TANIMA INDIANS. The Tanima (Danemme, Teneme, Tiniema) Indians, whose name means "liver eaters," were a Comanche band known by this name only after 1800. Although they ranged widely over northern Texas, the Tanimas are most frequently linked with the area that lies between the upper Brazos and Red rivers. This area they shared with the Nokoni and Tenawa Indians. Sometimes the Tanimas camped with the Penatekas, who lived to the south between the Brazos and Colorado rivers. The Tanima and Tenawa Indians were frequently confused by observers who wrote about them, so that today it is not always possible to tell which band is meant. In fact, some anthropologists think that the two names refer to the same band of Comanche Indians.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Rupert N. Richardson, The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement (Glendale, California: Clark, 1933; rpt., Millwood, New York: Kraus, 1973). John R. Swanton, The Indian Tribes of North America (Gross Pointe, Michigan: Scholarly Press, 1968). Ernest Wallace and E. Adamson Hoebel, The Comanches (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1952).
