Quapaw comes from Ugakhpa, "Downstream People," referring to their migration south along the Mississippi. The Quapaw were also known as Arkansas Indians.
Location These people lived along the Ohio River, near the mouth of the Wabash, in the sixteenth century. By the late seventeenth century they had migrated to near the mouth of the Arkansas River. Today, most Quapaws live in northeast Oklahoma.
Population The late-seventeenth-century population was about 15,000. In the mid-1980s, approximately 3,000 Indians called themselves Quapaws.
Language Quapaw is a member of the Dhegiha division of the Siouan language family.
Historical Information
History Quapaw ancestors may have been the Indian Knoll people of Kentucky and vicinity, of about 500 C.E., who lived along rivers and ate mainly shellfish. In the sixteenth century, with the Omaha and other Siouan groups, the Quapaw migrated through the Ohio Valley to the Mississippi River. When the others continued north along the Mississippi, the Quapaw struck out toward the south.
Shortly after the people met Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet in 1673, they were decimated by smallpox and ongoing warfare. They acquired horses in the early eighteenth century and adopted much of Plains buffalo culture. Although in general the Quapaw avoided taking sides in the regional European colonial struggles, they fought the Chickasaw in the eighteenth century as French allies as well as to avenge raids made against them.
In 1818 the Quapaw ceded their claims to southern Arkansas, southern Oklahoma, and northern Louisiana. They did reserve about one million acres of land in Arkansas but were forced to give that up by 1824. Landless now, they went to live with the Caddo south of the Red River, but following several crop failures as a result of floods they drifted back to Arkansas.
The Quapaw were forced to relocate to a reservation in the Indian Territory (Oklahoma and Kansas) in 1833. In 1867 they lost their Kansas lands when that territory became a state. The tribe voted in 1893 to liquidate the reservation by allotting 240 acres each to 230 tribal members. About this time, a variant of the Peyote religion was introduced to the people.
Rich mineral deposits (zinc and lead) were found on Quapaw land in 1905. For a few years non-Indians defrauded the Quapaw out of land and money. After the government finally stepped in and exercised its trust responsibility, considerable monetary benefits began to accrue, despite the fact that royalties were paid to the federal government and not to the tribe. Many individuals who managed to share in the wealth spent most or all of their money in the 1920s. The tribe received a land claims payment in the early 1960s of roughly $1 million.
Religion Wakonda was the great universal spirit who encompassed any number of other spirits or deities. Pipes featured prominently in their ceremonies, and the Green Corn Dance celebrated the beginning of the harvest. There were also numerous other agriculture-related ceremonies.
Government A hereditary chief and a council of elders governed each village. Beginning in the eighteenth century, the people created an overall tribal chief.
Customs Two divisions were subdivided into 22 patriarchal clans. People were buried with tools,weapons, and other items, both in and above the ground. If above, the graves were covered with rocks and dirt.
Dwellings Some villages were protected with palisades. Women built rectangular houses with domed roofs covered with cypress bark, grass, woven mats, and hides. Several families lived in each house.
Diet Women grew three crops of corn a year, plus beans, squash, and tobacco. They also gathered foods, including persimmons, walnuts, berries, and plums. Men hunted buffalo, fowl, and other large and small game. The people also ate fish.
Key Technology Fish were captured in weirs. The people carved stone pipes, made pottery, wove mats, and stored corn in gourds or cane baskets.
Trade Quapaws traded pottery and other items primarily to the Chickasaw, the Tunica, and, later, the French.
Notable Arts Painted and incised pottery was a Quapaw specialty.
Transportation Before the onset of Plains culture, Quapaws made walnut and cypress dugout canoes. They acquired horses in the early eighteenth century.
Dress Prior to the eighteenth century, men generally went naked, pierced their nose and ears, and wore their hair short. On the Plains, men and women adopted the typical dress, including breechclouts, leggings, shirts, dresses, and robes.
War and Weapons Quapaws fought the Chickasaw in the eighteenth century. Their best bows were made of Osage orange wood.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations The new tribal headquarters is located near Quapaw, Oklahoma. The people elect a business committee. There were about 1,500 local Indian residents in the early 1990s.
Economy Many Quapaws farm or work in local businesses. There are also a tribal bingo parlor and a gas station.
Legal Status The Quapaw Tribe is a federally recognized tribal entity.
Daily Life Little traditional culture survives. A few people speak the native language. Most Quapaws are Christians. The Native American Church is a minor presence among the people. Their annual powwow, at which the people perform tribal dances, is nationally noted.
