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The Quapaw Indians were a tribe who lived along the Mississippi in what is now Arkansas. They were initially called Akansea by European settlers, and the state name Arkansas comes from this. The French had a good relationship with the Quapaw tribe, who allied with them during the French and Indian War. However, diseases brought in by Europeans caused the tribe’s numbers to dwindle from over 5,000 in the 1600s to only 305 in 1909. Today, the Quapaw Indians are recognized as an official tribe of Oklahoma.
The Quapaw Indians are a tribe of American Indians who historically lived along the Mississippi in the part of the United States that eventually became Arkansas. The tribe still exists today, but like many Indian nations, its numbers declined significantly during Europe’s colonization of America. The term Quapaw means “downstream people,” describing where the Quapaw has made its home for hundreds of years. The rival tribe of Illini Indians identified the Quapaw as the Akansea, which is also what European settlers initially called the tribe. The state name Arkansas comes from this name.
The tribe believes that before settling along the Mississippi in the south, its members originally lived in the Ohio Valley along the Ohio River. Records of the tribe’s habitation in southern Mississippi go back hundreds of years. The tribe’s first interaction with Europeans occurred in 1673, when French explorers discovered them searching for a trade route through the Americas to the Pacific Ocean.
The French developed a hospitable relationship with the Quapaw tribe, who allied themselves with the French so they could access what they considered powerful weapons and tools. During the French and Indian War, France reportedly used Indian tribes like the Quapaw to fight British soldiers. When the French lost the war they withdrew completely from the Mississippi area, ceding the area to Spanish rule. Instead of allying with the Spanish, the Quapaw Indians allied with the British. This alliance also led to peace with the Qickasaw Tribe, a rival Native American tribe that the Quapaw Indians fought with for years before.
Neither the French and Indian War nor battles with rival tribes decimated the Quapaw’s numbers. Instead, as was the case with most American Indian tribes, numbers dwindled due to diseases brought in by Europeans. The Quapaw did not have natural immunity to diseases such as smallpox and this led to the decimation of the tribe. When the Quapaw Indians were first contacted by the French in the 1600s, the population of the tribe was estimated to be over 5,000. Within 100 years they dwindled to about 700, largely due to a brutal smallpox epidemic that claimed thousands of lives in 1699. In 1909, the tribe numbered only 305.
By then the Quapaw Indians had moved into Oklahoma. The Quawpaw Indians are recognized as an official tribe of Oklahoma, with a reservation and official governing body established in the state.
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