Koroa
Encyclopedia
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
.
Marguette referred to this tribe by the name Akoroa. 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.
In 1702 a French Catholic
missionary
named Foucault was killed while serving among the Koroa. The tribe's leaders had the murderers executed. 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.
Yazoo River
The Yazoo River is a river in the U.S. state of Mississippi.The Yazoo River was named by French explorer La Salle in 1682 as "Rivière des Yazous" in reference to the Yazoo tribe living near the river's mouth. The exact meaning of the term is unclear...
basin. They were believed to speak a dialect of Tunica
Tunica language
The Tunica language was a language isolate spoken in the Central and Lower Mississippi Valley by in the United States by Native American Tunica peoples. There are no known speakers of the Tunica language remaining.When the last known fluent speaker Sesostrie Youchigant died, the language became...
.
The Koroa may be the tribe identified by Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto (explorer)
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who, while leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, was the first European documented to have crossed the Mississippi River....
's expedition as the Coligua or Cologoa. They were met by Soto's company in the area of what is today Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock, Arkansas
Little Rock is the capital and the largest city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 699,757 people in the 2010 census...
.
Marguette referred to this tribe by the name Akoroa. 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.
In 1702 a French Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
named Foucault was killed while serving among the Koroa. The tribe's leaders had the murderers executed. 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 ExpeditionSources
- 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