The Quapaws are the Arkansas Indians. They were once a powerful tribe, claiming a vast territory which extended from the Mississippi to head waters of the Red River. As the tract remained at the time of the cession, it was bounded on the north by the Arkansas and the Canadian rivers, on the south by the Red River down almost to Shreveport, thence to the Mississippi River.
The Quapaws represented the southern division of the Siouan family. Much of the land ceded by the Osages belonged of right to the Quapaws, and especially that bordering on the Mississippi in Missouri and Arkansas. It had already been noticed that this was the tribe called the Escanjaques by the Spaniards in their early explorations. At that time their possessions west of the Mississippi were not so extensive, the land of the Caddoans approaching that great river closely, especially below the mouth of the Arkansas.
In 1834 the Quapaws were assigned a reservation on the Neosho. It extended north of the south line of Kansas, as later established, some twelve sections of land being found to be in Kansas. This they disposed of in 1867. The Quapaws had never occupied this land, so never lived in Kansas.
Additional Quapaw History
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