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Taensa Indian Tribe History
Taensa. A
tribe related in language and customs to the
Natchez, from whom they must have
separated shortly before the beginning of the historic period. There is
reason to think that part of the Taensa were encountered by De Soto in
1540, but the first mention of them under their proper name is by La Salle
and his companions, who visited them in 1682 on their way to the mouth of
the Mississippi. They were then living on Lake St Joseph, an ox-bow
cut-off of the Mississippi in the present Tensas parish, La. Tonti stopped
at their villages in 1686 and 1690, and in 1698 they were visited by
Davion, La Source, and De Montigny, the last of whom settled among them as
missionary the following year. In 1700 Iberville found him there, and the
two returned together to the Natchez, De Montigny having decided to devote
his attention to that tribe. St Cosine, who soon succeeded De Montigny
among the Natchez, considered the Taensa too much reduced for a separate
mission, and endeavored, without success, to draw them to the Natchez. In
1706 the fear of an attack from the Yazoo and
Chickasaw induced the Taensa
to abandon their settlements and take refuge with the Bayogoula, whom they
soon after attacked treacherously and almost destroyed. After they had
occupied several different positions along the Mississippi southward of
the Manchac, Bienville invited them to settle near Mobile and assigned
them lands not far from his post. They remained here many years, giving
their name to Tensaw river; but in 1764, rather than pass under the
English, they removed to Red river, in company with a number of the other
small tribes in their neighborhood. The same year, in company with the
Apalachee and Pakana, they
applied to the French commandant for permission to settle on Bayou La
Fourehe; but, though it was granted, neither they nor the Apalachee appear
to have taken advantage of it. They remained at first on Red river, but in
a few years removed to Bayou Bosuf. About the time when Louisiana passed
under control of the United States they sold these lands also and moved to
the northern end of Grand lake, where a small bayou bears their name. As
an independent tribe they have now disappeared, though some
Chitimacha Indians are
descended from them. The Taensa were always a comparatively small tribe.
In 1698 De Montigny estimated them at 700, and two years later Iberville
placed the number of their warriors at 300, while in 1702 he assigned them
150 families, a figure also given by St Cosine the year before. Du Pratz
(1718-34) placed the number of their cabins after their removal to Mobile
at 100, probably an overestimate. The "Little Taensas" spoken of by
Iberville were evidently the Avoyelles. In 1699 a Taensa Indian gave
Iberville the following list of villages belonging to his people, but most
of the names are evidently in the Mobilian trade language:
Taensas
Chaoucoula
Conchayon
Couthaougoula
Nyhougoulas
Ohytoucoulas
Talaspa
The Taensa have attained a unique interest in modern
times from an attempt of two French seminarists to introduce a product of
their own ingenuity as a grammar of the Taensa language. The deception was
exposed by Brinton in 1885, but for a while it gave rise to a heated
controversy. See Pseudo-Indian.
Index of Tribes or Nations
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