They settled into four villages at the mouth of the Arkansas River. The downstream people settled in the area where the Arkansas River met the Mississippi, where the meandering of the two massive rivers had deposited nutrient-rich soil conducive to farming. This is the origin of the word 'Ugaxpa' (“Ugakhpa”), as the Quapaw were known to other tribes, which means (roughly) 'the downstream people.'
The Quapaw moved down the Mississippi River into Arkansas, displacing the Tunica and the Illinois. They split into the tribes known today as the Quapaw, Osage, Ponca, Kansa, and Omaha when they left the Ohio Valley. Several hundred years ago, the Quapaw were a division of a larger group known as the Dhegiha Sioux. The Quapaw Nation are descendants of a tribe of Native Americans who historically resided on the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas.
