ZORQUAN INDIANS. The Zorquan (Zerquan) Indians entered San Antonio de Valero Mission in San Antonio about 1740, but this is all that is now known about them. Since many Tonkawan Indian groups from south central Texas entered this mission at approximately the same time, Herbert E. Bolton thought that Zorquan Indians were probably a Tonkawan group from the same area. It is also possible that Zorquan is a Spanish distortion of Yojuane, the name of a prominent Tonkawan band. J. R. Swanton listed the Zorquans as a Coahuiltecan band, but he presented no evidence in support of this linguistic identification. Today it seems best to regard the linguistic status of the Zorquan Indians as undetermined.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Herbert Eugene Bolton, Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1915; rpt., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970). 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, The Indian Tribes of North America (Gross Pointe, Michigan: Scholarly Press, 1968).
