The Koroa were one of the groups of

Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an ethnographic classification for Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now part of the Southeastern United States and the no ...

who lived in the Mississippi Valley before French colonization. The Koroa lived in the Yazoo River basin in present-day northwest

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

Language

The Koroa are believed to have spoken a dialect of Tunica. However, French missionaries described the Koroa (which they spelled Courouais) as speaking the same language as the Yazoo but a different tongue from the Tunica. They may have described a distinct dialect or a related Tunican language.

Name

Jacques Marquette Jacques Marquette, Society of Jesus, S.J. (; June 1, 1637 – May 18, 1675), sometimes known as Père Marquette or James Marquette, was a French Society of Jesus, Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan's first European settlement, Sault Ste. M ...

referred to this tribe by the name ''Akoroa''.

History

15th century

The Koroa may be the tribe identified by

Hernando de Soto Hernando de Soto (; ; 1497 – 21 May 1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire in Peru, ...

's expedition as the ''Coligua'' or ''Cologoa''. They may have met the Spanish expedition in 1541 near present-day

Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

17th century

The Koroa lived on both sides of the Mississippi River when the French encountered them in the late 17th century. At least one of their villages was on the river's east bank.Swanton. ''Indians of the Southeastern United States''. p. 147 In 1682, La Salle visited a Koroa village on the Western side of the Mississippi twice, both on the descent and the return journey. His party was feasted there, and saw

Quinipissa The Quinipissa (sometimes spelled Kinipissa in French sources) were an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands who were living on the lower Mississippi River, in present-day Louisiana, as reported by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Sa ...

s, whom they described as the Koroa's allies, living in the village. A 1698 French missionary expedition also found them living in the same area as the Tunica, Yazoo, and Houspé, and Father

Antoine Davion Antoine Davion was originally from Saint-Omer in Artois, France. He served in various churches on the Île d'Orléans in Québec before departing for the Mississippi River in 1698 to help establish missions among the indigenous peoples. He would ...

was assigned to missionize them.

18th century

In 1702, a French

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

missionary named Nicolas Foucault was killed while serving among the Koroa. The tribe's leaders had the murderers executed. Many members of the Koroa tribe joined with the Tunica,

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands, United States. Their traditional territory was in northern Mississippi, northwestern and northern Alabama, western Tennessee and southwestern Kentucky. Their language is ...

, or Natchez tribes after European diseases had severely depleted their population.

Sources

* Gibson, Arrell M. "The Indians of Mississippi," in McLemore, Richard Aubrey, ed. ''A History of Mississippi'' (Hattiesburg: University and College Press of Mississippi, 1973) vol. 1

References

{{authority control Middle Mississippian culture Native American tribes in Mississippi Native American tribes in Arkansas Extinct Native American peoples