{{Short description|Extinct Native American tribe}} {{Infobox Ethnic group | image = | group = Koroa | population = Extinct as a nation,<br/> adopted into neighboring groups<ref name=sabo/> | popplace = United States (Mississippi) | rels = Indigenous religion | langs = likely Tunican | related = Tunica, Yazoo, Tioux }} The '''Koroa''' were one of the groups of Indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands who lived in the Mississippi Valley before French colonization. The Koroa lived in the Yazoo River basin in present-day northwest Mississippi.

== Language == {{Infobox language | name = Koroa | familycolor = american | iso3 = none | acceptance = unattested | states = United States | region = Mississippi | ethnicity = Koroa | extinct = ? | altname = Akoroa | fam1 = Tunican? }}

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.<ref name=gallay>{{Cite book| last=Gallay |first=Alan |title = The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717 |url = https://archive.org/details/indianslavetrade00gall |url-access = registration |publisher=Yale University Press |date=2002 |isbn=0300101937 |language = en |pages = [https://archive.org/details/indianslavetrade00gall/page/115 115], 150}}</ref>

== Name == Jacques Marquette referred to them by the name ''Akoroa''.<ref>Swanton. ''Indians of the Southeastern United States'' p. 147</ref>

== History == === 15th century === The Koroa may be the polity identified by Hernando de Soto's expedition as the ''Coligua'' or ''Cologoa''. They may have met the Spanish expedition in 1541 near present-day Little Rock, Arkansas.<ref>Swanton, John R. ''The Indians of the Southeastern United States''. (United States Government Printing Office: Washington, 1946) p. 147</ref>

=== 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.<ref name="Swanton. p. 147">Swanton. ''Indians of the Southeastern United States''. p. 147</ref> In 1682, La Salle visited a Koroa town on the Western side of the Mississippi twice, both on the descent and the return journey. His party feasted there, and saw Quinipissas, whom they described as the Koroa's allies, living in the village.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Indian Tribes of the Lower Mississippi Valley and Adjacent Coast of the Gulf of Mexico|url = https://archive.org/details/indiantribeslow00swangoog|publisher = U.S. Government Printing Office|date = 1911 |language = en |first = John Reed|last = Swanton |page = [https://archive.org/details/indiantribeslow00swangoog/page/n375 327]}}</ref>

A 1698 French missionary expedition also found them living in the same area as the Tunica, Yazoo, and Houspé, and Father Antoine Davion was sent to convert them to Catholicism.<ref name=gallay/>

=== 18th century === In 1702, a French Catholic missionary named Nicolas Foucault was killed while prosleytizing his religion among the Koroa. The Koroa's leaders had the murderers executed.<ref name="Swanton. p. 147" /> Many members of the Koroa were adopted by the Tunica, Chickasaw, or Natchez after European diseases had killed so many Koroa people.<ref name=sabo>{{cite web|last=Sabo III|first=George|title=Indians in Arkansas: The Tunica & Koroa |url=http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/Tunica%20and%20Koroa%20Indians%20in%20Arkansas.pdf |work=Arkansas Archeological Survey |access-date=1 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026185815/http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/archinfo/Tunica%20and%20Koroa%20Indians%20in%20Arkansas.pdf|archive-date=26 October 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== See also == * 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

== References == {{reflist}}

{{Mississippian and related cultures}} {{Pre-Columbian North America}}

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Category:Middle Mississippian culture Category:Native American tribes in Mississippi Category:Native American tribes in Arkansas Category:Extinct Native American peoples