Tanis is a character on Letterkenny, portrayed by Kaniehtiio Horn. She is credited as recurring in Seasons 1, a main character in Seasons 2 through 5, and a guest in Seasons 8 through 10. She also appears in the Halloween and Christmas specials.
Biography[]
Tanis is the tough, no-nonsense leader of the Natives, who sometimes refer to her affectionately as "Auntie Tanis". She brings the group out to intimidate Reilly, Jonesy, and the other Letterkenny Shamrocks when they come to the Rez for a game; fear of her BFIs ("Big Fuckin' Indians") had already given some of them "the Native Flu" (Rave).
She sells cigarettes in Letterkenny, admitting it is not a "politically correct" market but justifying it as the proceeds go to improving the lives of people on the Rez. She negotiates a deal to sell cheap cigarettes to the Skids, provided they do not resell them; when they discover the Skids are cheating them, she initiates "the burning of Letterkenny" until they are compensated or receive an appropriate-sized cut of the profits(A Fuss in the Back Bush). This begins with her trashing of the Skids' meth lab (ironically, their only source of income and means to pay her back) and escalates to other acts of vandalism.
When the campaign burns down the produce stand, Wayne and the Hicks prepare for a fight. They offer $5,000 for the Natives to leave town and stay away, which Tanis agrees to after seeing that they brought the Ginger and Boots with them. However, before leaving she cruelly belittles Stewart, provoking Katy to kick her in the crotch, setting off a donnybrook anyway. Wayne secretly hands Tanis the money, and she adheres to the ban (A Fuss in the Back Bush).
Reilly and Jonesy ask the Hicks for backup when they are scheduled to return to the Rez, this time with the Letterkenny Irish to play the senior Natives. Tanis accosts the Hicks outside the arena with a gang of "BFIs" ("Big Fuckin' Indians"), and while a few of them attack Wayne individually (only to lose), she holds back most of her crew from attacking. It emerges that the Letterkenny ban has left them low on funds for the community, and Tanis alternates between threatening the Hicks with retribution and trying to play their sympathy. Young Dustin importunes for a baseball mitt. Tanis' father, Wally, talks about the barrenness of the pantry at the elders' lodge. When Wayne is unmoved, Tanis produces a three-legged dog—and then another three-legged dog, which quickly punctures his resolve. Wayne agrees to let them sell in the farmer's market parking lot on Saturday mornings (The Native Flu). Wayne later returns to the Rez because he cannot stop thinking about a particular BFI that Tannis threatened to sic on him at an unspecified time; Tanis reveals that she was just bluffing, tempting Wayne to stay for their cookout when it turns out she fixes steaks exactly the way he does. They have a sexual encounter that results in Tanis getting pregnant (Finding Stormy a Stud), which she later tells Wayne by phone.
Not long after ("Sled Shack") she asks the Hicks to visit the Rez and help her deal with a gang of 'idiots' who have been causing trouble, compensating them with a carton of cigarettes. Wayne asks her how she is, to which she reveals she had an abortion, but is doing okay.
Things are quiet for a while, but when Shyla and Shania pull Axe and Slash away from her community, Tanis goes to the Hicks for help. After securing Reilly and Jonesy for additional backup, the group goes to the Rez for a big cookout, where Tanis plans to make them re-think their decision because "the way to a man's heart isn't through his zipper, it's through his stomach". Her superb barbecue skills quickly make Axe and Slash re-think their choice: Shyla and Shania manage to burn or undercook nearly everything they fix. Amidst the discussion, "degen all-stars" including Alastair, Sled Ted, Rat-ass, and Jivin' Pete show, scaring Axe and Slash back into Tanis' arms, and starting a donnybrook that ends with Tanis and her allies victorious (Way to a Man's Heart).
In the "The Letterkenny Leave" Tanis arrives at the McMurray house to find that Wayne is avoiding the hot-tub party; both of them have already deduced that the McMurrays are swingers and are trying to recruit others into "the lifestyle". She teases Wayne about leaving Rosie alone with them; when she learns Rosie in fact stayed home with a book, she infers that Rosie may be "up to something". However, when she tries to flirt with Wayne, he brushes her off; Tanis takes it in good humor, continuing to tease him as she leaves.
When the Bay brothers are reported to be returning to Letterkenny for hay season, everyone wants to throw them a party, including Tanis, as they are part native. Wayne heads off a rivalry by inviting Tanis to the celebration at the farm, which she agrees to, bringing fireworks (Great Day for Thunder Bay). Once again, she flirts with Wayne several times during the encounter.
At the party, she invites Wayne into the barn, but he drives to visit Rosie instead, who tells him she is breaking up with him to move to Vancouver (We Don't Fight at Weddings). After this, Tanis and Wayne become involved, and go as a couple to Ron and Dax's wedding. During a later date at her lakeside cabin, however, they become increasingly put off by each other's personal habits, and both realize that they will not work as a couple in the long term. They part as friends after a night of sex. (The Ol' College Try). Despite having broken up, Tanis continues to flirt with Wayne when she later attends the Hicks' Christmas party.
She brings the Natives back to Letterkenny to battle when Hard Right Jay makes an appearance in town. He invites them to join his group, but at the same time calls her Sacajawea and otherwise insults them. When he claims that his gang do not practice violence, Tanis coldly responds, "We do." The Hicks join the Natives to drive his group out of town, with Tanis throwing Jay to the ground and punching his lights out. (Hard Right Jay).
She is later seen at the Letterkenny Spelling Bee, sharing a bet with the Coach and Tyson on who will win: Tyson favors Joint Boy, Coach favors Jonesy and Reilly, and Tanis (who stuffs the money for all three bets into her bra) favors Katy, a prior champion. During the later stages of the Bee, she uses a tape recorder to prove that McMurray is cheating. She uses the tape recorder again in the final round to prove that Katy had, in fact, spelled a word correctly (whereas Stewart spelled it wrongly) resulting in Katy winning the Bee and Tannis winning the bet.
In W's Talk, Baby she offers to buy the Eagles, having apparently inherited a sizable amount of money from her recently-deceased grandmother; she is hoping to use hockey to keep her younger cousins out of trouble and off the streets. The Native Coach refuses, citing the Eagles' position as first in the league. She then offers to put together her own team as exhibition against the Eagles; he reluctantly agrees when Tanis offers to give him a blowjob if he wins, whereas she will take over the Eagles if she wins. Tanis then re-assembles the Letterkenny Irish with Coach, including Reilley, Jonesey, Dax, Ron, Shoresy, Tyson and Joint Boy. However, when she tries to recruit Mary-Anne and Betty-Anne as co-coaches, they and Tanis get into an argument with Coach over his scorn at the idea of them playing owing to the size and weight differences between men's and women's hockey. Tanis decides to test-run the former Letterkenny Shamrockettes against the Letterkenny Irish. When the Shamrockettes are defeated, Mary-Anne and Betty-Anne concede and offer to co-coach Tanis' new team.
In In It to Win it Tanis pits the Irish against the Eagles—who have recruited Barts, Yorkie, Schultzy, Fisky and Boomtown based on each of them making obscure claims of "Native" ancestry. She reveals to the Irish that she wasn't planning for them to win anyway- merely to put on a good show for her cousins and convince them to join, as well as impress the Eagles. The Irish make initial gains, all while chirping endlessly at the Natives, but ultimately lose 5-11. Nonetheless Tanis is pleased with the results on video. The Native coach offers to take her on a proper date instead of a blow job, but he also offers to recruit Reilley, Jonesy and Shoresy to the Eagles, claiming he wants to win beyond the League. He also offers for Tanis to run the in-game show, causing her to hug him in delight before regaining her composure and saying she doesn't 'put out' until the second date.
In "Miss Fire" as the newly-assembled Eagles team defeats a series of opponents across Canada, Tanis provides Shoresy with chirping ammunition before each game.
In "Vidvok" Tanis' sex life with Emma conflicts with her duties driving Zamboni late in the evenings, due to Shoresy's late-hour training routines, so she asks Wayne to cover her evening shifts (and later, to show Axe and Slash how). Wayne reluctantly agrees, mostly because he is amused by Tanis' accurate mimicry of his voice. She later informs him that she is sending Shoresy north to join her cousin's team, the Sudbury Bulldogs.
In "Degens", Dan claims Tanis has quit smoking.
Relationships[]
Tanis interacts frequently with the Hicks, the hockey players, and the Skids in Letterkenny. Although she begins as an antagonist to all three groups in Season One, by Season Two she manages to bury the hatchet with the Hicks and even forms an alliance with them, and dating Wayne on-and-off. She has also apparently had a sexual encounter with Dax and Ron; although she maintains 'never again', she seems on friendly terms with them as well. During her collaboration with the Eagles, she dates their coach for a brief period. In Season 10, she begins a sexual relationship with Emma.
Wayne[]
Wally warns Wayne and the Hicks to stay out of the way of Tanis, who is his estranged daughter. Tanis, however, inserts herself into their midst by burning down the new produce stand which they have been building as part of her revenge campaign against Leterkenny in general. Wayne, looking to put an end to their campaign of destruction, pays her $5,000 to settle the Skids' debt with her, although not without a fight that begins when Katy comes to Stewart's defense (A Fuss in the Back Bush).
When violence fails to change Wayne's mind and allow the Natives back in Letterkenny, she tries to appeal to pity, showing how the young and the old on the Rez could use the proceeds from the dart sales. Wayne is unmoved, but Tanis then produces a three-legged dog—and another three-legged dog. Wayne agrees to let them sell in the farmer's market parking lot on Saturday mornings (The Native Flu).
Tanis and Wayne find some mutual attraction, as they are the matriarch/patriarch of their respective groups; Tanis often refers to Wayne affectionately as "Boo", even though she also frequently mocks his accent and mannerisms. Tanis flirts with him when he comes to the Rez for cookouts, or to defend the hockey players, and when she encounters him in town, as at McMurray's hot tub party (The Battle for Bonnie McMurray). They have a sexual encounter that results in Tanis becoming pregnant (Finding Stormy a Stud), but she has an abortion. She tries to tempt him into another liaison at the Great Day for Thunder Bay party at the farm (Great Day for Thunder Bay), but Wayne remains faithful to Rosie—only to have her tell him she is moving to Vancouver (We Don't Fight at Weddings). As a result, Tanis and Wayne date briefly, and she accompanies him to Ron and Dax's wedding (We Don't Fight at Weddings). A long day together, however, convinces them that they are too different to work as a couple in the long run (The Ol' College Try). They part as friends after another sexual encounter.
Stewart[]
Tanis makes a deal with Stewart to sell the Skids cigarettes for cheap, 10¢ each, provided they are for private use and not resold. The Skids renege on this agreement immediately, however, selling them to children for $1 and arousing her anger. She confronts Stewart and Devon and they prepare to scrap, but she is interested in the money, and begins a campaign of destruction around Letterkenny (A Fuss in the Back Bush). Wayne pays her off, but she is never on good terms with the Skids thereafter.
She discovers that the Skids, under the guise of F.A.K.U., have been stealing mailboxes and committing other petty vandalism around town, knowing that it would be blamed on Tanis and the natives. She goes to the basement to confront him, but Gae steps in to defend Stewart and Roald, surprising Tanis and leading her to back off.
Appearances[]
- ("Okoya")
- ("VidVok")
- ("Miss Fire")
- ("National Senior Hockey Championship")
- ("In It to Win it")
- ("W's Talk, Baby")
- (The Three Wise Men)
- (Letterkenny Spelling Bee)
- (Hard Right Jay)
- (The Ol' College Try)
- (We Don't Fight at Weddings)
- (Great Day for Thunder Bay)
- (The Letterkenny Leave)
- (Letterkenny Talent Show)
- (Way to a Man's Heart)
- (The Haunting of MoDean's II)
- ("The Battle for Bonnie McMurray")
- (Sled Shack)
- (Finding Stormy a Stud)
- (The Native Flu)
- (A Fuss in the Back Bush)
- (Rave)
Gallery[]
- → See 92 images of Tanis at Images of Tanis.
