What Did the Quapaw Indians Live in?

The Quapaw of the southern United States traditionally lived in long rectangular houses built of a pole framework and covered by cypress bark. The houses often were home to several families, who farmed and hunted along the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers.

Geography

The Quapaw tribe was a culturally-advanced and prosperous group that originally lived mainly in Arkansas, with some settlements in Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee, along the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers. The actual name of the tribe originally was Ogahpah, meaning "downstream people." When French explorers arrived in the 1600s, the Quapaw were described as congenial and welcoming, although often at war with other tribes.

Features

The Quapaw lived in villages of rectangular, or occasionally square, houses with thatched roofs. Often several related families lived in one house. They built a "longhouse" by putting poles in the ground on the intended long sides of the house, then bending the poles, latching them to each other and covering the structure with cypress bark.
Villages also had a council house, which was essentially a much larger longhouse. The center of each village was a open area where sporting events and ceremonies were held. Flat-topped earthen mounds supported temples and homes of the chiefs.
Some villages had thousands of residents and hundreds of houses. Farm fields separated the towns, some of which were fortified by walls. Roads and trails connected one town to another.

Benefits

Soil along the rivers was rich and made for excellent agriculture. When Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto arrived there in 1541, he described the land as among the most agriculturally productive he had ever seen. There were groves of fruit trees, chestnut and oak trees, and large farms where the women raised corn, beans, squash, melons and tobacco. Wildlife along the rivers was plentiful, and the men hunted deer and small game and fished. In addition, they traveled to the plains on seasonal buffalo hunts.

Effects

Because food was so plentiful, the Quapaw Indians were able to turn their attention to other cultural pursuits and were very skilled at making pottery as well as being artisans in pipe carving, basket weaving and beadwork. These talents made for excellent trading opportunities with other Plains tribes.
In contrast to many other southern tribes, they were patrilineal rather than matrilineal, tracing their genealogy through the man's side of the family.

Time Frame

In the late 1800s the Quapaw people, by now a much smaller tribe decimated by smallpox and war, were relocated to Oklahoma. Most still live there today. They no longer live in the traditional types of Quapaw homes.

Resources

• Historical information about the Quapaw tribe
• Further historical information
• Quapaw history and culture