Quapaw Tribe of Indians

The Quapaw people are a tribe of Native Americans who historically resided on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas. Today they live in Ottawa County, Oklahoma.

The Quapaw tribe (known as Ugahxpa in their own language) were speculated to have emigrated from the Ohio River valley to the area where the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers connect. The namesake of the state of Arkansas was named after the Quapaw, for they were called "Akansea" or "Akansa," meaning "land of the downriver people."

The Quapaw, under the name of Capaha or Pacaha, were first encountered in 1541 by de Soto, who found their chief town, strongly palisaded and nearly surrounded by a ditch, between the Mississippi and a lake on the Arkansas (west) side, apparently in the present Phillips County, where archæologic remains and local conditions bear out the description.