Taensa
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (Extinct as a tribe) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| United States (Louisiana, Alabama) | |
| Languages | |
| Taensa | |
| Religion | |
| Native tribal religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Natchez people |
The Taensa (also Tensas, Tensaw, and grands Taensas in French) were a Native American people whose early settlements, approximately 1,200 people in several villages, had their former locations in present-day Tensas Parish, Louisiana. The Taensa ultimately migrated as a result of Chickasaw and Yazoo hostilities, first lower down the river, but ultimately, protected by the French, to lands near the current eponymous Tensas river near Mobile, Alabama ca. 1740. The meaning of the name, which has the further variants Taënsa,Taenso,Tinsas,Tenza or Tinza, Tahensa or Takensa, and Tenisaw, is unknown, although it is believed to be an autonym.
When Mobile, Alabama was ceded by the French to the English in 1763, the Taena and other small tribes returned to Louisiana, settling near the Red River; they numbered about 100 persons in 1805. They later moved south to Bayou Boeuf and later still to Grand Lake, "after which the remnant disappear[ed] from history."
The Taensa are not to be confused with the Avoyel, also known in French as petits Taensas (English: Little Taensa) who were mentioned by Iberville in 1699, and who are more closely related to the Tunica people, living in present-day Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana.
With regard to its prehistory, the Taensa and Natchez peoples have been described in one local archaeological work as having descended from the Plaquemine culture which in turn is described as having descended from the "Troyville-Coles Creek Indians".
The Taensa were visited by French Catholic missionaries around the year 1700, who settled among the Taensa, Tunica people, and Natchez. In 1699, the Taensa had seven villages, living along the Mississippi River south of the Tunica, near the Yazoo River. In 1700, the French missionary priest François de Montigny recorded that many Taensa died of illness, probably an epidemic of smallpox.
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Wikipedia