Baird, in a highly engaging book, examines the history of a little known Indian tribe. Originally inhabitants of the Ohio Valley, the Quapaws, by 1973, had migrated to the area around the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers where they were first encountered by the French. Considered important allies by the French and later the Spanish, the Quapaws served as a buffer against the British and British-allied Indians. The results of contacts with Europeans, however, were soon felt by the Quapaws; by 1763 their population had dropped to seven hundred from an estimated six to fifteen thousand in 1682
