Read in ARKANSAS, A NARRATIVE HISTORY.  Chapter 2 pp. 20-32

BE SURE TO GO TO THE END OF THE PAGE AND CHECK OUT THE LINKS

Christopher Columbus sailed in 1492 to a new world to the Europeans.  The Spanish first established themselves on the Caribbean islands and then explored the mainland.  The  resulting conquest of Mexico and Peru altered the balance of power in Europe and produced  a wealth that exceeded Europe's    imagination.  Many of the men arrived in this new world poor and left richer than kings.

Timeline

HERNANDO DE SOTO      

 After De Soto's party left Arkansas there is no written account of Europeans until the arrival of the French 130 years later.

After the arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere/Columbian Exchange No single population in America suffered more than the Native Americans of Arkansas from their first contact with Europeans.

Michael Dougan, Arkansas Odyssey. Rose Publishing Com. Little Rock, 1994,684pp.

ARRIVAL OF THE FRENCH

The French came to the New World seeking the Northwest Passage to Asia, to convert the Native Americans and the fur trade. The French came upon the Great Lakes in the course of exploring the St. Lawrence river.    Natives there referred the French to a great river.  In hope of  the Northwest passage,  two men,  Louis Jolliet, a fur trader, and Father Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary. sought to find this river.  They left in May 1673 to find the Mississippi River.  They traveled through the Straits of Michilimackinac and following  Lake Michigan; they moved west to  the Wisconsin  River and into the Mississippi on June 17.

Near Alton, Illinois Marquette and Joliet passed the famous the Piasa Monster Bird. While the French were recovering from the shock of this monster they passed the mouth of the Missouri River.  Continuing down the Mississippi, they noted the Ohio River and passed in silence all of the former centers of the Mississippian culture before arriving near the mouth of the Arkansas River.

Here they met the Quapaw  who prepared to attack until the chief recognized the calumet (peace pipe) that Marquette waved above his head.  The   Native Americans then gave a joyous greeting and escorted the party to a place Joliet called the town of Akansea but was better known as Kappa. The Quapaw spoke Siouan, which was not in Marquette's repertoire,  but one  of the Native Americans spoke  a little  of the Illinois tongue so that a limited conversation  took place.  The French learned from the Quapaw that the River continued south and that the Native Americans below had hatchets, knives and beads obtained in trade  from the Spanish.  They also learned that the Mitchigamea tribe of the Illinois Confederacy had a village somewhere on Black River in northeastern Arkansas.  Having failed in their goal,    the  French returned to Canada.

As with the Spanish explorers problems regarding   their  contacts with Native Americans in Arkansas is limited.  Only Joliet's map survived.  It appears that they visited only one village but the map located several towns.  It is certain that after 1673 the area known as Arkansas(   after the Quapaw village name) began to influence French colonial policy.

The religious impulse which figured in 16th century motives was beginning to wane in the 17th century and  economic and imperialistic  motives dominated.  Robert Cavelier de La Salle was a visionary empire builder with a grand design for New France to stretch form Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.  His reach exceeded his grasp in two areas.  First, the French government of Louis XIV was greatly over-extended in European wars and reluctant to support colonial adventures.  Second,  the Jesuit missionaries wanted to monopolize the fur trade for themselves and protect their Native American converts from social degeneration associated with the coureurs de bois and the voyageur.  The royal governor of New France, Count Frontenac provided LaSalle with initial support but Frontenac's power was undermined and the greatest of New France's governors was recalled.

The Post became the first French settlement west of the Mississippi river and for the next twenty years  was their southernmost penetration.  The Spanish from    Mexico alarmed   by La Salle's plans advanced on his Texas settlement only to find that  small pox and Native Americans had already destroyed it.  The Gulf continued to  be up for grabs.  Meanwhile Arkansas Post served to wed the Quapaw to the French alliance and extend the range of French interests.

Links

Expedition of Hernando de Soto 

Marquette-Joliet Expedition - Encyclopedia of Arkansas

La salle - Expanding in All Directions

History of the Fur Trade Route

  descendants of the voyageurs  Metis   Metis nation.culture

European Explorers in the Mississippi Valley

 Arkansas/quapaw place-names/Osotouy

Arkansas Post National Memorial - "Two Capitals and Two Capitols"  very interesting article from 1900 about the Post