Beginnings (before 1682) The Quapaw are descended from a historical group of Dhegiha-speaking people who lived in the lower Ohio River valley area. The modern descendants of this language group include the
Omaha,
Ponca,
Osage and
Kaw, who are all independent tribal nations today. All Dhegiha-speaking tribes are believed
to have migrated west and south from the
Ohio River valley after 1200
CE. Scholars are divided as to whether they think the Quapaw and other related groups left before or after the
Beaver Wars of the 17th century, in which the Five Nations of the Iroquois (based south of the Great Lakes and to the east of this area), drove other tribes out of the Ohio Valley and retained the area for hunting grounds. The oral history of the Quapaw people describes that the Quapaw separated from the Omaha, Ponca, Osage, and Kaw, near the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, due to a lack of game. No correlation with gun bearing Iroquois running the Quapaw into Arkansas along with the Omaha, Ponca, Osage and Kaw is described by historic or modern Quapaw sources, and appears to be an entirely modern conjecture by scholars which is unsupported by the Quapaw. Similar and supporting oral history is well documented and supported by other Dhegiha tribes. It is also notable that there are carbon dated sites which are strongly correlated to the Dhegiha which demonstrate they were split and moved to the respective regions by 1500. Glottochronological studies suggest the Quapaw separated from the other Dhegihan-speaking peoples in a period ranging between AD 950 to as late as AD 1513. Linguistic studies also support an earlier separation date, within a few generations of the initial introduction of corn and long before the introduction of the horse. The first well-documented encounter between the Quapaw and Europeans occurred in 1673, when the Jesuit Father
Jacques Marquette and French commander
Louis Jolliet traveled down the Mississippi River by canoe. He reportedly went to the villages of the
Akansea, who gave him a warm welcome and attentively listened to his sermons, while he stayed with them a few days. In 1682,
La Salle passed by their villages, then five in number, including one on the east bank of the Mississippi River.
Zenobius Membré, a
Recollect father who accompanied the LaSalle expedition, planted a cross and attempted to convert the Native Americans to Christianity. La Salle negotiated a peace with the tribe and formally "claimed" the territory for
France. The Quapaw were recorded as uniformly kind and friendly toward the French. While villages relocated in the area, four Quapaw villages were generally reported by Europeans along the Mississippi River in this early period. They corresponded in name and population to four sub-tribes still existing, listed as '
, ', '
, and '. The French transliterations were: Kappa, Ossoteoue, Touriman, and Tonginga.
Colonial era (1682–1803) ,
Paris,
France. In 1686, at the request of the Quapaw, the French commander
Henri de Tonti built a post near the mouth of the Arkansas River, which was later known as the
Arkansas Post. This was the very first European settlement along the Mississippi River. This settlement was established at the Quapaw's design and request, primarily because the Quapaw wanted European firearms to use against their enemies who had already received them from the British. Tonti arranged for a resident
Jesuit missionary to be assigned there, but apparently without result. About 1697, a
smallpox epidemic killed the greater part of the women and children of two villages. In 1727, the Jesuits, from their house in
New Orleans, again took up the missionary work. The Quapaw were staunch allies of the French and backed them in regional conflicts. In 1729, the Quapaw allied with French colonists against the
Natchez during the Natchez War, which was also referred to as the
Natchez Revolt. This conflict ultimately involved multiple tribes allying with the French against the Natchez, ultimately resulting in the practical extermination of the Natchez tribe. The Quapaw also allied with France during the
Chickasaw Wars, which spanned from 1721 to 1763. Many Quapaw women and French men cohabitated.
Pine Bluff, Arkansas, was founded by Joseph Bonne, a man of Quapaw-French ancestry.
19th century Shortly after the United States acquired the territory in 1803 by the
Louisiana Purchase, it recorded the Quapaw as living in three villages on the south side of the Arkansas River about above Arkansas Post. In 1818. as part of a treaty negotiation, the U.S. government acknowledged the Quapaw as rightful owners of approximately , which included all of present-day Arkansas south and west of the
Arkansas River, as well as portions of
Louisiana,
Mississippi, and
Oklahoma from the
Red River to beyond the Arkansas and east of the Mississippi. The treaty required the Quapaws to cede almost of this area to the U.S. government, giving the Quapaw title to between the Arkansas and the
Saline in
Southeast Arkansas. In exchange for the territory, the U.S. pledged $4,000 ($ in today's dollars) and an annual payment of $1,000 ($ in today's dollars). A transcription error in Congress later removed most of
Grant County, Arkansas and part of
Saline County, Arkansas from the Quapaw claim. . Under continued U.S. pressure, in 1824 they ceded this also, excepting occupied by the chief
Saracen below
Pine Bluff. They expected to incorporate with the
Caddo of
Louisiana, but were refused permission by the United States. Successive floods in the Caddo country near the Red River pushed many of the tribe toward starvation, and they wandered back to their old homes.
Sarrasin (alternate spelling Saracen), their last chief before the removal, was a
Roman Catholic and friend of the
Lazarist missionaries (Congregation of the Missions), who had arrived in 1818. He died about 1830 and is buried adjoining St. Joseph's Church, Pine Bluff. A a memorial window in the church preserves his name. Fr. John M. Odin was the pioneer Lazarist missionary among the Quapaw; he later served as the Catholic Archbishop of New Orleans. In 1834, under another treaty and the federal policy of
Indian Removal, the Quapaw were removed from the Mississippi valley areas to their present location in the northeast corner of Oklahoma, then
Indian Territory. In 1824, the Jesuits of
Maryland, under Father Charles Van Quickenborne, took up work among the local and migrant tribes of
Indian Territory (present-day
Kansas and Oklahoma). In 1846, the Mission of
St. Francis was established among the Osage, on
Neosho River, by Fathers John Shoenmakers and John Bax. They extended their services to the Quapaw for some years.
20th century The Quapaw, together with other nearby tribes, the
Miami,
Seneca,
Wyandot and
Ottawa, were served from the Mission of "Saint Mary of the Quapaws", at
Quapaw, Oklahoma. Historians estimated their number at European encounter as 5,000. The
Catholic Encyclopedia noted the people had suffered from high fatalities due to epidemics, wars, removals, and social disruption. It documented their numbers as 3200 in 1687, 1600 in 1750, 476 in 1843, and 307 in 1910, including people of
mixed-race. The following passages from the early 20th-century
Catholic Encyclopedia describe the Quapaw from the non-Native perspective of that time. . A tribe now nearly extinct, but formerly one of the most important of the lower
Mississippi region, occupying several villages about the mouth of the
Arkansas, chiefly on the west (
Arkansas) side, with one or two at various periods on the east (
Mississippi) side of the Mississippi, and claiming the whole of the Arkansas River region up to the border of the territory held by the
Osage in the north-western part of the state. They are of
Siouan linguistic stock, speaking the same language, spoken also with dialectic variants, by the Osage and Kansa (
Kaw) in the south and by the
Omaha and
Ponca in
Nebraska. Their name properly is
Ogaxpa, which signifies "down-stream people", as distinguished from
Umahan or Omaha, "up-stream people". To the
Illinois and other
Algonquian tribes, they were known as 'Akansea', whence their French names of
Akensas and
Akansas. According to concurrent tradition of the cognate tribes, the Quapaw and their kinsmen originally lived far east, possibly beyond the
Alleghenies, and, pushing gradually westward, descended the
Ohio River – hence called by the Illinois the "river of the Akansea" – to its junction with the Mississippi, whence the Quapaw, then including the
Osage and
Kansa, descended to the mouth of the Arkansas, while the
Omaha, with the
Ponca, went up the
Missouri. == Government ==