TAENSA INDIANS. The Taensa (Taenso, Tahensa, Takensa, Tenisaw, Tenza, Tinza) Indians were Muskhogean-speaking Indians who originally lived near the Mississippi River in northeastern Louisiana. In the early nineteenth century, after they had moved to southwestern Louisiana, the Taensas petitioned the Spanish government for lands in southeastern Texas. They were granted permission to settle between the Trinity and Sabine rivers, but the move was never made.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936-58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (2 vols., Washington: GPO, 1907, 1910; rpt., New York: Pageant, 1959). John R. Swanton, Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico (Washington: GPO, 1911). John R. Swanton, The Indian Tribes of North America (Gross Pointe, Michigan: Scholarly Press, 1968).

Thomas N. Campbell