Arkansas Tribes
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SARRETT/SARRATT/SURRATT Families of America (SFA)©
Arkansas Tribes Index



 
                           ARKANSAS

Caddo tribe: - These Indians are treated under the five following 
heads. Adai and the Natchitoches Confederacy in Louisiana, Eyeish 
and the Hasinai Confederacy in Arkansas, and Kadohadacho Confederacy 
in Texas. Tribes of the Kadohadacho Confederacy are the only ones 
known to have lived in Arkansas.

Cahinnio tribe: - One of the tribes connected with the Kadohadacho 
Confederacy (q.v. under Texas).

Cherokee tribe: - Some Cherokee lived in this state while they were 
on their way from their old territories to Oklahoma, and a tract of 
land in northwestern Arkansas was granted them by treaty in 1817, 
which in 1828 they re-ceded to the United States Government. (See 
Tennessee.)

Chickasaw tribe: - Chickasaw passed through Arkansas on their way 
to Oklahoma but owned no land there. (See Mississippi.)

Choctaw tribe. - The Choctaw had a village on the lower course of 
Arkansas River in 1805 and they owned a large strip of territory in 
the western part of the State, granted to them by the treaty of Doak's 
Stand, October 18, 1820. They surrendered the latter in a treaty concluded 
at Washington, January 20, 1825. (See Mississippi.)

Illinois tribe: - When Europeans first descended the Mississippi 
an Illinois division known as Michigamea, "Big Water", was settled 
in northeastern Arkansas about a lake known by their name, probably 
the present Big Lake in Mississippi County. They had probably come 
from the region now embraced in the State of Illinois only a short 
time before, perhaps from a village entered on some maps as "the old 
village of the Michigamea." Toward the end of the seventeenth century 
they were driven north again by the Quapaw or Chickasaw and united 
with the cognate Kaskaskia. (See Illinois.)

Kaskinampo: - This tribe appears to have been encountered by De 
Soto in what is now the State of Arkansas in 1541. (See Tennessee.)

Michigamea tribe: - (See Illinois tribe above.)

Mosopelea tribe. - (See Ofo tribe below.)


Ofo tribe: - If these are the Mosopelca, as seems assured, they 
appear to have lived for a short time near the end of the seventeenth 
century in the neighborhood of the Quapaw on the lower course of Arkansas 
River before moving farther south. (See Mississippi.)

Osage tribe: - The Osage hunted over much of the northern, and particularly 
northwestern, part of Arkansas and claimed all lands now included 
in the State as far south as Arkansas River. They ceded most of their 
claims to these to the United States  Government in a treaty signed 
at Fort Clark, Louisiana Territory, in 1808, and the remainder by 
treaties at St. Louis, September 25, 1818, and June 2, 1825. (See 
Missouri.)

Quapaw tribe: - Meaning "downstream people." They were known by 
some form of this word to the Omaha, Ponca, Kansa, Osage, and Creeks. 
Also called:  Akansa, or Arkansas, by the Illinois and other Algonquian 
Indians, a name probably derived from one of the Quapaw social subdivisions; 
Benux Hommes, a name given them by the French; Bow Indians, so-called 
probably because the bow wood from the Osage orange came from or through 
their country; Ima, by the Caddo, probably from one of their towns;  
Papikaha, on Marquette's map (1673); Utsushuat, Wyandot name, meaning "wild 
apple," and referring to the fruit of the Carica papaya.

Quapaw tribe: Connections - The Quapaw were one of the five tribes 
belonging to what J.O. Dorsey (1897) called the Cegiha division of 
the Siouan linguistic stock.

Quapaw tribe: Location - At or near the mouth of Arkansas River. 
(See also Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.)

Quapaw tribe:  Villages
Tongigua, on the Mississippi side of Mississippi River above the mouth 
of the Arkansas, probably in Bolivar County, Miss; Tourima, at the 
junction of White River with the Mississippi, Desha County, probably 
the town elsewhere called Imaha; Ukakhpakhti, on the Mississippi, 
probably in Phillips County; Uzutiuhi, on the south side of the lower 
course of Arkansas River not far from Arkansas Post.

Quapaw tribe: History - Before the French became acquainted with 
this tribe (in 1673) the Quapaw had lived on Ohio River above its 
junction with the Wabash, and that portion of the Ohio was known as 
Arkansas River by the Illinois from this circumstance. It was formerly 
thought that the Pacaha or Capaha met by De Soto in this part of Arkansas 
were the tribe in question, but it is not probable that they had left 
the Ohio then, and the name Capaha, the form on which the relationship 
is supposed to be established, is probably incorrect. In 1673 Marquette 
visited them and turned back at their towns without descending the 
Mississippi any farther. La Salle in 1682, Tonti in 1686, and all 
subsequent voyagers down and up the Mississippi mention them, and 
they soon became firm allies of the French. Shortly after Marquette's 
visit they were ravaged by pestilence and the Ukakhpakhti village 
was moved farther downstream. A few years later and before 1700 the 
people of Tongigua moved across and settled with those of Tourima, 
and still later all of the towns moved to the Mississippi to the Arkansas. 
Le Page du Pratz (1758) encountered them about 12 miles above the 
entrance of White River. Sibley (1832) found them in 1806 on the south 
side of Arkansas River about 12 miles above Arkansas Post. By a treaty 
signed at St. Louis, August 24, 1818, the Quapaw ceded all their claims 
south of Arkansas River except a small territory between Arkansas 
Post and Little Rock, extending inland to Saline River. The latter 
was also given up in a treaty signed November 15,1824, at Harrington's, 
Arkansas Territory, and the tribe agreed to live in the country of 
the Caddo Indians. They were assigned by the Caddo a tract on Bayou 
Treache on the south side of Red River, but it was frequently overflowed, 
their crops were often destroyed, and there was much sickness, and 
in consequence they soon returned to their old country. There they 
annoyed the white settlers so much that by a treaty signed May 13, 
1833, the United States Government conveyed to them 150 sections of 
land in the extreme southeastern part of Kansas and the northeastern 
part of Indian Territory, to which they in turn agreed to move. February 
23, 1867, they ceded their lands in Kansas and the northern part of 
their lands in Indian Territory. In 1877 the Ponca were brought to 
the Quapaw Reservation for a short time, and when they removed to 
their own reservation west of the Osage most of the Quapaw went with 
them. Still later the lands of the Quapaw were allotted in severalty 
and they are now citizens of Oklahoma.

Quapaw tribe: Population - Mooney (1929) estimated that in 1650 
the Quapaw numbered 2,500. In 1750 Father Vivier stated that they 
had about 400 warriors or about 1,400 souls. In 1766, however, the 
British Indian Agent, Jolm Stuart, reported that they had but 220 
gunmen. Porter estimated that the total Quapaw population in 1829 
was 500. In 1843 it was 476. In 1885 there were 120 on the Osage Reservation 
and 54 on the Quapaw Reservation, and in 1890, 198 on both. The census 
of 1910 gave 231, but the Indian Office Report of 1916, 333, and that 
of 1923, 347. The census of 1930 returned 222.

Quapaw tribe: Connection in which they have become noted - The native 
form of the name of this tribe, Quapaw, is but seldom used topographically, 
although there is a village of the name in Ottawa County, Okla., but 
Arkansas, the term applied to them by the Illinois Indians, has become 
affixed to one of the largest branches of the Mississippi and to one 
of the States of the American Union. It has also been given to a county 
and mountain in Arkansas and to cities in that State and in Kansas. 

Tunica tribe: - From some names given by the chroniclers of De Soto 
it is probable that the Tunica or some tribes speaking their language 
were living in Arkansas in his time. In fact it is not unlikely that 
the Pacaha or Capaha, who have often been identified with the Quapaw, 
were one of these. In later historic times they camped in the northeastern 
part of Louisiana and probably in neighboring sections of Arkansas. 
(See Mississippi.)

Yazoo tribe: - Like the Tunica this tribe probably camped at times 
in northeastern Louisiana and southeastern Arkansas, but there is 
no direct evidence of the fact. (See Mississippi.)

End of Arkansas Indian tribes.




Source & Reference Notes!

   [REF:#001]
   "The�Indian�Tribes of North�America"
    By�John�R. Swanton; 1944
    [Retired�from active membership on the�staff�of�the 
    Bureau of American Ethnology in 1944]

   [REF:#002]
   File: AR_PG1.TXT
   Refised: July 05, 1996
   By: Paul R. Sarrett, Jr., [email protected]


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Text - Copyright © 1996-2002 Paul R. Sarrett, Jr.
Created: Dec. 01, 1996; Mar. 25, 2002