French
The first French explorers to arrive in Arkansas were Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet. Marquette was a Jesuit priest and Joliet a fur trader. In 1673, the explorers headed down the Mississippi River to map the area for settlement. Along the way, they met members of the Illinois Indian tribe. The Illinois told them to continue down river where they would come into contact with a tribe living in a village called Arkansas. It is believed that these people were the Quapaw Indians.
French explorers arrived in larger numbers in Arkansas after Rene-Robert Cavalier de LaSalle established a trade and military alliance with the Quapaw Indians along the Arkansas River in 1682. Four years later, a lieutenant of LaSalle's, Henri de Tonti, established a fort on the lower Arkansas River as a fur trading center. The Poste aux Arkansas, or Arkansas Post, was the first European establishment in the lower Mississippi Valley. The arrival of French workmen from a failed colony at New Biloxi in 1720 marked the beginning of the continuous settlement of Arkansas Post until the mid-1800s.
French society reigned at Arkansas Post from the 17th until the early 19th century. A sample of residents living at the Post during the 1700s included the commandant and his family, priests, soldiers, hunters and fur traders, African-American slaves, Native Americans and a variety of merchants.
The chief governing official for Arkansas Post was the commandant. After the commandant, the local Catholic priests had the most authority at the Post. In Arkansas, the church had less influence than in more settled areas, but the priest was a privileged resident and had strong influence among the citizens of the Post and the Native Americans.
After the Louisiana Purchase and the American takeover in 1803, the Post was dominated by U.S. trading posts, and the Americans gradually became the most numerous inhabitants of the settlement. American settlers migrated to other areas of Arkansas as the fur trading industry came to an end and the land surrounding the Post was given up to agricultural pursuits by American settlers.
In 1819, the Post was named the territorial capitol of Arkansas, a distinction it held until 1821, when the capitol was moved to Little Rock. In the years that followed, the decline of Arkansas Post began. Descendents of the first French habitants of the area remained well into the 19th century, but by the 1870s, the French and Spanish influence in Arkansas had past.
Today, French and Spanish influences can still be seen in the place names and words in Arkansas, including:
-
Fourche, (French, fork or stream with long branch)
- Bayou (French, Polk Bayou, or Batesville)
- Bartholomew (French, Bartholome, last name of settler in 1804)
- Belle Point (French, Fort Smith in 1817)
- Canadian (Spanish, stream in Clark County)
- Chicot (French)
- Cossatot (French, casse tete)
- DeGray (French, de gres)
- Ecore (French, shore bank or bluff)
- Freeo (Spanish, frio, cold)
- Glaise (French, pottery or clay)
- L'Anguille (French, alligator)
- Maddry (Spanish, possibly Madre, stream in Hot Springs County)
- Maumelle (French, mamelle or breast)
- Moro (French, moreau, feed-bag)