The Tunica people 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); and possibly the Tioux.

They first encounter Europeans in 1541: the members of the Hernando de Soto expedition.Over the next centuries, under pressure from hostile neighbors, the Tunica migrate south from the Central Mississippi Valley to the Lower Mississippi Valley.

Eventually they move westward from the river and settle at 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 merge with them.

The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, which shares a reservation, is federally recognized in 1981