Captivating History of the Quapaw Quiz

Answer: France

French explorers led by Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet discovered the Quapaw during their journeys. The French and Quapaw entered into an alliance and, over the years, became military allies and trading partners. They socially interacted and often intermarried.

The French called the Quapaw the "Arkansas" which meant "People of the South Wind" and also named the countryside after them.

Answer: Mississippi River

When the Quapaw were discovered in the 1600s they were living in four main villages. They had settled in an area where the Arkansas River met the Mississippi and the two rivers had created nutrient-rich soil for farming. Kappa was on the east bank of the Mississippi. Tongigua was ten mils sound of Kappa and on the opposite shore, very near Tourima. Osotouy was sixteen miles from them at the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers. Each of these villages was surrounded by lush, cultivated fields and the citizens frequently interacted with each other.

Answer: Pipe

The calumet was a sacred pipe that connected the Quapaw to a powerful and sacred force that blessed all things with life. The pipe was shared with strangers and visitors in a type of ceremony. Agreeing to the ceremony, and smoking the pipe, meant the stranger was now a relative and held obligations as if he was a member of the family. French explorers, especially those who visited the Kappa village, participated in the smoking ceremony.

Answer: Bark

The village was laid out so that the Sky clan was on the opposite side of the circle from the Earth clan. Families could not marry within the same clan and they moved into a longhouse with other groups. The longhouse was a large rectangular structure that could house up to 200 people.

Their villages were on fertile ground and surrounded by oak trees (as well as pines and maples) and they used the wood for building. They would use long poles driven into the ground with their tops bent and tied. Horizontal branches then were interwoven among the uprights. Finally, bark sheets (primarily from oak) covered the structure.

Answer: False

The Quapaw Nation is descended from the Dhegian-Siouan speaking people who lived in the lower Ohio River area. The Angel Mounds Site in Evansville, Indiana is a sacred site by the Quapaw tribe and is believed to be one of their earliest original home sites.

The Quapaw later found the Mississippi River during their travels and began slowly moving south along its banks. They became known as the "Downstream People". Their oral tradition, backed by archaeological findings, show the Quapaw began to settle along the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers just prior to AD 1600.

Answer: Smallpox

In the late 1680s, the population of the Quapaw was estimated at around 6,000 people. After a smallpox epidemic swept through in 1698, the lack of immunity to this disease killed a huge percentage of the population. By the year 1700, only around 1,200 were still alive.

Answer: Chickasaw

The Chickasaw were known as some of the fiercest warriors in all of the Americas and earned the nickname "Spartans of the Lower Mississippi Valley". In the 1700s they frequently raided the Quapaw villages, causing death and destruction of structures and crops. By the late 1780s the Quapaw agreed to peace and allowed the Chickasaw to live and hunt on their land.

Answer: Corn and horses

The women in the Quapaw society farmed and raised a variety of crops in the fertile land. As explorers described them, the fields included sunflowers, tobacco, gourds, squash, pumpkins, and beans. But the most abundant crop was maize, or corn. The men hunted game such as deer and bears.

The men also were skilled raising horses after they were introduced by European colonists. The cultivated maize and the horses were used as trading goods, especially as the flow of settlers increased to their area after the Louisiana Purchase. Soon, however, the goods did not become as important as their valuable land.

Answer: Louisiana

In a treaty in 1818, the Quapaw agreed to a million acres near the Arkansas river and gave up almost thirty million acres. Territorial officials changed yet again in 1824 and the Quapaw ceded that reservation and move to lands in the Red River in northwestern Louisiana.

They lived among the Caddo tribe there, but faced disaster after disaster. Starvation and flooding forced them to move back to Arkansas on a sliver of their former land.

Answer: Eagle

Prior to the Civil War, the Quapaw people moved to a reservation in the northeast corner of Ottawa County in Oklahoma. There they began creating their cultural centers, their governmental leadership, and designing their flag. Four eagle feathers that hang from a dream catcher represent the four directions.

The eagle was chosen because it flies highest in the sky, which puts him close to the Creator. Red and blue stripes represent the blankets used by the tribe as they moved from land to land. The word "O-Gah-Pah" is at the top and represents how the people say "Quapaw" which means "Downstream People". Finally, a bison in the center represents their current land and their future.

As of the early 2000's there were more than 2,000 Quapaw people.