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Arkansas Trails To The Past
Arkansas Trails To The Past Logo

Admitted to the Union
June 15, 1836



Your Host for Arkansas
Trails To The Past
Billie Walsh

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History

The first European to reach Arkansas was the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, a veteran of Pizarro's conquest of Peru who died near Lake Village on the Mississippi River in 1542 after almost a year traversing the southern part of the state in search of gold and a passage to China. Arkansas is one of several U.S. states formed from the territory purchased from Napoleon Bonaparte in the Louisiana Purchase. The early Spanish or French explorers of the state gave it its name, which is probably a phonetic spelling of the Illinois tribe's name for the Quapaw people, who lived downriver from them. Other Native American tribes who lived in Arkansas before moving west were the Quapaw, Caddo, and Osage nations. In their forced move westward (under U.S. Indian removal policies), the Five Civilized Tribes inhabited Arkansas during its territorial period.
    The Territory of Arkansaw was organized on July 4, 1819. On June 15, 1836, the State of Arkansas was admitted to the Union as the 25th state and the 13th slave state.
    The name "Arkansas" derives from the same root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansas tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains. The word "Arkansas" itself is a French pronunciation ("Arcansas") of a Quapaw (a related "Kaw" tribe) word "akakaze" meaning "land of downriver people" or the Sioux word "Akakaze" meaning "people of the south wind". The pronunciation of Arkansas was made official by an act of the state legislature in 1881 after a dispute between the two U.S. Senators from Arkansas. One wanted to pronounce the name [ar-kænzəs] ar-KAN-zəs and the other wanted ['arkənsɔː] AR-kən-zis.

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County List

Historical

Judge Isaac Charles Parker
And the United States District Court of Western Arkansas 1875 – 1896

Trail Of Tears In Arkansas

Ghost Towns of Arkansas

Japanese Internment Camps

Federal Writers Project
Slave Narratives

Arkansas in the Civil War

E-Mail Lists and Query Boards

Arkansas Query Board for Unknown County

Arkansas Family History Association Query Board

Arkansas Genealogical Society Query Board

Arkansas General Query Board on Genforum

Arkansas E-mail List on Rootsweb

Arkansas Queries E-mail List

Genealogical and Historical Societies

Arkansas Genealogical Society

North-West Arkansas Genealogical Society

Arkansas State Vital Records


Division of Vital Records Arkansas Department of Health
4815 W Markham Street, Slot 44
Little Rock, Arkansas 72205
Phone: 501-661-2336
Fax: 501-663-2832

Adjacent States


Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas
Pictures
Banner (Top) : Petit Jean State Park
Middle : Prairie Grove Battlefield
Site Created Tue Mar 23 16:18:37 CDT 2010
Last Updated, Tuesday, 10-Jul-2018 11:02:57 MDT
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