Towns and Temples Along the Mississippi

11. The Terminal Mississippian Period in the Arkansas River Valley and Quapaw Ethnogenesis

11 The Terminal Mississippian Period in the Arkansas River Valley and Quapaw Ethnogenesis Michael P Hoffman hefirst scientific study ofthe Quapaw Indians was accomplished in 1827 when George Izard reported certain facts about them to the American Philosophical Society (Bizzell 1982:72} He was given an account of the Quapaw migration tradition by Paheka, the grandfather of the principal chief. I imagine that Paheka's first three words to Territorial Governor Izard in Quapaw were, "a'nax q sikkattoka wajini," which means, "Listen up, turkeyWhiteman "-although I have no proof. What follows is an English translation of Paheka's story of Quapaw movement to Arkansas. When we abandoned our former lands we set out without knowing whither we were going. Our motive for leaving the country we occupied was the scarcity of game.... On arriving at the mouth of the Ohio River [Ny-Tonka), our chiefs determined on separating the nations. . . . After our separating, our party followed the course of the Ny-Tonka! [Mississippi). The first red skins [Indians) whom we met with were settled some way below the Ny-WhouttehJunka2 [the Little Muddy River, now the St. Francis); they were called Tonnika. We attacked and put them to flight. Some time afterwards we entered this river, which we call Ny-Jitteh [Red River, now the Arkansas). We soon discovered that there were other red skins in the country. Parties were sent out to look for them. They were found encamped in the Great Prairie [between the Post of Arkansas and the town of Little Rock). We attacked them; they made a valiant resistance, but we beat them and drove them away. This nation called it~elf Intouka; the whites at that period gave them the name of Illinois. Then we were left entire masters of this country. (Bizzell 1982:72) 208 Quapaw Ethnogenesis • 209 This story of their migration to Arkansas was, and is, very important to the Quapaw because it was told repeatedly to Europeans and Americans and is still being told today. Sometimes it has fallen on deaf ears, however. This paper focuses on the origins of the Quapaw tribe and its protohistory . Various lines of evidence including archaeological evidence are brought to bear on these subjects. As we shall see, contemporary archaeological interpretations and other sources of information often conflict, because archaeological remains attributed to the Protohistoric Quapaw show continuity with Central and Lower Mississippi Valley Mississippian period cultures, while tribal traditions and linguistic, ethnological and ethnohistorical data often do not. This "Quapaw paradox" realization is not new (Hoffman 1986:30) and most sources of information about it are not either. However, this paper does present some new data and options for resolving the conflict between archaeological and other information sources. Who Are the Quapaw? The Quapaw are a tribe, an ethnic group of Native Americans, who lived in four or more villages on the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers in the latter part of the seventeenth century when first contacted by the French (Figure 11-1). The term "Quapaw" comes from the word "Ogaxpa," which has been translated variously as "the downstream people;' or "downwind people," or "into the south wind people" (Dickinson 1984:201). They were called "Arkansa " (Arkamsea, Arkansea) by the seventeenth-century Illinois Indians. The Quapaw are an enduring people. Most other Central and Lower Mississippi Valley ethnic groups had disappeared by the late eighteenth century. The Quapaw numbered about 1,900 in 1985. Sources of Information and Perspectives about Quapaw Origins Tribal Oral Traditions The Quapaw and the Osage, Omaha, Ponca, and Kansa, the other tribes in the Dhegiha language group, share a common belief, passed on through oral tradition, that they were at one time a single people in the area of the Lower Ohio River (La Flesche 1915:459). With the exception of the Quapaw, the Dhegiha tribes managed to cross the Mississippi River and moved westward . The word "Omaha" means upstream and refers to the idea that they 210 • Michael P. Hoffman Figure 11-1. Quapaw Indian ca. 1700 (Charles Banks Wilson, artist) moved up the Mississippi River to cross it. The Quapaw moved downstream, as Paheka relates, and drove the Tunica out of the Lower St. Francis River country. S. D. Dickinson, Arkansas's foremost ethnohistorian, thinks the "Intouka ," whom the Quapaws drove out of the Grand Prairie area, were actually the Tunica instead of the Illinois, based on linguistic evidence (Dickinson 1984:202), Paheka was...