Sam Dellinger: Raiders of the Lost Arkansas

Old State House Museum

Historic Arkansas Indian Tribes
Historically, four major Native American tribes occupied the area now known as Arkansas.
  • The Caddo, specifically the Kadohadacho and Cahinnio, occupied southwest Arkansas along the Red and Ouachita Rivers. The Caddo were sedentary farmers who raised beans, corn, squash and tobacco.
  • The Osage Indians lived along the Osage and Missouri rivers in modern-day western Missouri and lived a life based on hunting, foraging and gardening. Their seasonal movements brought them annually into northwestern Arkansas throughout the 18th century.
  • In the late 17th century, the Quapaw lived in several villages along the Mississippi River near the mouth of the Arkansas River. Like the Caddo, the Quapaw were sedentary farmers.
  • In the late 17th century, French explorers reported groups of Tunica and Koroa living along the Arkansas and Ouachita Rivers, as well as along the Mississippi River south of the Arkansas River. Unlike many Southeastern Indians, Tunica men were responsible for planting and tending crops, especially corn and squash.

Increasingly, archeologists have come to recognize that these are the likely descendants of the prehistoric cultures that once flourished in the Valley of the Mississippi.

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The Old State House is a museum of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

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