Description
The Taensa (also Taënsas, Tensas, Tensaw) were a Native American people whose settlements at the time of European contact in the late 17th century were located in present-day Tensas Parish, Louisiana. They numbered about 100 persons in 1805. They later moved south to Bayou Boeuf and later still to Grand Lake, "after which the remnant disappeared from history." The Taensa and the closely related Natchez are descendants of the late prehistoric Plaquemine culture (1200-1700 CE). The Plaquemine culture was a Mississippian culture variant centered on the Lower Mississippi River valley.
Language
Natchez
Culture
As such their languages, political, religious, and material cultures were very similar to the Natchez. Chiefs exercised absolute power and were treated with great respect; unlike more egalitarian customs among the northern tribes the early chroniclers were used to. The Taensa were sedentary maize growing agriculturalists as opposed to hunter gatherers and lived in permanent villages with wattle and daub buildings. Like other Native Americans in the southeast it also had an open plaza area used for public rituals and functions such as the Green Corn Ceremony and games such as chunkey and the ballgame.