Quapaw Tribe

Quapaw Indians (from Ugákhpa, ‘downstream people’). A southwestern Siouan tribe, forming one of the two divisions of the Dhegiha group of Dorsey. They were known by some form of this word to the Omaha, Ponca, Kansa, Osage, and Creeks. At the time of separation, the Quapaw are supposed to have gone down the Mississippi, and the Omaha group, including the Omaha, Kansa, Ponca, and Osage, up the Missouri. There is undoubtedly a close linguistic and ethnic relation between the Quapaw and the other four tribes. Also called:

• Akansa, or Arkansas, by the Illinois and other Algonquian Indians, a name probably derived from one of the Quapaw social subdivisions.
• Beaux 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 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 Location
At or near the mouth of Arkansas River. (See also Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas.)

History of the Quapaw Tribe

The recorded history of this tribe is commonly supposed to begin with the chronicles of ‘De Soto’s expedition (1539-43). In the relation of the Gentleman of Elvas and that of Biedma, they or their chief band are mentioned under the name Pacaha, and in that by Garcilasso de la Vega under the name Capaha, the latter being nearer the true pronunciation, though the author wrote only from information and manuscripts furnished, while the former two were members of the expedition. The people of the tribe, or rather of one portion or division of it, were found in a strongly fortified village, which one of the chroniclers, probably with some exaggeration describes as “very great, walled, and beset with towers.” He adds: “Many loopholes were in the towers and wall a great lake came near unto the wall, and it entered into a ditch that went round about the town, wanting but little to environ it around. From the lake to the great river [Mississippi] was made a weir by which the fish came into it” 1. He further says: “And in the town was great store of old maize and great quantity of new in the fields [the date was June 19]. Within a league were great towns, all walled.” Their village was on the west bank of the Mississippi, north of Arkansas river, within the limits of the present Arkansas, probably in Phillips County. There are archeological remains and local conditions in this county which suit exactly the description of Pacaha: the lake on one side, Mississippi river on the other, the connecting channel, and the island nearby. There is, it is true, a locality in Crittenden County where the ancient works, lake, channel, river, and island are all found, but this locality does not agree so well with the narration. The statement by early French explorers, who found them below the mouth of St Francis River, that they had removed from their old town, where the outworks were still to be seen, a short distance to the north, indicates that they had been in that region for many years. Their traditional history seems to have a substantial basis. Father Gravier, in the description of his voyage down the Mississippi in 1700, remarks 2 that Wabash and lower Ohio rivers were called by the Illinois and Miami the river of the Akansea (Quapaw), because the Akansea formerly dwelt on their banks. Three branches were assigned to it, one of them coming from the northwest and passing behind the country of the Miami, called the river St Joseph, ” which the Indians call properly Ouabachci.” The Quapaw are known historically and from other evidence to have been mound builders, and also builders of mounds of a given type. A mound group containing mounds of this type is found in southwest Indiana on the Ohio near its junction with the Wabash; and further, there is a map of the War Department showing the territory claimed by the Quapaw, which borders the Ohio from this point downward. Dorsey found traditions among the tribes composing his Dhegiha group asserting a former residence east of the Mississippi, and the separation of the Quapaw from the other tribes, apparently in south Illinois, the former going down the Mississippi and the other tribes up Missouri river, whence the names Quapaw (Ugákhpa), ‘those going downstream or with the current,’ and Omaha, ‘those going upstream or against the current.’ Whether the Akansea of the tradition include also the other tribes of the Dhegiha is uncertain.

It was not until about 130 years after De Soto’s visit, when the French began to venture down the Mississippi, that the Quapaw again appear in history, and then under the name Akansea. The first French explorer who reached their country was the missionary Marquette, who arrived at the village of the Akansea in June 1673, accompanied by Joliet. On his autograph map 3 the name Papikaha, apparently on Arkansas river some distance above its mouth, is a form of Quapaw; but Akansea, on the east bank of the Mississippi, apparently opposite the mouth of the Arkansas, must have been another Quapaw village, not the one visited by Marquette, which was on the opposite side, as Gravier found them on the west side and said that he “cabined a league lower down, half a league from the old village of the Akansea, where they formerly received the late Father Marquette, and which is discernible now only by the old outworks, there being no cabins left” 4. Biedma, one of the chroniclers of De Soto’s expedition, says that a village on the east bank was tributary “like many others” to the sovereign of Pacaha. La Salle (1682) found three villages of the tribe along the Mississippi river, one on the west bank, the next 8 leagues below on the east bank, and another 6 leagues below on the west bank at the mouth of the Arkansas river. This order is given in describing the descent and ascent of the stream. Tonti mentions as Akansea villages Kappa on the Mississippi, and Toyengan, Toriman, and Osotuny inland 5. La Métairie, La Salle’s notary, in his expedition down the Mississippi in 1682, mentions the Akansea villages as follows: “On the 12th of March we arrived at the Kapaha village, on the Arkansas. Having established a peace there and taken possession, we passed on the 15th another of their villages situated on the border of their river, and also two others farther off in the depth of the forest, and arrived at that of Imaha, the largest village of this nation” 6. In July, 1687, 2 of their villages were, according to Joutel, on Arkansas river, the others being on the Mississippi. St Cosme, who descended the Mississippi with Tonti in 1698, found the tribe, or at least 2 of the villages, decimated by war and smallpox, the disease having destroyed “all the children and a great part of the women.” He estimated the men of the 2 villages at 100. De l’Isle’s map of 1700 places the Acansa village on the south side of Arkansas river. Gravier (1700) locates the village of Kappa on the Mississippi half a league from the water’s edge and 8 leagues above the mouth of the Arkansas. Tourima seems to have been close by. Gravier says: “The Sitteoui Akansea are five leagues above its [the Arkansas’] mouth and are much more numerous than the Kappa and Tourima; these are the three villages of the Akansea.” A document of 1721 7 says, on what authority is unknown, that the “Acansa” who were on the east side of the Mississippi, as has been noted above, differed from the “Acansia” who dwelt on the west side. Nuttall says the people called Arkansa by Charlevoix were then (1761) made up of confederated remnants of ruined tribes.

At the time Le Page Dupratz visited that section, a few years later, it seems the Akansea had retired up the Arkansas river and were living about 12 miles from the entrance of White River and had been joined by the Michigamea and some Illinois. Sibley (1805) states that the Arkensa were then in 3 villages on the south side of Arkansas river about 12 miles above Arkansas Post. They claimed to be the original proprietors of the country on Arkansas river, extending up it about 300 miles to the Osage country. According to a Mexican document there were 150 families on Sulfur creek, a southern affluent of Red River of Texas, in 1828. Porter in 1829 said they were then in the Caddo country on Red River in Louisiana. In 1877 they were on their reservation in the northeast corner of Indian Territory, and in that year the Ponca tribe was brought on their reservation for a short time, being removed to the present Ponca reservation, west of the Osage, in 1878. Most of the Quapaw soon left their reservation and removed to that of the Osage.

Quapaw Culture

On account of the great change wrought in the condition of these Indians by contact with the whites, their true character and customs can be learned only by reference to the accounts of the early explorers. Father Zenobius 8 says: ” These Indians do not resemble those at the north, who are all of a morose and stern disposition; these are better made, civil, liberal, and of a gay humor.” Joutel says they are strong, well made, and active; ” the females better made than those of the last village [Cahinnio?] we passed.” That the people had made considerable advance in culture is evident from the accounts given of their structures; as, for example, the walled village described above. They also built large mounds-the height of one is given as 40 feet-on which they placed, in some instances, their chief buildings. Joutel 9 mentions a house “built on a place a little elevated [mound],” of great pieces of wood jointed one with another dovetailed to the top, of beautiful cedar (cedre) wood (cypress?), and covered with bark. Their village houses he describes as long, with “domed” roofs, each containing several families. Mention is made of a fish weir near one of their villages, in an artificial canal, and of nets which De Soto’s followers utilized on their arrival for procuring a supply of fish. The Akansea were active tillers of the soil, and also manufacturers of pottery, many of the finest specimens taken from the mounds of east Arkansas in all probability having been made by this tribe. Their drum was made by stretching skin over a large pottery vessel. Du Poisson (1727) speaks of their painted designs on skins. A matachee, he says, “is a skin painted by the Indians with different colors, and on which they paint calumets, birds, and animals. Those of the deer serve as cloths for the table, and those of the buffalo as coverings for the bed.” The same author describes their dress of ceremony as “well mataché, that is having the body entirely painted of different colors, with the tails of wildcats hanging down from places where we usually represent the wings of Mercury, the calumet in their hands, and on their bodies some little bells” 10. Their method of disposing of their dead was by burial, often in the floor of their houses, though usually they were deposited in graves, sometimes in mounds; sometimes the body was strapped to a stake in a sitting position and then carefully covered with clay. Though polygamy was practiced to some extent, it was not common.

Population of the Quapaw Tribe

The population of the Quapaw at the time of De Soto’s visit in 1541 must have been considerable, as the number of those of the village of Pacaha, who fled to the island on the approach of the Spaniards, is given as 5,000 or 6,000. Father Vivier (1750) speaks of the “Akansas” as “an Indian tribe of about 400 warriors,” equaling 1,400 to 1,600 souls 11. Porter 12, gives 500 as their number in 1829. In 1843 they numbered 476. In 1885 there were 120 on the Osage reservation and 54 on the Quapaw reservation; and in 1890 the total number on both reservations was given as 198. The population in 1909, including all mixed bloods, was 305, all under the Seneca School superintendency, Oklahoma.

Social Structure of the Quapaw

The following are the gentes of the Quapaw as obtained by J. O. Dorsey:

Zhawe (beaver),
Wazhingka (small bird),
Wasa (black bear),
Te (buffalo),
Petang (crane),
Nanpanta (deer),
Shangke (dog),
Khidh (eagle),
Anpan (elk),
Hu (fish),
Mantu (grizzly bear),
Hangka (ancestral),
Tangdhangtanka (panther),
Wesa (snake),
Mikakh (star),
Mi (sun),
Tukhe (reddish yellow buffalo),
Wakanta (thunder-being),
Ke (turtle),
Nikiata (meaning unknown),
Tizhu (meaning unknown),
Makhe (upper world).

Other subdivisions are Grands, Akansas, Epiminguia, Ozark, Petits, Acansas, and possibly the Casqui.

Treaties of the Quapaw

The Quapaw participated in the following treaties and agreements with the United States:

1. Treaty of August 24, 1818
2. Treaty of November 15, 1824
3. Treaty of May 13, 1833
4. Treaty of August 24, 1835
5. Treaty of 10 December 1850 – Texas Indians
6. Agreement of September 13, 1865
7. Treaty of February 23, 1867

Quapaw 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.

The Quapaw villages were, Tongigua, Tourima, Ukakhpakhti, and Uzutiuhi, but it is probable that Imaha and Tourima were identical.

Quapaw Genealogy

Free US Indian Census Schedules 1885-1940

Quapaw Agency

• 1885-1892 Quapaw Agency Census
• 1893-1900 Quapaw Agency Census
• 1922-1929 Quapaw Agency Census
• 1930-1932 Quapaw Agency Census
• 1933-1935 Quapaw Agency Census
• 1936-1939 Quapaw Agency Census

Seneca Agency

• 1901-1907 Seneca Agency Census
• 1910-1921 Seneca Agency Census
  • 1910 Quapaw Census
    Census of the Quapaw Indians of Quapaw Agency, Okla.
    on June 30, 1910, taken by Ira C. Deaver, Supt. & Spec. E Dist, Okla.

For Additional Study

• Fort Coffee Quapaws
  This article tells the story of Mr. Villiers, a Quapaw Indian, and his wife who sought admission to Fort Coffee school in September. They were robbed on their journey and arrived destitute. Villiers, a professed Christian, wanted to improve his education and become a minister. Despite their unfortunate circumstances, they were unable to stay due to school policies. They were provided with supplies and continued their journey back to their tribe. The author concludes by reflecting on the positive impression Villiers left and the superior qualities of the Quapaw people.
• Quapaw Reservation in 1890
  The Quapaw Indian reservation, located in the northeast corner of the agency, spans 56,685 acres of primarily prairie land in 1890. The Quapaw tribe, numbering 154 members, relies on farming and stock raising for their livelihood. While some younger members have adopted modern farming practices, the influence of older members who discourage labor hinders progress. The tribe exhibits fewer signs of assimilation compared to other tribes in the agency. They maintain some traditional practices like the stomp dance and dog dance, and their chiefs are hereditary. The reservation has a boarding school where children receive both academic and practical education.
• Villages of the Quapaw Tribe
  This article explores the history and settlements of the Quapaw Tribe, a Siouan group residing near the mouth of the Arkansas River. It traces their journey from the Ohio Valley, citing early French accounts of their villages and customs. The text details their gradual westward migration and eventual decline, referencing explorers’ observations and archaeological evidence of their presence in the Mississippi Valley.
• The Quapaw Indians: a history of the Downstream People
  By David Baird. In a highly engaging book, Baird examines the history of the Quapaw Indian tribe. Originally inhabitants of the Ohio Valley, the Quapaws, by 1973, had migrated to the area around the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers where they were first encountered by the French. Considered important allies by the French and later the Spanish, the Quapaws served as a buffer against the British and British-allied Indians. The results of contacts with Europeans, however, were soon felt by the Quapaws; by 1763 their population had dropped to seven hundred from an estimated six to fifteen thousand in 1682.

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Citations:

1. French, Hist. Coll. La., pt. 2, 172, 1850.[↩]
2. Shea’s trans., 120, 1861.[↩]
3. Shea, Discov. and Expl. Miss., 1852[↩]
4. Shea, Early Voy., 126, 1861.[↩]
5. French, Hist. Coll. La., i, 60, 1846.[↩]
6. French, Hist. Coll. La., 2d s., it, 21, 1875.[↩]
7. N. Y. Doc. Col. Hist., v, 622, 1855.[↩]
8. Le Clercq, Estab. Faith, Shea ed., 2,168, 1881.[↩]
9. Margry, Dec., in, 442, 1878.[↩]
10. Kip, Early Miss., 258, 1866.[↩]
11. Kip, Early Miss., 318, 1866.[↩]
12. Schoolcraft, Ind. Tribes.[↩]

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