LITTLE ROCK — A hawk rides the air currents on a clear December day, gliding over flat-roof buildings, hillocks of recyclable metal, a river and a patchwork of graygreen land.
This area in and around the Little Rock Port is prime industrial development territory. When someone buys sizable acreage in the vicinity, it’s not necessarily big news.
But it’s not every day that such a real estate transaction involves an Indian tribe. The Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma has bought nearly 80 acres for $775,000, according to Pulaski County land records.
The Quapaws’ ancestors greeted French explorer Jean-Baptiste Benard de la Harpe not far from here, when he “discovered” an outcrop that he dubbed la petite roche, or “the little rock,” on the south bank of the Arkansas River in 1722.
La Harpe and his expeditionary force put in there. The Quapaws knew it was a good place. They already had established a village there, and it eventually was transformed into Little Rock.
Over time, after the arrival of the European explorers, the tribe’s population dwindled because of disease and conflicts, dangerously close to extinction at times.
In recent years, the number has stabilized and actually grown a bit, and the Quapaws claim nearly 4,500 members. The tribe is based in Quapaw, Okla., these days, where it has a casino and resort.
The proceeds from gambling enable the tribe to provide for its members. Quapaws receive a preference for jobs at the resort and those hired are given health insurance, according to the Quapaw website. Membership is offered no matter how little Quapaw blood an applicant has, as long as a connection can be proven.
And profits from the resort enabled the tribe to buy expensive land in Arkansas.
Which raises the question: What are the tribe’s plans for the acreage? Preservation, said John Berrey, chairman of the Quapaw Business Committee.
Berrey says the land has “potential funerary sites,” which the tribe wants to protect.
There’s already evidence for such sites, according to archaeologist John House of the Arkansas Archeological Survey.
The acreage is a vestige of the millions of acres that had been part of lands given up in treaties with the U.S. government.
More recently, it was known as “the Thibault site,” House said.
In the 1880s, plantation owner J.K. Thibault invited Edward Palmer of the Smithsonian Institution to visit and study his property, on which he had found fragments of pottery and other artifacts in small mounds.
Palmer arrived at the plantation, but his investigation was prevented because of bad weather, according to his account published by the Smithsonian in 1883. Nevertheless, Thibault’s careful excavation and collection were good enough for the Smithsonian, which accepted artifacts from Thibault.
The mounds were built over the debris of houses burned “probably part of a funeral ceremony,” House said. Beneath them were graves, he said.
After Palmer’s visit, the site grew cold, House said.
Even though part of the old Thibault land sold last month, demand for it hasn’t been exactly hot. It was on the market for four years, said Brooks McRae, a broker for McKimmey and Associates Realtors, which handled the sale.
The land was described in courthouse records as about 75 percent cropland, the rest timberland. The seller was McRae Mortgage & Investment LLC, which would not comment on the sale.
Berrey says the tribe wants a full archaeological survey of the property, adding that it has an option on “an associated piece of land,” though he wouldn’t say where. McRae, who says he is not part of the McRae investment group, declined to comment.
Should the tribe decide that there is room for preservation and development, and want to build, say, a casino on the land, it would have to apply with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs, which would work in conjunction with the state.
The tribe has made no such application, Nedra Darling, a spokesman for the bureau, said last week.
The acreage is about a mile south of Interstate 440 on Thibault Road, as the hawk flies, between an Entergy plant and Welspun Tubular LLC.
Rolfe Hartsell has lived on 15 acres on the western side of Thibault Road for about 30 years, he said.
His property had been part of the old plantation, Hartsell said, adding that he has never found any Indian artifacts on his place. But then, he has never looked, he said.
He says he understands why the Quapaw want to protect what evidently is the burial site of their forebears.
“They’ve got a right to let them rest in peace,” said Hartsell.
On his driveway is a wooden shrine on a post. In the shrine, which is the size of a rural mailbox, is the image of a bird. An Indian symbol?
Examination reveals a dove, descending.
Hartsell, who is a Catholic, says the Latin phrase beneath the dove, Domus Angelorum, means “home of the angels,” the family motto.
If you have a tip, call Jack Weatherly at (501) 378-3518 or e-mail him at
Business, Pages 71 on 12/16/2012