Tanoan Family, Tanoan People, Tanoan Nation. A linguistic family consisting of the Tewa, Tano, Tigua, Jemez, and Piro groups of Pueblo Indians, who dwell or dwelt in various substantial villages on and near the Rio Grande in New Mexico. Of the groups mentioned the Tano and Piro are extinct as tribes and the Jemez includes the remnant of the former inhabitants of Pecos. Gatschet was of the belief that the Tanoan family is a remote branch of the Shoshonean, but thus far the relationship has not been definitively shown.
