334 



QUAPAW 



[b. a. e. 



them below the mouth of St Francis r., 

 that they had removed from their old 

 town, where the outworks were still to be 

 seen, a short distance to the n., 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 (Shea's 

 trans., 120, 1861) that Wabash and lower 

 Ohio rs. were called by the Illinois and 

 Miami the river of the Akansea (Qua- 

 paw), because the Akansea formerly 

 dwelt on their banks. Three branches 

 were assigned to it, one of them coming 

 from the n. w. and passing behind the 

 country of the Miami, called the river 

 St Joseph, "which the Indians call 

 properly Ouabachci." The Quapaw 



QUAPAW WOMAN 



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 s. w. Indiana on 

 the Ohio near its junction with the Wa- 

 bash; 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 e. of the Mississippi, and 

 the separation of the Quapaw from the 

 other tribes, apparently in s. Illinois, the 

 former going down the INIississippi and the 

 other tribes up Missouri r., whence the 

 names Quapaw (Ugnkhpa), '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 1 30 years after De 

 Soto's visit, when the French began to 

 venture down the Mississippi, that the 

 Quapaw again ajipear in history, and 

 then under the name Akansea. The first 

 French explorer who reached their coun- 

 try was the missionary Marquette, who ar- 

 rived atthe village of the Akansea in June 

 1673, accompanied by Joliet. On his au- 

 tograph map (Shea, Discov. and Expl. 

 Miss., 1852) the name Papikaha, appar- 

 ently on Arkansas r. some distance above 

 its mouth, is a form of Quapaw; but Akan- 

 sea, on the E. bank of the Mississippi, 

 apparently opposite the mouth of the Ar- 

 kansas, must have been another Quapaw 

 village, not the one visited by Marquette, 

 which was on the opposite side, as 

 (jravier found them on the w. 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" 

 (Shea, Early Voy., 126, 1861). Biedma, 

 one of the chroniclers of De Soto's expe- 

 dition, says that a village on the e. bank 

 was tributary "like many others" to the 

 sovereign of Pacaha. La Salle (1682) 

 found three villages of the tribe along the 

 Mississippi r., one on the w. bank, the 

 next 8 leagues below on the e. bank, and 

 another 6 leagues below on the w. bank 

 at the mouth of the Arkansas r. This 

 order is given in describing the descent 

 andascentof the stream. Tonti mentions 

 as Akansea villages Kappa on the IMissis- 

 sippi, and Toyengan, Toriman, and Osoto- 

 ny inland (French, Hist. Coll. La., i, 60, 

 1846). La Metairie, La Salle's notary, in 

 his expedition down the Mississippi in 

 1682, mentions the Akansea villages as 

 follows: "On the 12th of March we ar- 

 rived at the Kapaha village, on the Arkan- 

 sas. 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" (French, 

 Hist. Coll. La., 2d s., ii, 21, 1875). In 

 July, 1687, 2 of their villages were, accord- 

 ing to Joutel, on Arkansas r., 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 small- 

 pox, 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 1' Isle's map of 1700 



