NACONO INDIANS. The Nacono (Macono, Nacomone, Nocono) Indians, a tribe of the southwestern or Hasinai group of Caddo Indians in eastern Texas, lived along the Neches River during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, particularly in the vicinity of present Cherokee and Houston counties. For a short time the Naconos were served by the San Francisco de los Neches Mission, which was established in 1716. After 1727 little is heard of the Nacono Indians, who appear to have been absorbed by one or more neighboring Hasinai tribes. On the basis of sound correspondences in the names, J. R. Swanton has suggested that the Hacanac, Lacane, Nacachau, Nacau, Nacaniche, Nacono, and Nakanawan Indians were probably fragments of the same Caddoan tribe. This cannot be verified by such documentary evidence as is now available.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Herbert E. Bolton, "The Native Tribes about the East Texas Missions," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 11 (April 1908). Frederick Webb Hodge, ed., Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico (2 vols., Washington: GPO, 1907, 1910; rpt., New York: Pageant, 1959). John R. Swanton, Source Material on the History and Ethnology of the Caddo Indians (Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 132, Washington: GPO, 1942).

Thomas N. Campbell