Koroa Indians

Koroa Tribe: Meaning unknown. Also called:

  • Kúlua, Choctaw name, the Muskhogean people being unable to pronounce r readily.

Koroa Connections. The name and associations, together with Le Page du Pratz’s (1758) statement that their language possessed an r sound, are practically conclusive proof that this tribe belonged to the Tunican linguistic group.

Koroa Location. The Koroa appear oftenest in association with the Yazoo on the lower course of Yazoo River, but at the very earliest period they were on the banks of the Mississippi or in the interior of what is now Louisiana on the other side of that river. (See also Louisiana.)

Koroa Villages. None are known under any other name but Koroa.

Koroa History. In the De Soto narratives a people is mentioned called Coligua and Colima which may be the one under discussion. If not, the first appearance of the Koroa in history is on Marquette’s map applying to 1673, though they are there misplaced. The La Salle narratives introduce us, apparently, to two tribes of the name, one on Yazoo River, the other below Natchez, but there are reasons for thinking that the latter was the tribe elsewhere called Tiou. In Tonti’s account of his expedition overland to the Red River in 1690 we learn of a Koroa town west of the Mississippi, and also of a Koroa River. In 1700 Bienville also learned of a trans-Mississippi Koroa settlement. From the time of Tonti’s expedition to the mouth of the Mississippi in 1686 there seems to have been a Koroa town on or near the lower Yazoo, as mentioned above. When the Natchez outbreak occurred, this tribe and the Yazoo joined them and destroyed the French post on Yazoo River, but they suffered severely from Indians allied with the French and probably retired soon afterward to the Chickasaw, though part, and perhaps all of them, ultimately settled among the Choctaw. The Choctaw chief Allen Wright claimed to be of Koroa descent.

Koroa Population. Mooney (1928) estimates that there were 2,000 Koroa, Yazoo, Tunica, and Ofo in 1650. Le Page du Pratz places the number of Koroa cabins in his time at 40. In 1722 the total population of the Koroa, Yazoo, and Ofo is given as 250, and in 1730 the last estimate of the Koroa and Yazoo together gives 40 warriors, or perhaps 100 souls.


Topics:
Koroa,

Collection:
Swanton, John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 145. Washington DC: US Government Printing Office. 1953.

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