Quapaw (kwôˈpô) [key], Native North Americans, also called the
Arkansas, whose language belongs to the Siouan branch of the
Hokan-Siouan linguistic stock (see Native American languages).
The Quapaw were essentially of the Plains culture, but they had
other distinctive traits; they built temple and burial mounds
and lived in longhouses. They once lived with the Omaha, the
Kansa, the Ponca, and the Osage in the Ohio Valley, but when the
groups separated the Quapaw migrated down the Mississippi River.
Jacques Marquette, who arrived at their village in 1673, was the
first of many French explorers to visit the Quapaw. They made a
large land cession to the United States in 1818, and later moved
to Oklahoma, where they lived on a reservation. In 1990 there
were some 1,400 Quapaw in the United States. The Columbia
Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia
University Press. All rights reserved. More on Quapaw from
Infoplease: See more Encyclopedia articles on: North American
indigenous peoples