Quapaw Line Markers

The land that became Arkansas was originally occupied by the Osage, Caddo, Chickasaw, Tunica, and Quapaw Indians. The Quapaws lived in the Mississippi Delta until 1818, when they were forced to retreat to a swampy area in Central Arkansas.

Drawn by surveyors, the Quapaw Line marks the boundary between land designated for white settlers and the Quapaw Indians. Markers for the Quapaw Line can be found from

to La Petite Roche Landing at Sturgis Plaza in Riverfront Park to MacArthur Park. The historic area of downtown Little Rock takes its name for the Quapaw Quarter from the tribe that lived here.

The Trail of Tears Park, on the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) campus, commemorates routes used by many tribes leaving their ancestral lands after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Noting the thousands who stopped to rest near a creek, now called Coleman Creek, markers explain the history of the Southwest Trail and the forced migration of Native Americans.

Additional markers for the Trail of Tears, mainly associated with the Cherokee Removal, are located in the Riverfront Parks of both Little Rock and North Little Rock. The Sequoyah National Research Center at UALR holds the largest collection of Native American expression in the world