An Environmental History of the Quapaws, 1673-1803
Mountains, woodlands, prairies, and wetlands became one as their products flowed through Quapaw villages.4 The Quapaw cycle of labor and production began in their four villages, moved up the Grand Prairie to the Ozark foothills, crossed the Arkansas River above the little rock into the Ouachita Moun...
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| Published in: | The Arkansas historical quarterly 2020-12, Vol.79 (4), p.297-316 |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | eng |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Mountains, woodlands, prairies, and wetlands became one as their products flowed through Quapaw villages.4 The Quapaw cycle of labor and production began in their four villages, moved up the Grand Prairie to the Ozark foothills, crossed the Arkansas River above the little rock into the Ouachita Mountains, then moved back down the Arkansas to the villages.5 Later in the eighteenth century, the cycle shifted south and southwest through the Ouachita River basin and farther.6 The Quapaws, like many of the small nations of the region, suffered dramatic population loss over the course of this century. Even after the collapse of Mississippian chiefdoms with large populations to feed, the continued cultivation of maize dictated the oc cupation of lands adjacent to meander-belt rivers for agriculture.9 The Arkansas, like other meander-belt rivers, offered fertile soil replenished by the rhythms of the river and a diverse wetland ecolog}' that provided sources of food, plant and animal, to supplement agriculture. Since the lower .Arkansas attracted numerous types of game, birds, and plants, the Quapaws could maximize their food yields with a less intensive, seasonal expenditure of energy.10 Quapaw fields, like many in North America, can be read as a text of history. Watermelons, indigenous to Africa, were brought to Florida by Spanish colonists in the sixteenth century. Because they are biologically similar to cucurbits like squash, already cultivated by Quapaws and other Indians, they fit easily into Quapaw ecology. [...]Joutel claimed that the elevation made the south bank difficult to ascend. |
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| ISSN: | 0004-1823 2327-1213 |