Early 18th century Spanish explorer Domingo Ramon recorded his observations of the Nocono in his 1716 Diary. He observed that the tribe lived near the San Francisco de los Neches Mission.[4] Another Spanish explorer, Juan Antonio de la Pena wrote in 1721 that the Nacono village, that he called El Macono, was located five leagues below the Neches crossing.[5] Together with 11 to 30 historical communities, including the Nadaco, the Hainai, and the Nacogdoche, the Nacono formed the Hasinai confederacy, which evolved into the greater Caddo confederacy.[3] These confederacies are thought to have formed due to upheavals, depopulation, and migrations caused by European diseases and increased conflicts in the region in the 17th century.[6]
Names
The tribe is also known as the Naconish,[2] Macono, Naconome, and Nocono.[4] The Lacane, Nacachau, Nacao (Nacau), Naconicho (Nacaniche), and Nakanawan peoples might have been divisions of the Nacono tribe.[7]
Early, Ann M. "The Caddoes of the Trans-Mississippi South." McEwan, Bonnie G., ed. Indians of the Great Southeast: Historical Archaeology and Ethnohistory. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2000. ISBN0-8130-1778-5
Sturtevant, William C., general editor and Raymond D. Fogelson, volume editor. Handbook of North American Indians: Southeast. Volume 14. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 2004. ISBN0-16-072300-0.
† extinct language / ≠ extinct tribe / >< early, obsolete name of Indigenous tribe / ° people absorbed into other tribe(s) / * headquartered in Oklahoma today