The word “Quapaw” originates from the legend of a Native American tribe who arrived in the region via the Mississippi River.
Fording the waters at night, the tribe found the river foggy and almost impassable. Breaking into groups, they fashioned a long rope from grapevines and began across the river, clutching the rope.
Eventually the rope snapped, and a portion of the tribe lost their way in the fog, being swept further down the Mississippi. This wayward group came to be known as the Quapaw or “downstream people.”
Arkansas was once home to Quapaw, Caddo, and Osage people, but much of Central Arkansas was Quapaw land.
Quapaws established towns in riverside locations that were strategic for agriculture, trade, diplomacy, and defense.
Beginning in the late 1600s, Quapaws developed a trading relationship with the French that helped secure their place in a rapidly changing region, even though the relationship brought waves of smallpox.
Over the next two centuries, European colonists fought over the region before the United States took control following the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.
By 1818, settlers had overrun the territory and the Quapaw were relegated to a reservation whose western boundary ran from the south bank of the Arkansas River to MacArthur Park.
Forced to surrender their remaining land in 1824, the Quapaw lost a one-third of their people during relocation. They were met with starvation, disease, and exploitation before finding refuge in northeastern Oklahoma.
The modern Quapaw Line marks the boundary of the original 1818 Quapaw reservation treaty. Markers for the line can be found from the La Petite Roche Landing monument at Sturgis Plaza in Riverfront Park to this corner of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts lawn here in MacArthur Park.
The historic neighborhood that stretches South from MacArthur Park is locally known as the “Quapaw Quarter” for the tribe that once lived here.
Over the last decade, the Quapaw Nation has reestablished itself in Arkansas with land purchases, as well as the opening and operation of the Saracen Casino Resort in Pine Bluff. The resort is named for Chief Saracen — one of the tribal leaders forced into ceding reservation territory in 1824.
