TANPACHOA INDIANS. In 1583–84 the Tanpachoa Indians were reported as living along the Rio Grande near the site of present El Paso. Most writers consider Tanpachoa as an early name for the Manso Indians, who in 1598 occupied the same area. This interpretation is plausible, but the Tanpachoas could have been a local group displaced by Manso invaders. The linguistic affiliation of the Mansos is still being debated. Some consider that it was Athapascan (Apache), others Uto-Aztecan.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Jack D. Forbes, "Unknown Athapaskans: The Identification of the Jano, Jocome, Jumano, Manso, Suma, and Other Indian Tribes of the Southwest," Ethnohistory 6 (Spring 1959). Diego Pérez de Luxán, Expedition into New Mexico Made by Antonio de Espejo, 1582–1583, trans. George Peter Hammond and Agapito Rey (Los Angeles: Quivira Society, 1929). William W. Newcomb, The Indians of Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1961). Carl Sauer, The Distribution of Aboriginal Tribes and Languages in Northwestern Mexico (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1934).
