historical foundation". The Commission also concluded the "tradition probably grew out of a treaty made by Carita, Tonkawa Indian chief, and Stephen F. Austin in 1824, by which the Indians agreed to keep out of the colony."^[21] The colony referenced is San Felipe de Austin in today's Austin County, Texas which was conflated with the current City of Austin, Travis County. That verbal agreement, and never called a "treaty" per se, was documented in a letter from Stephen F. Austin to Jose Antonio Saucedo in 1826.^[22] A story about the Tonkawa that took place in Austin County was thereby ascribed to Austin, Texas. The Austin Statesman from March 16, 1923 did in fact conflate events at "the colony" at San Felipe de Austin, Austin County, with the current City of Austin, Travis County, then went on to embellish the story beyond what actually happened at San Felipe de Austin, helping spread the confusion.^[23]

Mount Bonnell is often described as the highest point in Austin, with the elevation at its peak about 775 feet above sea level. But it's neighboring peak, Mount Barker is 840 feet.^[24] At Austin's founding in 1839 neither Mount Bonnell or Mount Barker were part of the Austin city limits or its government outlots so Mount Bonnell would not have then been the "highest point in Austin".^[25] City of Austin records indicate that the city annexed for "full purpose jurisdiction" both Mt. Bonnell and Mt. Barker as part of the same parcel in 1951; i.e. Mt. Bonnell entered Austin with its higher neighbor, Mt. Barker, at the same time. Today many peaks in Austin are higher than Mount Bonnell, but few publicly accessible spots offer such a sweeping view of the downtown area.^[26]

A story that has circulated in the news and even City of Austin publications and websites is that the Montopolis neighborhood south of the river is almost ten years older than Austin. Michael Barnes' article "Older than Austin, Montopolis opens up its history" helped spread the erroneous date of 1830 based on misinformation he was given.^[27] In addition to the erroneous date, the article conflates Jesse Tannehill's Republic of Texas era townsite with today's Montopolis neighborhood. Barnes later tried to redress the confusion with the article "Montopolis: A Tale of Two Towns" in his book Indelible Austin: More Selected Histories.^[28] Today a historical marker in Govalle Neighborhood Park on the north side of the Colorado River marks the site of the original Republic of Texas era Montopolis, founded 1839, the same year as Austin.^[29][30][31]

A misconception one may see concerning Waterloo, including on some City of Austin branded websites, is that the "village" or "town" of Waterloo, the precursor to Austin, was founded in 1830, nearly a decade before being selected as the capital.^[32] The planned townsite of Waterloo was surveyed by Edward Burleson in 1838^[33] and incorporated January, 1839, only months before selection as the site of the new capital, ending its existence and being renamed Austin. Describing Waterloo as a village or even larger, a town, in existence for nearly a decade conveys the misconception of a settlement of significant size and organization, but in its very brief existence it was comprised of only about four families. One early visitor to Waterloo (thought to be George W. Bonnell)^[34] gave this description while traveling up the Colorado River: "[having passed the new town of Montopolis we] passed up the river 3 miles further, and reach (sic) another new town called Waterloo. It has nothing in the way of improvement but a name; and I wish it had not that, if the proprietors could not give it one without borrowing from a foreign country." Waterloo was extant for a only a short time as a planned townsite and was never what today we would refer to as a town.^{[35][36][37][38][39][40]}

March 5th, 1842, the Mexican Army under Ráfael Vásquez (general) marched into Texas and seized San Antonio and the capital city of Austin north of San Antonio was partially evacuated from 1842 to 1845 in response to the Mexican invasion. In 2024 claims were made, not by the Tonkawa tribe of Oklahoma but by an Austin filmmaker, that Austin in 1842 invited 250 Tonkawa to camp in Republic Square Park thereby saving Austin from destruction by the Comanche. The filmmaker's claims were based on a short paragraph (163 words) from a 1924 article in The Austin Statesman which had known factual errors.^[41] That paragraph was then embellished introducing more factual errors for an interview published in the Austin American Statesman.^[42] In preparation for a final filming the claims were widely publicized by the filmmaker including communications with city, county and state staff, podcasts, and the aforementioned interview in the Austin American Statesman. A request was later made to the Travis County Historical Commission, by the filmmaker, for a Texas Historical Commission state historical marker at Republic Square. The Travis County Historical Commission, with support from the Bastrop County Historical Commission and a UT Briscoe Center for American History research partner were not able to substantiate the claims with primary sources or scholarly works.. However, primary sources including government records do document the Tonkawa in Austin several decades later after the Tonkawa massacre of 1862, until 1867 after the end of the Civil War, at which time the Tonkawa were escorted out of Austin to Jacksboro, Texas.^{[43][12][8][9][10][18][11]} Notwithstanding the inability to find credible evidence for the claims of any camp in Austin for the years 1842-1845, members of the Tonkawa tribe from Oklahoma were in Austin Sept. 12, 2024 for Austin-Tonkawa Friendship Day, a recognition of the friendship between the tribe and Austin since historical times.

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