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The name "Quapaw" is a derivative of the tribal term
Ugakhpa, meaning "down stream people." These people belong to the
Dhegiha subdivision of the Sioux. It is believed that this group
originally resided in the Ohio Valley. The tribe left this region
following the Ohio River downstream to the Mississippi River and
eventually to the land which is now Arkansas.
Arkansas is also named after the Quapaw. In the mid
1600's the French explores, Marquette and Joliet, when traveling down
the Mississippi used the Illini Indians as their guides. The guides
referred to the Quapaw tribe as "Akansea" - People of the South Wind.
This was the name the Illini Indians had given them in their own
language, and that was how the French had written it down on their maps.
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