Koroa

The Koroa were one of the groups of indigenous people who lived in the Mississippi Valley prior to the European settlement of the region. They lived in the northwest of present-day Mississippi in the Yazoo River basin. They were believed to speak a dialect of Tunica.

The Koroa may be the tribe identified by Hernando de Soto's expedition as the Coligua or Cologoa. They were met by Soto's company in the area of what is today Little Rock, Arkansas.^[1]

Marguette referred to this tribe by the name Akoroa.^[2] 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 east bank of the river.^[3]

In 1702 a French Catholic missionary named Foucault was killed while serving among the Koroa. The tribe's leaders had the murderers executed.^[3] During the years of Indian slavery, the more powerful Chickasaw conducted raids against the Koroa, taking them captive and selling them to Carolina slave traders.

List of other de Soto Expedition Tribes

List of sites and peoples visited by the Hernando de Soto Expedition

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

1. ^ Swanton, John R. The Indians of the Southeastern United States. (United States Government Pringting Office: Washington, 1946) p. 147
2. ^ Swanton. Indians of the Southeastern United States p. 147
3. ^ ^{a b} Swanton. Indians of the Southeastern United States. p. 147