The Mosopelea, or Ofo, were a Native American

Indigenous peoples of the Americas

The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...

 tribe who historically inhabited the upper Ohio River

Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

. In reaction to Iroquois invasions, they moved south to the lower Mississippi River

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

, finally settling in Louisiana and assimilating

Cultural assimilation

Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

 with the Siouan-speaking Biloxi and the Tunica people

Tunica people

The Tunica people were a group of linguistically and culturally related Native American tribes in the Mississippi River Valley, which include the Tunica ; the Yazoo; the Koroa ; and possibly the Tioux...

. They are generally classified with the speakers of the Siouan Ofo language

Ofo Language

The Ofo language was a language spoken by the Mosopelea tribe who lived until c. 1673 in what is now Ohio along the Ohio River, at which time they moved down the Mississippi River to Mississippi, near the Natchez, and thence to Louisiana, near the Tunica....

.

According to the 1684 French map of Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin was born at Saint-Michel de Villebernin, France in 1651. He died in France around 1712. He was a cartographer, a royal hydrographer, and a teacher of navigation. He was also the first official cartographer in Canada....

, the Mosopelea originally had eight villages just north of the Ohio River, between the Muskingum

Muskingum River

The Muskingum River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 111 miles long, in southeastern Ohio in the United States. An important commercial route in the 19th century, it flows generally southward through the eastern hill country of Ohio...

 and Scioto

Scioto River

The Scioto River is a river in central and southern Ohio more than 231 miles in length. It rises in Auglaize County in west central Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olentangy River, and meets the Ohio River at Portsmouth...

 rivers, within the present-day state of Ohio, corresponding with the heart of Mound builder country.

Franquelin noted the villages on the map as "destroyed". La Salle

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, or Robert de LaSalle was a French explorer. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico...

 recorded that the Mosopelea were among the tribes conquered by the Iroquois

Iroquois

The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

 in the early 1670s, during the later Beaver Wars

Beaver Wars

The Beaver Wars, also sometimes called the Iroquois Wars or the French and Iroquois Wars, commonly refers to a series of conflicts fought in the mid-17th century in eastern North America...

. In 1673, Marquette

Marquette

-Locations:United States*Marquette, Iowa*Marquette, Kansas*Marquette, Michigan**Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette*Marquette, Nebraska*Marquette , Wisconsin**Marquette, Wisconsin, village within the town*Marquette County, Michigan...

, Joliet

Joliet

There are several people and things named Joliet:*Louis Jolliet, a 17th century explorer of North America*Joliet, Illinois, United States, a city named after Louis Jolliet**Joliet Prison*Joliet, Montana, United States...

, and other French explorers found that the Mosopelea had fled to the lower Mississippi. They lived near the Natchez people

Natchez people

The Natchez are a Native American people who originally lived in the Natchez Bluffs area, near the present-day city of Natchez, Mississippi. They spoke a language isolate that has no known close relatives, although it may be very distantly related to the Muskogean languages of the Creek...

.

Around 1700, French travelers reported Ofo villages in Louisiana on the Yazoo River

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...

. Refusing to join the Natchez in their war against the French in the 1710s and 1720s, the Ofo moved further south. They and other remnant peoples became assimilated into the Biloxi and Tunica people

Tunica people

The Tunica people were a group of linguistically and culturally related Native American tribes in the Mississippi River Valley, which include the Tunica ; the Yazoo; the Koroa ; and possibly the Tioux...

s.