The Taensa (also Taënsas, Tensas, Tensaw, and Grands Taensas in French) 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. The meaning of the name, which has the further spelling variants of Taenso, Tinsas, Tenza or Tinza, Tahensa or Takensa, and Tenisaw, is unknown. It is believed to be an autonym. The Taensa should not be confused with the Avoyel (or Avoyelles), known by the French as the petits Taensas (English: Little Taensa), who were mentioned in writings by explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville in 1699. The Taensa are more closely related to the Natchez people and both are considered descendants of the late prehistoric Plaquemine culture. The Taensa migrated as a result of Chickasaw and Yazoo hostilities, first lower down the Mississippi River. In 1715, protected by the French, they migrated to lands near the now eponymously named Tensas River near Mobile, Alabama. When the French ceded Mobile and their other territory east of the Mississippi River to the British in 1763, following their defeat in the Seven Years' War, the Taensa and other small tribes returned to Louisiana, settling near the Red River. They numbered about 100 persons in 1805. They later moved south to Bayou Boeuf and later still to Grand Lake, "after which the remnant disappear[ed] from history." History Prehistory 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. They had complex political and religious institutions and lived in large villages centered on ceremonial platform mounds. They were primarily agriculturists who grew maize, pumpkins, squash, beans and tobacco. They had a deep history in the area stretching back through the earlier Coles Creek (700-1200 CE) and Troyville cultures (400-700 CE) to the Marksville culture (100 BCE to 400 CE), which was contemporaneous with the Hopewell cultures of present-day Ohio and Illinois. The Tensas Basin region where their villages were found has several Coles Creek and Plaquemine era ceremonial sites with platform mounds located very nearby, including the Coles Creek era Balmoral Mounds (occupied circa 700 and 1200 CE), and the Plaquemine era Routh Mounds (occupied circa 1200 to 1350 CE) and Flowery Mound (occupied circa 1200–1541) sites. . Protohistory The post-Hernando de Soto entrada Transylvania Phase (1550-1700