Arkansas is a landlocked state in the south-central region of the Southern United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage language, a Dhegiha Siouan language, and referred to their relatives, the Quapaw people. The state's diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains, which make up the U.S. Interior Highlands, to the densely forested land in the south known as the Arkansas Timberlands, to the eastern lowlands along the Mississippi River and the Arkansas Delta.
The Indian Territory and the Indian Territories are terms that generally described an evolving land area set aside by the United States government for the relocation of Native Americans who held aboriginal title to their land as a sovereign independent state. The tribes ceded land they occupied in exchange for land grants in 1803. The concept of an Indian Territory was an outcome of the U.S. federal government's 18th- and 19th-century policy of Indian removal. After the American Civil War (1861–1865), the policy of the U.S. government was one of assimilation.
Jefferson County, Arkansas is a county located in the U.S. state of Arkansas in the area known as the Arkansas Delta that extends west of the Mississippi River. Jefferson County consists of five cities, two towns, and 20 townships. The county is bisected by the Arkansas River, which was critical to its development and long the chief transportation byway. In 2020, Jefferson County's population was estimated at 67,260. Its county seat and largest city is Pine Bluff. Jefferson County is included in the Pine Bluff metropolitan statistical area. The county seat and the most populous city is Pine Bluff.
Scouting in Arkansas has a long history, from 1913 to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.
Pine Bluff is the eleventh-largest city in the state of Arkansas and the county seat of Jefferson County. It is the principal city of the Pine Bluff Metropolitan Statistical Area and part of the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Pine Bluff Combined Statistical Area. The population of the city was 49,083 in the 2010 Census with 2019 estimates showing a decline to 41,474.
Robert Crittenden was an American lawyer who served as the first secretary of the Arkansas Territory from 1819 to 1829. He also served as the acting governor of Arkansas Territory from July to December 1819. Crittenden co-founded the Rose Law Firm.
Arkansas Post is an unincorporated community located along the north side of the Arkansas River in Arkansas County, Arkansas. It is home to the Arkansas Post National Memorial.
The Arkansas Post, formally the Arkansas Post National Memorial, was the first European settlement in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and present-day U.S. state of Arkansas. In 1686, Henri de Tonti established it on behalf of Louis XIV of France for the purpose of trading with the Quapaw Nation. The French, Spanish, and Americans, who acquired the territory in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, considered the site of strategic value. It was the capital of Arkansas from 1819 until 1821 when the territorial government relocated to Little Rock.
The Quapaw people are a tribe of Native Americans that coalesced in what is known as the Midwest and Ohio Valley of the present-day United States. The Dhegiha Siouan-speaking tribe historically migrated from the Ohio Valley area to the west side of the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Arkansas; their name for themselves refers to this migration and to traveling downriver.
Levi Colbert (1759–1834), also known as Itawamba in Chickasaw, was a leader and chief of the Chickasaw nation. Colbert was called Itte-wamba Mingo, meaning bench chief. He and his brother George Colbert were prominent interpreters and negotiators with United States negotiators in the early decades of the 19th century. They were appointed by President Andrew Jackson's administration to gain cession of their lands and arrange for removal of their people to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. They were under considerable pressure from the Mississippi state government, white interlopers in their area, and the federal government to cede their lands.
Fort Jefferson was a town on the Mississippi River, about one mile south of Wickliffe, Kentucky in southwestern Ballard County.
The history of Arkansas began millennia ago when humans first crossed into North America. Many tribes used Arkansas as their hunting lands but the main tribe was the Quapaw, who settled in the Arkansas River delta upon moving south from Illinois. Early French explorers gave the territory its name, a corruption of Akansea, which is a phonetic spelling from the Illinois language word for the Quapaw. This phonetic heritage explains why "Arkansas" is pronounced so differently than the U.S. state of "Kansas" even though they share the same spelling.
The Arkansas Delta is one of the six natural regions of the state of Arkansas. Willard B. Gatewood Jr., author of The Arkansas Delta: Land of Paradox, says that rich cotton lands of the Arkansas Delta make that area "The Deepest of the Deep South."
Tishomingo ; c. 1735 – c. 1837) was a renowned war chief of the Chickasaw nation in Mississippi.
The Militia of the Territory of Arkansas, commonly known as the Arkansas Militia, was the forerunner of today's Arkansas National Guard. The current Arkansas Army National Guard traces its roots to the creation of the territorial militia of the District of Louisiana in 1804. As the District of Louisiana evolved into the Territory of Missouri and the first counties were organized, regiments of the Missouri territorial militia were formed in present-day Arkansas. Territorial governors struggled to form a reliable militia system in the sparsely populated territory. When the Arkansas Territory was formed from the Missouri Territory, the militia was reorganized, gradually evolving from a single brigade composed of nine regiments to an entire division composed of six brigades, each containing four to six regiments. The local militia organization, with its regular musters and hierarchy added structure to the otherwise loosely organized territorial society. The Territorial Militia was utilized to quell problems with the Indian Nations and was held in readiness to deal with trouble along the border with Mexico due to an ambiguous international border and during the prelude to the Texas War of Independence.
On the eve of the American Civil War in 1861, a significant number of Indigenous peoples of the Americas had been relocated from the Southeastern United States to Indian Territory, west of the Mississippi. The inhabitants of the eastern part of the Indian Territory, the Five Civilized Tribes, were suzerain nations with established tribal governments, well established cultures, and legal systems that allowed for slavery. Before European Contact these tribes were generally matriarchial societies, with agriculture being the primary economic pursuit. The bulk of the tribes lived in towns with planned streets, residential and public areas. The people were ruled by complex hereditary chiefdoms of varying size and complexity with high levels of military organization.
Merrill High School was a public secondary school in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, operated by the Pine Bluff School District. It was one of four high schools that served black students in the Pine Bluff area until the public schools were integrated in 1971.
The Osage Battalion was a Native American unit of the Confederate States Army. Recruited from among the Osage tribe, whose loyalties were split between the Union and Confederacy, it did not meet its 500-man establishment. From early 1863 a four-company battalion of 200 men served under Brigadier General Douglas H. Cooper in the Trans-Mississippi Department. In 1864 the unit was transferred to the First Indian Brigade under Native American Brigadier General Stand Watie and fought under his command at the Second Battle of Cabin Creek on September 19, 1864. The battalion surrendered to Union forces on June 23, 1865, one of the last Confederate units to lay down its arms.
Saracen Casino Resort is a casino in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, United States. The first purpose-built casino in Arkansas is owned by the Quapaw Nation, and named for Saracen, a Quapaw chief in the 1800s.
