Taensa

The Taensa (also Tahensa, Tinsas, Tensas, Tenisaw, Taënsa, grands Taensas (in French), Taenso, Takensa, Tenza, Tinza) were a people of northeastern Louisiana. They lived on Lake Saint Joseph west of the Mississippi River, between the Yazoo River and Saint Catherine Creek. Their settlements were in present-day Tensas Parish, Louisiana, as reported by Nicolas de la Salle in 1682. They numbered perhaps 1,200 people in several villages.

The meaning of the name is unknown, although it is believed to be an autonym. The Chitimacha called them Chō´sha.

The Taensa are not to be confused with the Avoyel, also known in French as petits Taensas (English: Little Taensa) who were closer to the Tunica people and lived in present-day Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana (mentioned by Iberville in 1699).

History

Prehistory

The Plaquemine culture is considered ancestral to the Natchez and Taensa Peoples.^[1]

European contact

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. They lived along the Mississippi River south of the Tunica, near the Yazoo River.

In 1706, they were forced southward by the Yazoo and Chickasaw slave raids, after which they were among the Bayogoula. Soon after, the Taensa attacked and burned down the Bayogoula village. Later they fought with the Houma.

They settled on the Tensaw River (an eastern branch of the Mobile River named after them) north of Mobile Bay in 1715. In 1764, they were settled with the Apalachee and Pakana west of the Mississippi. Ultimately they merged with the Chitimacha, Atakapa, and Alabama on the Red River and Bayou Boeuf.

Culture

The Taensa were an agricultural and canoeing people who lived in large houses described as having walls of earth. It is more probable that these were made of wattle and daub structures roofed with mats of woven cane splits. Their chiefs had absolute power and were treated with great respect. This varied greatly from the custom among the northern tribes. Reportedly during a ceremonial visit to La Salle, the chief was accompanied by attendants who, with their hands, swept the road in front of him as he advanced.

The missionaries noted the complex religion of the Taensa. The tribe had retained chiefdom characteristics after they had disappeared elsewhere.

Their society had similarity to the Natchez people in its practice of sacrificial rites and hierarchical social classes. Their chief deities seem to have been the Sun and the Serpent. Their dome-shaped temple was surmounted by the figures of three eagles facing the rising sun, the outer walls and the roof being of cane mats painted entirely red. The whole was surrounded with a palisade of stakes, on each of which was set a human skull, the remains of a former sacrifice. Inside was an altar, with a rope of human scalp locks, and a perpetual fire guarded day and night by two old priests. When a chief died, his wives and personal attendants were killed so that their spirits might accompany him to the other world. At one chief's funeral, thirteen victims were sacrificed. When a Catholic priest stopped one of these ceremonies, the temple was struck by lightning. The Taensa took this as evidence that their traditional beliefs were valid. The lightning encouraged women to volunteer to be sacrificed.

In 1700, the French missionary Montigny recorded that many Taensa died of illness, probably an epidemic of smallpox. The Taensa, along with other Indians of the lower Mississippi River, were subjected to slave raids by the Chickasaw, for sale in the British slave trade via South Carolina. The Natchez and Yazoo often allied with the Chickasaw in attacking smaller tribes such as the Taensa and Tunica. During the Natchez War of 1729, the Taensa and Tunica were forced to migrate south into present-day Louisiana.

Their initial relations with the French were friendly, but the rivalry of European powers strained Indians throughout the region. The Taensa later moved to southwest Louisiana due to fighting with the Chickasaw and Yazoo tribe. Early in the nineteenth century, they petitioned the Spanish to allow them to enter Texas, but did not migrate. This was the last appearance of the tribe in historical records.

Language and hoax

French missionaries, François Jolliet de Montigny and Jean-François Buisson de St. Cosme, stated that the Taensa spoke Natchez. Both missionaries were learning the Natchez language. The widespread use of Mobilian jargon as a lingua franca throughout the area has led to the unsupported assumption (e.g. by Gatschet) that the Taensa (and other many other peoples of the lower Mississippi and Gulf Coast) spoke a Muskogean language.

In 1881 Jean Parisot, a French seminary student in Plombières, Frances, published a grammatical sketch, vocabulary and texts (including songs) of what he claimed to be the Taensa language. This produced an excitement and extensive debate among linguists. However, in 1908 and 1910 John R. Swanton exposed the language as a hoax. The hoax inspired debate in philology circles.

See also

• Tunica-Biloxi
• Tunica (language)
• History of the Tunica people

References

• Gallay, Alan. (2002). The Indian slave trade: The rise of the English empire in the American south 1670-1717. New York: Yale University Press.
• Galloway, Patricia; & Jackson, Jason Baird. (2004). Natchez and neighboring groups. In R. D. Fogelson (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast (Vol. 14, pp. 598–615). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
• Goddard, Ives. (2005). The indigenous languages of the Southeast. Anthropological Linguistics, 47 (1), 1-60.
• Jackson, Jason Baird; Fogelson, Raymond D; & Sturtevant, William C. (2004). History of ethnological and linguistic research. In R. D. Fogelson (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast (Vol. 14, pp. 31–47). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.
• Johnson, M.; & Hook, R. (1992). The native tribes of North America. Compendium Publishing. ISBN 1-872004-03-2
• Williams, Stephen (1967). "On the Location of the Historic Taensa Villages". Conference on the Historic Site Archaeology Papers. Vol. 1. 

External links

• Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast By Raymond Fogelson
• The Avoyel-TaensaTribe/Nation of Louisiana Inc.
•  Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Taensa Indians". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
• Taensa Indians from the Handbook of Texas Online

Mississippian and related cultures
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Middle Mississippian	American Bottom and Upper Mississippi Aztalan Big Eddy Cahokia Monks Mound Mound 34 Mound 72 Woodhenge Cloverdale Dickson Mounds Emerald Mound and Village Emmons Cemetery Horseshoe Lake John Chapman Kuhn Station Larson Lunsford-Pulcher McCune Mitchell Orendorf Sleeth Steed-Kisker culture Sugarloaf Mound Lower Ohio River and Confluence area Adams Dogtooth Bend Kincaid Mounds Marshall Millstone Bluff Orr-Herl Rowlandton Mound Towosahgy Turk Twin Mounds Ware Wickliffe Mounds Middle Ohio River Angel Mounds Angel Phase Annis Mound Bone Bank Caborn-Welborn culture Ellerbusch Hovey Lake-Klein Hovey Lake District Murphy Prather Slack Farm Tolu Welborn Village Yankeetown Tennessee and Cumberland Backusburg Beasley Mounds Brentwood Library Brick Church Castalian Springs Dunbar Cave Fewkes Group Mound Bottom Riverview Mounds Archaeological Site Sellars Indian Mound Obion Mounds Old Town Swallow Bluff Island Mounds Central and Lower Mississippi Belle Meade Phase Boyd Mounds Campbell Chucalissa Eaker Menard-Hodges Murphy Mound Parkin Nodena Phase Nodena Site Tipton Phase Tunica Walls Phase
South Appalachian Mississippian	Adamson Mounds Site Avery Beaverdam Creek Bell Field Mound Bessemer Bussell Island Chauga Mound Chiaha Chota Citico Coosa chiefdom Dallas Phase Dyar Etowah Mounds Garden Creek Hoojah Branch Irene Jere Shine Joara Joe Bell King Lamar Lamar Phase Liddell Little Egypt Long Swamp Site Mabila Mandeville McMahan Moccasin Bend Moundville Mouse Creek Phase Mulberry Muscogee (Creek) Nacoochee Mound Nikwasi Ocmulgee Park Mound Pisgah Phase Punk Rock Shelter Rembert Mounds Roods Landing Rucker's Bottom Savannah Shiloh Sixtoe Mound Summerour Toqua Town Creek Indian Mound Waddells Mill Pond Wilbanks
Fort Walton culture	Anhaica Apalachee Apalachee Province Cayson Corbin-Tucker Fort Walton Mound Lake Jackson Mounds Leon-Jefferson Culture Letchworth Mounds Velda Mound Yon
Pensacola culture	Bottle Creek Indian Mounds Dauphin Island Fort Walton Mound Hickory Ridge Cemetery Naval Live Oaks Cemetery Pensacola people
Plaquemine Mississippian	Anna Emerald Mound Fitzhugh Mounds Flowery Mound Foster's Mound Ghost Site Mounds Grand Village of the Natchez Holly Bluff Jaketown Jordan Mounds Julice Mound Mangum Mazique Medora Mott Mounds Natchez Pocahontas Mounds Routh Mounds Scott Place Mounds Sims Taensa Transylvania Mounds Venable Mound Winterville
Caddoan Mississippian	Battle Mound Belcher Mound Bluffton Mound Caddo Caddoan Mounds Gahagan Mounds Ka-Do-Ha Indian Village Spiro Mounds
Upper Mississippian cultures	Oneota Beattie Park Mound Group Blood Run Hartley Fort State Preserve Roche-a-Cri Petroglyphs Fort Ancient culture Alligator Effigy Mound Clover Dodge Leo Petroglyph Serpent Mound SunWatch Indian Village
Culture	Artwork Emmons mask Long-nosed god maskette Mississippian copper plates Rogan plates Spiro plates Wulfing cache Mississippian culture pottery Mississippian stone statuary Shell gorget Languages Caddoan languages Central Algonquian languages Cherokee language Mobilian Jargon Muskogean languages Natchez language Siouan languages Timucua language Tunica language Yuchi language Religion Ballgame Black drink Ceremonial pipe Chunkey Earth/fertility cult Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Platform mound Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stone box grave Thunderbird Underwater panther
Related topics Chevron bead Clarksdale bell Maize Mill Creek chert de Soto Expedition

Pre-Columbian North America
Periods Lithic Archaic Formative Classic Post-Classic
Archaeological cultures	Adena Alachua Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) Baytown Belle Glade Buttermilk Creek Complex Caborn-Welborn Calf Creek Caloosahatchee Clovis Coles Creek Deptford Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Walton Fremont Glacial Kame Glades Hohokam Hopewell List of Hopewell sites Leon-Jefferson Mississippian List of Mississippian sites Mogollon Monongahela Old Cordilleran Oneota Paleo-Arctic Paleo-Indians Patayan Plano Plaquemine Poverty Point Red Ocher Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Steed-Kisker Tchefuncte Tocobaga Troyville
Archaeological sites	Angel Mounds Anzick Clovis burial Bandelier National Monument The Bluff Point Stoneworks Cahokia Casa Grande Chaco Canyon Coso Rock Art District Crystal River Archaeological State Park Eaker Effigy Mounds National Monument Etowah Indian Mounds Eva Folsom Site Fort Ancient Fort Center Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument Glenwood Grimes Point Holly Bluff Site Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Kimball Village Kincaid Mounds Kolomoki Mounds L'Anse aux Meadows Marksville Marmes Rockshelter Meadowcroft Rockshelter Mesa Verde Moaning Cavern Moorehead Circle Moundville Mummy Cave Nodena Site Ocmulgee National Monument Old Stone Fort Parkin Park Pinson Mounds Portsmouth Earthworks Poverty Point Pueblo Bonito Recapture Canyon Rock Eagle Rock Hawk Russell Cave National Monument Salmon Ruins Serpent Mound Spiro Mounds SunWatch Taos Pueblo Toltec Mounds Town Creek Indian Mound Turkey River Mounds Upward Sun River site West Oak Forest Earthlodge Winterville Wupatki National Monument
Human remains	Anzick-1 Arlington Springs Man Buhl Woman Kennewick Man La Brea Woman Leanderthal Lady Minnesota Woman Spirit Cave mummy
Miscellaneous	Black drink Ceremonial pipe Chunkey Clovis point Container Revolution Eastern Agricultural Complex Eden point Effigy mound Falcon dancer Folsom point Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Kiva Medicine wheel Metallurgy Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing Mound Builders N.A.G.P.R.A. Norse colonization of the Americas Piasa Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stickball Three Sisters agriculture Thunderbird Underwater panther Water glyphs
Related Genetic history Portal of Indigenous peoples of North America Pre-Columbian era