- The Quapaw are a member of the Sioux linguistic family who settled in the Arkansas valley. They excelled at agriculture and canoe building, and supplemented their agriculture by hunting deer and buffalo. The Quapaw were successful enough in their advancements that they could devote considerable time to religious, technological and other advancements. Prior to European contact, the Quapaw were often at war, particularly with the Chickasaw, a fact reflected in the design of their villages.
- French explorers came into contact with the Quapaw tribes and after some initial hostility, enlisted the Quapaws as allies. This arrangement allowed the Quapaw to enjoy the protection of the French colonial administrators while giving them access to other markets for their goods and a source of refined European goods. The Quapaw used the extra income from trading with the French to enhance their standing in the Arkansas valley and became good crafters of metal, particularly copper. The copper ornamentation and jewelry was often used in ceremonies and may have been traded to other tribes as part of the ongoing trade economy of the Quapaw.
- The Quapaw were excellent farmers who reaped the benefits of the seasonal floods of the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers, which deposited rich soils along their banks every year. This abundance of nutrients allowed the Quapaw to grow corn, beans and squash in enough abundance that they had a fair amount of leisure time as well as a surplus to trade with neighboring tribes and the French. Additionally, the Quapaw hunted deer and buffalo as well as engaged in some trapping of animals for meat and fur.
- The Quapaw remained steadfast allies of the French until the end of the French and Indian wars, after which the French largely retreated from the North American continent. Without their French allies, the Quapaw had to choose between the English and the Spanish (who assumed control of the Louisiana Territories from France in 1762) as their main trading partners. Though initially distrustful of the English, partly because the English were allied with the Chickasaw, the Quapaw eventually chose to ally with the English because of the cheap, high-quality goods available for trade.
- The Quapaw continued to trade fursm ceramics, and other objects with Europeans until the United States assumed control of the Louisiana Territory in 1803. Despite the Quapaw's reputation as fair traders of goods, white settlers demanded much of the valuable land the Quapaw inhabited. Their numbers dwindling because of disease and war, the Quapaw were in no position to argue when they were forced to relocate onto a reservation set aside for the Caddo west of the Red River. Quapaw settlers faced starvation as the unfamiliar Red River flooded their crops and unsympathetic Caddo tribe members and United States officials refused to help.
- By 1900, the small band of Quapaw Indians had lost nearly all of their historic economic sophistication. In the early part of the 20th century, zinc and lead deposits were found on Quapaw land, which allowed the tribe to secure millions of dollars in royalties as the rich veins were mined. The tribe's reversal of fortune has not halted its decline and is now on the brink of extinction as a separate, independent tribe.
- The diminishment of the Quapaw tribe over time, its treatment by white settlers, and its adoption of the Peyote religion have changed the Quapaw economy significantly. The Peyote religion, in particular, stresses the need for communal support of other Indians, and has lead to the Quapaw sharing their wealth in a semi-communal system instead of one based on direct trade with neighbors.
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