When the Bracken's and sheriff are looking for Desiree, they comment that "nobody knows where they are but The Coonies" and they show them going to some shack on the river, but we never see the interaction. I think there was an earlier comment at the beginning from Ben to Deputy Bily Boy about how "Coonie tail is much easier to get than that Thibodeau girl" or something like that.
So were "The Coonies" just another Cajun family? Was it a brothel?
"Coon" is (or was) an offensive term for a black person or a rustic, undignified person (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/coon). Since I didn't see any black people in the bayou in the movie, it's evidently their term for "swamp rats" -- people who live in the remote bog and live off the land (which is ironic since the Bracken family sure seemed like "swamp rats"). They call Desiree and her siblings "coonies" on several occasions.
shareAhh, okay. I guess that makes sense. I just didn't connect "coonies" to be "coon" in that way, and thought they were referring to a family by name.
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