Tunica people

Tunica

Tunica chief, Brides les Boefs (translated as Buffalo Tamer), holding a staff with three Natchez scalps, their enemies and the son and wife of the slain chief Cahura-Joligo, 1732
Regions with significant populations
United States (Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana)
Languages
Tunica language (isolate)
Religion
Native tribal religion
Related ethnic groups
Yazoo, Koroa, Tioux

The Tunica people^[1] are a group of linguistically and culturally related Native American tribes in the Mississippi River Valley, which include the Tunica (also spelled Tonica, Tonnica, and Thonnica); the Yazoo; the Koroa (Akoroa, Courouais);^[2][3] and possibly the Tioux.^[4] They first encountered Europeans in 1541 – members of the Hernando de Soto expedition.

The Tunica language is an isolate.

Over the next centuries, under pressure from hostile neighbors, the Tunica migrated south from the Central Mississippi Valley to the Lower Mississippi Valley. Eventually they moved westward and settled around present-day Marksville, Louisiana.

Since the early 19th century, they have intermarried with the Biloxi tribe, an unrelated Siouan-speaking people from the vicinity of Biloxi, Mississippi and shared land. Remnant peoples from other small tribes also merged with them. In 1981 they were federally recognized and now call themselves the Tunica-Biloxi Indian Tribe; they have a reservation in Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana.^[2]