Oklahoma City Quapaw

The Quapaw history is less violent, yet more tragic than that of the Osage. Prior to 1820, the tribe sold 45 million acres of their land south of the Arkansas river to the U.S. government for $18,000. The United States took the rest of their land in 1824 when four Quapaw chiefs, induced with alcohol and $500 each, ceded the property.

Homeless, the tribe settled near the Red River on land received from the Caddos, a tribe from Texas. However, crop failures in successive years diminished the tribe, and the survivors scattered.

In 1890, the Quapaw reorganized and obtained a sliver of property in northeastern Indian Territory. Zinc and lead were soon discovered on this land, and by the 1920s tribal members were gaining as much as $1.2 million a year in royalties from the mines.

Source: Oklahoma Department of Tourism and Recreation's "A Look at Oklahoma."