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THE QUAPAW OR KWAPA

When the Kwapa were discovered by the French they dwelt in five villages, described by the early chroniclers as the Imaha (Imaham, Imahao), Capaha, Toriman, Tonginga (Doginga, Topinga), and Southois (Atotchasi, Ossouteouez). Three of these village names are known to all the tribe: 1, Uʞaʹqpa-qti, Real Kwapa; 2, Tiʹ-u-aʹ-dc̷i-maⁿ (of Mrs Stafford); 3, U-zuʹ-ti-uʹ-wĕ (Southois, etc). The fourth was Taⁿʹwaⁿ jiʹʞa, Small village. Judging from analogy and the fact that the fifth village, Imaha, was the farthest up Arkansas river, that village name must have meant, as did the term Omaha, the upstream people.

The following names of Kwapa gentes were obtained chiefly from Alphonsus Vallière, a full-blood Kwapa, who assisted the author at Washington, from December, 1890, to March, 1891:

Naⁿʹpaⁿta, a Deer gens; Oⁿphŭⁿ enikaciʞa, the Elk gens; Qidc̷ eʹnikaciʹʞa, the Eagle gens; Wajiñʹʞa enikaciʹʞa, the Small-bird gens; Hañʹʞa eʹnikaciʹʞa, the Hañʹʞa or Ancestral gens; Wasaʹ eʹnikaciʹʞa, the Black-bear gens; Mantuʹ eʹnikaciʹʞa, the Grizzly-bear (?) gens; Te eʹnikaciʹʞa, the Buffalo gens (the ordinary buffalo); Tuqeʹ-nikaciʹʞa, the Reddish-yellow Buffalo gens (answering to Nuqe of the Ponka, Yuqe of the Kansa, (C̸uqe of the Osage); Jaweʹ nikaciʹʞa, the Beaver gens; Hu iʹnikaciʹʞa, the Fish gens; Mikaʹq‘e niʹkaciʹʞa, the Star gens; Peʹtaⁿ eʹnikacʹʞa, the Crane gens; Cañʞeʹ-nikaciʹʞa, the Dog (or Wolf?) gens; Wakanʹʇ ă eʹnikaciʹʞa, the Thunder-being gens; Taⁿʹdcaⁿʹ eʹnikaciʹʞa or Taⁿʹdcaⁿ tañʹʞa eʹnikaciʹʞa, the Panther or Mountain-lion gens; Ke-uiʹkaciʹʞa, the Turtle gens; Wĕs‘ă eʹnikaciʹʞa, the Serpent gens; Mi eʹnikaciʹʞa, the Sun gens. Vallière was unable to say on which side of the tribal circle each gens camped, but he gave the personal names of some members of most of the gentes.

On visiting the Kwapa, in the northeastern corner of Indian Territory, in January, 1894, the author recorded the following, with the assistance of Mrs Stafford, a full-blood Kwapa of about 90 years of age: Among
  
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 the Hañka gentes are the Hañʹʞa tañʞa, Large Hañʹʞa or Maⁿckaʹ eʹnikaciʹʞa, Crawfish people; Wajiñʞa eʹnikaciʹʞ a, Small-bird people; Jiñʹʞa eʹnikaciʹ-ʞa, Small-bird people; Te niʹkaciʹʞa, Buffalo people, or Hañʹʞa jiʹsʞa, Small Hañʞa; Aⁿʹpaⁿ eʹnikaciʹʞa, Elk people; Qidc̷aʹ eʹnikaciʹʞa, Eagle people; Tuqeʹ-nikaciʹʞa, Reddish-yellow Buffalo people; and Cañʞeʹ-nikaciʹʞa, Dog (or Wolf?) people. Mrs Stafford knew that five gentes were not on the Hañʞa side, three of them, Hu iʹnikaciʹʞa, Fish people, Niʹkiaʹta (meaning unknown), and Ke-niʹkaciʹʞa, Turtle people, being on the same side; Maⁿtuʹ e‘uikaciʹʞa, Lion people; and Tiʹju (answering to the Osage Tsiɔu, the Kansa Tciju, and the Ponka Tciⁿju), meaning not obtained, which last is extinct. Mrs Stafford could not tell on which side camped any of the following gentes given by Vallière: Maqe, Wĕs‘ă, Wasa, Jawe, Mikaq‘e, Mi, etc. The only persons capable of giving the needed information are among those Kwapa who reside on Osage reservation. According to George Redeagle and Buffalo Calf, two full-blood Quapaw, the Maqe-nikaciʹʞa, Upper World people, were identical with the Wakanʇa eʹnikaciʹʞa, Thunder-being people, of Vallière. These two men said, also, that there was no single gens known as the Hañʞa, that name belonging to a major division, probably a half-tribe.

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