Quapaw

The Quapaw are a Native American people of the Dhegiha branch of the Siouan language family. Traditionally, they inhabited a broad region along the lower Mississippi River and later along the Arkansas River in what is now Arkansas. The name Quapaw is an exonym recorded by French explorers and traders; the people’s own name for themselves differs and reflects their language and identity.

Historically, Quapaw society was organized into towns along rivers, with intensive maize-based agriculture supplemented by hunting and fishing. They participated in regional trade networks and maintained relations with neighboring tribes and European traders, especially the French, in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Quapaw played a significant intermediary role in fur trade and in diplomacy across the central Mississippi basin and the Arkansas frontier. Like many tribes, they endured the impacts of infectious diseases and shifting political tides after sustained contact with Europeans.

In the 19th century, the U.S. government pursued removal policies that led many Quapaw to relocate from their traditional homelands to Indian Territory, present-day Oklahoma, during the 1830s. A portion of the Quapaw community remained in or near Arkansas, eventually reestablishing political organization and continuing to sustain cultural traditions. Today, the Quapaw Nation is a federally recognized tribe with its government seated in Miami, Oklahoma. The tribe maintains cultural, educational, and economic programs, supports language and heritage preservation, and exercises ongoing stewardship of its historic identity and communities, including ties to Arkansas through history and kinship networks.