| Prior to the westward movement of Native | | | | Cherokee, and Seminole, inhabited Arkansas. |
| American people, Arkansas was inhabited by | | | | |
| Quapaw, Caddo, and Osage Nations. | | | | Arkansas was admitted to the Union on June |
| | | | 15th 1836 as the 25th state. Arkansas was a |
| The first European to reach the region was | | | | slave state, but initially refused to join |
| the Spaniard, Hernando de Soto, at the end of | | | | the Confederate States of America during the |
| the 16th Century. Early Spanish and French | | | | American Civil War, although it did join |
| explorers gave the state its name which is | | | | later, and was the scene of several battles. |
| probably a phonetic spelling for the French | | | | |
| or Catalan word for "downriver people" - a | | | | During the Civil Rights struggle, Arkansas |
| reference to the Quapaw Native Americans. | | | | was the site of a famous confrontation |
| | | | between the federal government and local |
| Arkansas was part of the area acquired by the | | | | whites, who were resisting the desegregation |
| United States in the 1803 Louisiana purchase | | | | of Central High School in the state capital, |
| from France. Prior to statehood, the region | | | | Little Rock. During this period, President |
| was known as the "Arkansaw Territory". In | | | | Eisenhower famously sent troops to escort |
| this territorial period, the five "civilized" | | | | nine African-American students who were |
| tribes, namely the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, | | | | trying to enroll in the school. |