Tonish

This was a little swarthy, meagre, French creole, named Antoine, but familiarly dubbed Tonish: a kind of Gil Blas of the frontier, who had passed a scrambling life, sometimes among white men, sometimes among Indians; sometimes in the employ of traders, missionaries, and Indian agents; sometimes mingling with the Osage hunters.

A Tour on the Prairies. 1835

The colt would rear and kick and struggle to get free, when Tonish would take him about the neck, wrestle with him, jump on his back, and cut as many antics as a monkey with a kitten.

The Elson Readers, Book 5 Christine M. Keck

As to little Tonish, who had marred the whole scene by his rashness, he had been more successful than he deserved, having managed to catch

The Elson Readers, Book 5 Christine M. Keck

Tell all you can learn about Tonish, the little Frenchman.

The Elson Readers, Book 5 Christine M. Keck

Beatte and our other half-breed; Antoine, together with the ever-officious Tonish, were to make a circuit through the woods, so as to get to the upper part of the valley in the rear of the horses, and to drive them forward into the kind of sack that we had formed, while the two wings should join behind them and make a complete circle.

The Elson Readers, Book 5 Christine M. Keck

On my answering howai, (yes) this Indian came into our camp and informed me that an Osage village was near by, and that Chouteau, Tonish and Pelche, French traders, were with them.

Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans 1846

At length we extricated ourselves, and galloping over the hill, I found our little Frenchman, Tonish, curvetting on horseback round a great buffalo which he had wounded too severely to fly, and which he was keeping employed until we should come up.

A Tour on the Prairies. 1835

Our men, Beatte, Tonish, and Antoine, drove stakes with forked ends into the ground, laid poles across them for rafters, and thus made a shed or pent-house, covered with bark and skins, sloping toward the wind, and open toward the fire.

A Tour on the Prairies. 1835

Tonish, however, prepared chiefly for a campaign against wild horses.

A Tour on the Prairies. 1835

Tonish served up to us his promised regale of buffalo soup and buffalo beef.

A Tour on the Prairies. 1835