USA > Arkansas > A pictorial history of Arkansas, from earliest times to the year 1890. A full and complete account, embracing the Indian tribes occupying the country; the early French and Spanish explorers and governors; the colonial period; the Louisiana purchase; the periods of the territory, the state, the civil war, and the subsequent period. Also, an extended history of each county in the order of formation, and of the principal cities and towns; together with biographical notices of distinguished and prominent citizens > Part 2
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An account of the Arkansa Indians is given in a Jour- nal by Father Pierre François de Charlevoix, of an explora- tion among them made by him in 1721. The following
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
are extracts from the narrative as given in "French's His- torical Collection of Louisiana :"
" It was the 10th of November at sunset that I embarked at the little river of Kaskias; I had but two leagues to the Mississippi, nevertheless I was obliged to encamp at about half way, and the next day I could make but six leagues on the river," etc.
"At length I arrived yesterday, December 2d (1721), at the first village of the Arkansas or Akanseas about ten in the morning. The village is built in a little meadow on the west side of the Mississippi. There are three others in the space of eight (8) leagues, and each makes a nation or particular tribe; but they are all comprised under the name of Arkansas. They call the savages which inhabit the village from whence I write, Ouyapas. The Western Company have a magazine here, which expects some merchandise, and a clerk who fares but poorly in the meantime, and who is heartily weary of living here.
"The river of the Arkansas which they say comes a great way, runs into the Mississippi by two channels, four (4) leagues distant from each other. The first is eight (S) leagues from hence. This river comes, as they say, from the coun- try of certain savages whom they call the Black Panis and I think they are the same which are more commonly called by the name P-a-n-i-s R-i-c-a-r-a-s. I have with me a slave of this nation. One goes up the river of the Arkansas with difficulty, because there are many falls or torrents in it, and in many places the waters are often so low that there is a necessity to tow the pettiaugras (p-e-t- t-i-a-u-g-r-a-s). The separation of its two branches is made at seven (7) leagues above the second and the smallest of its two mouths, but only at two (2) leagues above the first. It receives a fine river that comes from the country of the Osages (O-s-a-g-e-s), and which they call La Riviere Blanche (the White River). Two (2) leagues higher are the Torimans and the Togingas, who make but one village. Two (2) leagues higher are the Sothonis. The Kappas are a little further. This nation was very numerous at the time of Ferdinando De- Soto, and even when M. de La Salle finished the discovery of the Mississippi.
"Over against these villages we see the sad remains of Mr. Law's grant, of which the Company remain the proprietors. It was here that nine thousand (9,000) Germans were to be sent, which were raised in the Palatinate, and 'tis a great pity they never came. There is not perhaps in all Louisiana a country more fit after that of Illinois, to produce all sorts of grain and to feed cattle. But Mr. Law was ill used as well as the greatest part of the other grantees. It is very probable that it will be a long time before they will be able to make such large levees of men; they have need of them in the kingdom, and indeed it is pretty common among us to square our measures according to the success of such enterprises, instead of observing what the miscarriage was owing to in order to correct what was before done amiss.
"I found the village of the Ouyapas in the greatest tribulation. Not long since a Frenchman passing this way was attacked by the small-pox, the distem- per was communicated presently to some savages, and soon after to the whole village. The burying place appeared like a forest of poles and posts newly set up, and on which there hung all manner of things; there is everything which the savages use.
"I had set up my tent pretty near the village, and all night I heard weeping; the men do this as well as the women; they repeated without ceasing Nihahani
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TO THE YEAR 1543.
(N-i-h-a-h-a-n-i), as the Illinois do and in the same tone. I also saw in the evening a woman who wept over the grave of her son, and who poured upon it a great quantity of sagamite. Another had made a fire by a neighboring tomb, in all appearance to warm the dead.
"The Arkansas are reckoned to be the tallest and best shaped of all the savages on this continent, and they are called, by way of distinction, the fine men. It is thought and perhaps for this reason, that they have the same origin as the Can- sez (C-a-n-s-e-z) of the Missouri and the Pouteoatamis (P-o-u-t-e-o-a-t-a- m-i-s) of Canada .*
A further account of them and of the country is given in a narrative of travels among them in the years 1750 and 1751, by Captain Bossu, of the French Army, published a few years later, from which the following are extracts :
P. 92. "The country of the Arkanzas is one of the finest in the world ; the soil of it is so fertile that it produces without
(*) FOOTNOTE BY MR. FRENCH .- "The Arkansas nation next to the Natchez, was probably the most civilized of all the aborigines of our country. At the time of De Soto's visit they lived in mud-walled towns fortified with high circular towers. They worshipped a Great Spirit which they called Coyocophil (C-o-y-o-c-o-p-h-i-1), and when it thundered they said it was the Lord of Life who spoke to them. They also worshipped both the sun and the moon. From the peculiar structure of their language and the termination of their words, it must be in- ferred that they were the descendants of the Aztec race. Before going to war they made a great feast and after it was over they held a council to which they invited their allies to assist them in the deliberations. The chiefs painted their bodies black and fasted some days before setting out, after which they washed it off and painted themselves red. They consulted their Manatou (M-a-n-a-t-o-u) on all occasions, which was sometimes an animal, a bird, or a snake, and attributed all of their good and bad luck to it. The Natchez, Houmis and other Missis- sippi tribes worshipped the sun and kept up a perpetual fire in their temples and at one period in the history of the southwestern Indians, the worship of the sun was not less common among them than it was among the primitive nations of the Old World, and who can then doubt for a moment that most of our southern tribes were the descendants of the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru? For like them they built mounds and temples and performed sacrifices. The best writers on Indian antiquity now admit that they are at least analogous to those of Mexico. "The Indian mounds of Louisiana and Mississippi, of which so little is known and much less has been written, are among the most extensive and interesting of any on this continent.
"Many of them are from 50 to 100 yards in length and from 10 to 50 feet high and forming regular quadrangular terraces. No less than five extensive mounds are selected near the junction of the Washita, Catahoola and Taensas rivers in an alluvial soil. Four (4) of them are nearly of equal dimensions, about 20 feet high, 100 feet broad and 300 feet long. The fifth (5th) seems to be designed for a tower or turret, the base of which covers an acre of ground. It rises by two steps or stories, its circumference gradually diminishes as it ascends and its summit is crowned by a flattened cone. The height of the tower is about 80 feet and seems to have been designed in part for defense and in part for the reception of the dead. The great mounds of the Natchez and others on the coast of and islands of the Gulf of Mexico and the lakes of the Delta were no less remarkable for their extent than their height, and evince a knowledge of the science of fortification that would do credit both to the ingenuity and science of a more civilized people.
" In time of war the Arkansas tribes armed themselves with a war club, a bow and arrows, which they swung to their backs. Their baggage consisted of a bearskin which served them for a bed, a buffalo skin to cover them and a wildcat skin for a pouch or bag to hold their cal- umet and tobacco. They each take with them small bags of roasted corn, pounded fine, which they mixed with a little water to eat with the bear or buffalo meat. If victorious they returned with their prisoners to their villages, when it was the privilege of the women to receive them, and if they had lost their husbands or sons to replace them with their captives, and if they had not, they were then tortured and burned at a slow fire."
1
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
any culture European wheat, all kinds of food and good fruit unknown in France. Game of all kinds is plentiful there. Wild oxen, stags, robucks, bears, tygers, leopards, foxes, wild cats, rabbets, turkies, grous, pheasants, partridges, quails, turtles, wood pigeons, swans, bustards, ducks of all kinds, teals, divers, snipes, water hens, golden plovers, stares, thrushes and other birds which are not known in Europe.
"Game is so common in the neighborhood of the river St. Francis that when we went on shore in those parts it was im- possible to step on account of the multitudes of swans, cranes, geese, bustards and ducks that were constantly going up and down those watery places. .
"The Arkanzas live on the banks of a river that bears their name. It arises in New Mexico and falls into the Missis- sippi. These Indians are tall, well-made, brave, good swim- mers and expert in hunting and in fishing, and entirely de- voted to the' French, of which they have given evidence on many occasions.
"The Arkanzas have some expert fellows among them who would, perhaps, amaze our jugglers. I saw one of them in my presence perform a trick which will appear incredible to you. After some wry mouths he swallowed a rib of a stag seventeen inches long, held it with his fingers and drew it out of his stomach again. He went to New Orleans to show his agility to the Governor and the officers of the garrison. This the Indians called acting the physician."
During these travels Bossu, in 1750, met an old man of the tribe who had seen LaSalle on the occasion of his descending the Mississippi river in 1682, sixty-eight years previously.
The following additional account of the Arkansa and Qua- paw Indians is found in "A Journal of Travels in the Arkan- sas Territory During the Year 1819," by Thomas Nutall, F. P. S., Philadelphia, published in 1821, p. 81 et seq.
"The aborigines of this territory, now commonly called the Arkansas or Quapaws and Ozarks, do not at this time number
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TO THE YEAR 1543.
more than about 200 warriors. They were first discovered about the year 1685 by Chevelier De Tonti. From what source Father Charlevoix ascertained that they were very numerous in the time of Ferdinand De Soto, I am unable to learn. In the abridged relation of this expedition by Pur- chas, I cannot possibly discover anything relating to them. The people of Quigaute must have occupied a country not far from the Arkansas, and are said by La Vega to have been numerous and powerful, but that they were the same people as the Arkansas or O-guah-pas seems by no means probable. From their own traditions it does not appear that they were visited by the whites previous to the arrival of LaSalle; they say that many years had elapsed before they had any inter- view with the whites, whom they had only heard of from their neighbors.
In a council held with the Quapaws some years ago, con- cerning the boundaries of the lands which they claimed, a very old chieftain related to the Agent, that at a very remote period his nation had descended the Mississippi, and after having proceeded in a body to the entrance of a large and muddy river (the Missouri), they had there divided, one party continuing down the Mississippi, and the other up the miry river. The descending band was checked in their progress by the Kaskaskias, K-a-s-k-a-s-k-i-a-s, whose opposition they at length subdued. In their further descent they were ha- rassed by the Chicasaws and Choctaws, and were in war with them for a considerable time, but at length overcoming all opposition, they obtained the banks of the Arkansa, where they have remained ever since. Some of them, reverting ap- parently to the period of creation, say that they originally emerged out of the water, but made many long and circuitous journeys upon that element previous to their arrival on the banks of this river.
As their language scarcely differs from that of the Osages, Kanzas, Mahas and Poncas, of the Missouri, it is presumable
3
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
that these spring from the band which ascended the Missouri. They bear an unexceptionably mild character, both amongst the French and Americans, having always abstained, as they say, from offering any injustice to the whites. Indeed, to do them justice and to prove that this opinion concerning them is no modern prejudice, I cannot do less than quote the tes- timony of Du Pratz, made about a century ago. Speaking of the Arkansa territory, he adds: "I am so prepossessed in favor of this country that I persuade myself the beauty of the climate has a great influence on the character of the in- habitants, who are at the same time very gentle and very brave. They have ever had an inviolable friendship for the French, influenced thereat either by fear or views of interest, and live with them as brethren rather than as neighbors .* They say that in consequence of their mildness and love of peace, they have been overlooked by the Americans; that they are ready enough to conciliate by presents those who are in danger of becoming their enemies, but neglect those who are their unchangeable friends."
The complexion of the Quapaws, like that of the Choctaws and Creeks, is dark and destitute of anything like the cupre- ous tinge. The symmetry of their features, mostly acquiline, often amounts to beauty, but they are not to be compared in this respect to the Osages, at least those of them which re- main. Charlevoix says: "The Akansas (as he calls them) are reckoned to be the tallest and best shaped of all the sav- ages of this continent and they are called by way of distinc- tion, the fine men." I question, however, whether this epi- thet is not similar to that of the Illinois and the Lleni-Lenope, L-1-e-n-i-L-e-n-o-p-e, or original, genuine men, as it is trans- lated of the Delawares.
The name of Akansa, or Arkansa, if ever generally as- sumed by the natives of the territory is now, I am persuaded,
(*) Du Pratz's History of Louisana, p. 61.
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TO THE YEAR 1543.
scarcely ever employed, they generally calling themselves O-guah-pa or Ozark, from which last epithet, in all probabil- ity, has been derived the name of the river and its people ; indeed, I have heard old French residents in this country term it the Riviere des Arks, or d'Osark.
About a century ago Father Charlevoix describes the Ar- kansas as occupying four villages ; that which he visited was situated on the bank of the Mississippi in a little meadow, which was (1819) McLane's Landing, the only contiguous spot free from inundation.
The people called Akansas by this authority, were then made up of the confederated remnants of ruined tribes. The village which he visited called themselves Ougapas, evidently the O-guah-pas. On the Arkansa six miles from the landing, there was a second village consisting of the Torimas and To- gingas, six miles higher were the Sothonas, and a little further was the village of Kappas (Charlevoix's History, pp. 306, 307), these are again the same people as the Quapaws or O-guah-pas. In the time of Du Pratz the Arkansas had all retired up the river of this name and were living about 12 miles from the entrance of White river. They were still said to be pretty considerable in numbers, and had been joined by the Kappas, the Michigameas and a party of the Illinois; he likewise remarked that they were no less distinguished as war- riors than hunters, and that they had succeeded in intimidating the restless and warlike Chicasaws .* Indeed, the valor and the friendship of the Arkansas is still gratefully remembered by the Canadians and their descendants, and it is much to be regretted that they are making such evident approaches to- wards total destruction. The brave manner in which they opposed the Chicasaws has long ensured them the quiet pos- session of their present country. Among the most extraordi- nary actions which they performed against those perfidious Indians, is the story which has been related to me by Major
(*) Du Pratz's History of Louisiana, p. 318.
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
Lewismore Vaugin, one of the most respectable residents in this territory :
"In consequence of the want of ammunition, the Chicasaws instead of standing their ground were retreating before the Quapaws, whom they had descried at a distance. The lat- ter understanding the occasion, were determined to obviate the excuse, whether real or pretended, and desired the Chica- saws to land on an adjoining sand beach of the Mississippi, giving them the unexpected promise of supplying them with powder for the contest. The chief of the Quapaws then ordered all of his men to empty their powder horns into a blanket, after which he divided the whole with a spoon, and gave the half to the Chicasaws. They then proceeded to the combat, which terminated in the killing of 10 Chicasaws, and the loss of 5 prisoners, with the death of a single Quapaw. I am informed that it is a custom of the Quapaws, after firing the first volley, to throw aside their guns and make a charge with their tomahawks."
Their name, and the names and positions of their villages are variously given by different writers. Marquette calls the tribe Akansea and the village Akansea. LaSalle's party calls the tribe Akansa, and the names of two of their villages Kapaha, and Im-a-ha, the largest village of the nation. De- Tonti calls the tribe Akancas, and their villages Os-o-to-ny, six leagues to the right, descending the river, Cappa, Toy- en-ga and To-ri-man, the first three situated on the Missis- sippi. Joutel calls the tribe Ac-can-cea, and their villages Ot-so-cho-ne and To-ri-man, on the Arkansas river, and Ton- guin-ga and Cappa on the banks of the Mississippi. Charle- voix gives only the name of one tribe, whom he calls Kappas. DeSoto's party, the first to speak of them, gave the name as Cap-a-ha.
In Coxe's "Louisiana" or Carolina, an account prepared by Daniel Coxe, from memoirs and journals kept by various persons sent into the valley of the Mississippi, of dates believed
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TO THE YEAR 1543.
to be about 1698 or '99, the following mention of the names and positions of the Arkansas villages is found. In making mention of what rivers empty into the "Meschacebe," which was the original Indian name of what we now call the Missis- sippi, commencing at the gulf and going northward, he says : "Ten or twelve leagues higher on the west side is the river Natchitock (Arkansas*), which has a course of many hundred miles, and after it is ascended about one hundred, there are many springs, pits and lakes, which afford most excellent common salt in plenty, wherewith they trade with neighboring nations for other commodities they want" (evidently indicat- ing the Lake Bistineau region on the Red river in Northwest Louisiana). "Upon this river not only inhabit the Natchi- tocks, Naguateers, Natsohocks; but higher, several other nations." (We recognize the remains of these names in our modern names. Natchitoches, Nacogdoches, etc., all situated along the Red river region.) "Sixteen leagues further upon the west side enter the Meschacebe, two rivers which unite about two leagues above and make an island by the name of the Torimans, by whom it is inhabited." (These two rivers are evidently the Arkansas and the White rivers, united by means of the "cut off" forming the island there.) "The southerly of these two rivers is that of the Ousoutiwy, upon which dwell, first, the Arkansas, a great nation ; higher upon the same river, the Kansæ, Minton, Erabacha and others" (indicating the Arkansas river). "The river to the north is named Niska" (this is the White river), "upon which live part of the nation of the Ozages; their great body inhabiting a large river which bears their name" (the Osage river, in Missouri), "and empties itself into the Yellow river" (this is the name by which the Missouri river was early called), "as will be hereafter mentioned, and upon this river" (that is, the White river), "near the mouth, is the nation Tonginga, who
(*) This is an error on the part of Mr. Coxe. He evidently meant the Red river.
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
with the Torimas are part of the Arkansas. Ten leagues higher is a small river named Cappa, and upon it a people of the same name and another called Onesperies, who fled to avoid the persecution of the Irocois from a river which still bears their name, to be mentioned hereafter.
Ten miles higher on the same side of the Meschacebe is a little river named Matchicebe, upon which dwell the nations Mitchigamia and Epimingina" (this is evidently the St. Fran- cis river), "over against whom" (i. e. on the other side of the Mississippi river) "is the great nation of the Chickazas, whose country extends above forty leagues to the river of the Chero- quees, which we shall describe when we come to discourse of the great river Hohio."
Their name by the earlier writers is spelled Akanseas and Akansa, without either the terminal s or terminal w, but was undoubtedly pronounced Ah-kăn-säh, which in our present speech is rendered Arkansaw ; a system which we still maintain in the pronunciation of such names as Ouachita, Wichita and the like. The terminal s was probably only used for the plural or to signify the possessive case ; as the Arkansas river, i. e. the river of the Arkansa tribe. An animated discussion as to the proper pronunciation of the name having arisen and claimed considerable public attention, and having been largely entered into by the State Historical Society and the Eclectic Society of Little Rock, some pronouncing it Ar-kan-saw and others Ar-kan-zas, the Legislature of the State, in 1881, passed a joint resolution declaring that in their opinion the correct pronunciation is "that which was derived by the French from the native Indians and committed to writing in the French word representing the sound, and that it should be pronounced in three syllables, with the final 's' silent ; the 'a' in each syllable with the Italian sound and the accent on the first and last syllables, being the pronunciation formerly universally, and now still most commonly used, and that the pronunciation with the accent on the second syllable with the
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TO THE YEAR 1543.
sound of 'a' in man and the terminal 's' is an innovation to be discouraged." This pronunciation would be more nearly like Arkansah. A significant circumstance bearing upon the pronunciation of the name in former and cotemporaneous times is found in the Act of Congress of 1819 creating the territory. It is there called and spelled the Arkansaw terri- tory. The name occurs ten times in the act, and is spelled saw nine times and sas once. And in an Act of Congress, of date January 27th, 1814, for the appointment of an additional judge for Arkansas territory, to reside in the District of Ar- kansas, the name occurs four times and is spelled s-a-w each time.
The first European to traverse the country of whom we have any account was Hernando De Soto, who, in 1539, sailed from Havana and landed upon the coast of Florida, and from there made explorations westward and northwestward in search of gold. In 1541 he reached and discovered the Mis- sissippi river, which in a short time he crossed into what is now the State of Arkansas, and traversed the country in many directions, camping for the winter at an Indian village, called Utiamque, or Autiamque. In the spring of 1542 he resumed his journey from this village, and moving southeast- ward passed out of the State into what is now Louisiana, and reached the Mississippi river about the mouth of Red river, where he died May 21st, 1542, in the 46th year of his age.
This much concerning his journeyings is known with com- parative certainty, but the details of his march and move- ments are involved in great uncertainty. The degree of con- fusion and indefiniteness which exists concerning the matter is positively disheartening to the searcher after accuracy and definiteness. There are three accounts of the journey written by persons purporting to have been members of the expedition, and, therefore, eye-witnesses of its proceedings, or to have obtained their information from those who were eye-witnesses and participants ; and while these several accounts do not
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HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
differ materially from each other as to places and incidents, some only being more ample than others, the attempts of modern writers to locate the places mentioned in the several accounts have produced uncertainty to the utmost degree. Thus, for instance, the question where De Soto first reached the Mississippi river and where he crossed over, has given rise to such diversity of opinion with the modern writers that but few agree, and the points are located all the way from the Louisiana line up as high as Memphis. Mr. John G. Shea, in his "Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley," collates several of the opinions as to the point of his crossing, as follows :
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