EARLY ARKANSAS ECONOMIES:

A SCARCITY OF GOODS

By: Peggy Dodge, Baker Interdistrict Elementary School, Pulaski County Special School District

FOCUS:

Overview: The students participate in a bartering session in order to satisfy their wants. They barter for goods, which are otherwise scarce in their own community or society.

Background Information:

PREHISTORIC ARKANSAS INDIANS

The Paleo-Indians, living about twelve thousand years ago, were the first people to live in Arkansas. Due to these Indians living before the invention of writing, we have to rely on artifacts to teach us about their lives. Being nomads, they satisfied their wants by hunting the giant mastodons, saber-toothed tigers, bison, musk-ox, camels, and tiny horses. They also gathered and ate wild fruit, berries, and roots.

From 500 to 1300 A.D. the Bluff Dwellers lived in natural, dry shelters under rock bluffs along many streams, including the Ozarks and White River. They wore animal pelts for clothes and deerskin moccasins, and they produced baskets using grass.

These Indians were followed by the Coles Creek Indians who built tall mounds near the Red River in Southwestern Arkansas from 1100 to 1400 A.D. and the Toltec who built mounds near present-day Scott, Arkansas. Eventually large towns grew up around the mounds. These mounds were built for many purposes, which include religious ceremonies, burial sites, and safety havens from floods. The Indians traded tools and pottery among themselves as well as with Indians who lived outside of present-day Arkansas.

The Top Layer people came later and built their shelters above ground instead of under bluffs. They hunted animals with bows and arrows and produced clay pots.

THE QUAPAW, CADDO, AND OSAGE

When the white men began to arrive in Arkansas around 1400 A.D., they found the territory inhabited by Indian tribes, mostly the Osage, the Caddo, and the Quapaws.

The Quapaw Indians, also called the Arkansas Indians, and “downstream people,” entered Arkansas from the northeast and built villages along the Mississippi, White, and Arkansas Rivers. They produced rectangular-shaped, domed-roofed houses, often multi-family, made of wood and clay. High wooden fences or stockades were built around their villages. They wore tanned skins, as well as grass and woven fabrics. They often painted their bodies with designs, often covering their entire body. They satisfied their wants by fishing, hunting buffalo, and by farming, producing corn, squash, beans, pumpkins, and tobacco. They also consumed fish caught with spears and nets. Roosters and chickens were also raised for food. Several kinds of unknown fruits, including plums, watermelons, pawpaws, grapes, mulberries, and persimmons were picked. Nuts, like hickory, acorns, walnuts, and pecans, were gathered. The Quapaw would sometimes trade with the Caddo, who might have pouches of salt, bows, and arrows. They could have previously traded a canoe for these items with another Indian tribe. The Quapaw would then trade pottery or animal hides for these goods.

The Osage were fierce hunters and warriors. They lived north of the Arkansas River in large villages and constantly raided groups near them, including both the Quapaw and the Caddo. Osage men dressed in breechcloths, leggings, and moccasins of tanned skins. Both men and women decorated their costumes with fringe and shells. They were also farmers and produced corn, beans, and squash. Most of their economic activity came from hunting. Hunting bear, bison, wildcat, and deer, an entire Osage settlement would go on a hunting trip. The Osage believed in hard work; and if any members were lazy, they would receive less food. They produced rectangular-shaped homes of bent poles covered with woven grass and leaves. A hole was cut in the roof of each house for smoke to escape from cooking fires. Osage villages were arranged in a circle and grouped according to families.

The Caddo Indians from Southwestern Arkansas were the only Indian group who did not migrate to Arkansas. They used buffalo bones, stone hoes, and sticks to cultivate the farm fields and produced two corn- fields a year. Growing easily in a sandy soil, corn was used to produce bread and other foods. The Caddo also found salt in the salt springs that flowed into the Ouachita River. They often produced pottery bowls, jugs, stone tomahawks, and jewelry of stones, feathers, and shells. The Caddo traded goods like salt with other Native American groups nearby for animal skins, feathers, tools, and pottery. Being expert tanners, the Caddo produced breechcloths, moccasins, leggings, and shirts of deer or buffalo often fringed with small, white seeds. The women wore skirts produced of woven grass or mulberry bark. The building of a Caddo house, which was shaped like a beehive, was a community activity and was a frame of saplings thatched with grass. The house, which was often a multi-family one, had a hole at the top to let out smoke from the fire. The furniture was produced from cane. The buffalo was a resource for the bedding.

Arkansas minerals, such as quartz and novaculite have been found, along with other Indian remains, thousands of miles from Arkansas. In turn, galena from Missouri and copper from the Great Lakes area have been found here. These findings tell us the Indians were great traders. Quartz was considered somewhat magical by the Indians and was used in religious ceremonies. The novaculite in Arkansas was demand by the Indians because it was excellent for producing cutting edges and arrowheads.

THE SPANIARDS IN ARKANSAS

Hernando de Soto and his men, hoping to find gold and silver, sailed to America and traveled in America for two years and finally crossed the Arkansas River at Helena on June 18, 1541. They discovered many Indian settlements, and the diaries of de Soto’s men became the first written history of Arkansas. In 1542, de Soto became ill with a fever, possibly malaria, and died. Due to not finding gold or silver as they had expected, his men returned to Spain. For the next 132 years, Arkansas was mostly forgotten about.

FRENCH EXPLORATION

Due to war and poor economic conditions, European leaders looked to the New World for answers. They wanted to find a shorter route to the Far East and to claim land for their countries.

In 1763, Jacque Marquette, a Catholic priest, and Louis Joliet, a fur trader, traveled by canoe from Canada and hoped to find an all-water route to Japan and China. They decided the route did not exist and returned to Canada.

Sieur de LaSalle, a French explorer, and Henri de Tonti, an Italian adventurer, made an expedition in 1682. They claimed the Mississippi Valley, which included large parts of Arkansas, for France and named it Louisiana after King Louis XIV.

DeTonti, often called the father of modern Arkansas, established a trading post near where the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers meet. The settlement, which was founded in April 1686 and called Arkansas Post, was the first European settlement in the lower Mississippi valley. Arkansas Post gave the French control over the nearby Mississippi River. The French settlers would barter beads, blankets, and muskets with the Indians in exchange for furs and hides. Sometimes the Caddo, the Quapaw, and the Osage would even offer their services as warriors, guides, and traders in exchange for European goods.

In 1722, Benard de La Harpe, another famous explorer, hoped to find a legendary emerald rock and to encourage trade with the Indians. He explored the Arkansas River. He and his men reached the legendary rock, a large bluff made of sandstone, in North Little Rock across the river from present-day Little Rock. This is supposedly the rock for which Little Rock was named.

John Law, a Scottish businessman, organized the Western Company at Arkansas Post in 1777. He received a grant from France to produce a permanent settlement and settled a group of Germans near Arkansas Post. African slaves, the first in Arkansas, were brought from Africa and used as human resources to help cultivate the land. In 1720, due to bankruptcy, the colony was abandoned, but Arkansas Post continued.

THE SPANISH RETURN

Spain assumed control of Arkansas in 1766. After forty years of Spanish rule, a treaty was signed with Napoleon. In 1800, Spain returned possession of Louisiana, which included Arkansas, to the French.

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE

By 1803, only about six hundred non-Indian people lived in Arkansas. Fearing the French might close the Mississippi River to American trade, President Thomas Jefferson in 1803 purchased the entire Louisiana territory for $15,000,000. Arkansas was later carved out of this huge landmass, first as a territory and then as a state.

Grade Levels: 5-8

Number of Class Periods: 2

Curriculum Alignment:

Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics:

Content Standard1: Students will understand that productive resources are limited. Therefore, people cannot have all the goods and services they want; as a result, they must choose some things and give up others.

Grade 4-Benchmark1: People make choices because they cannot have all the goods and services they want.

Benchmark 2: Economic wants are desires that can be satisfied by consuming a good, service, or leisure activity.

Benchmark 3: Goods are objects that can satisfy people’s wants.

Benchmark4: Services are actions that can satisfy people’s wants.

Grade8-Benchmark1:Scarcity is the condition of not being able to have all the goods and services one wants. It exists because human wants for goods and services exceed the quantity of goods and services that can be produced using all available resources.

Content Standard 5: Voluntary exchange occurs only when all participating parties expect to gain. This is true for trade among individuals or organizations within a nation, and among individuals or organizations in different nations.

Grade 4-Benchmark 1: Exchange is trading goods and services with people for other goods and services or for money.

Benchmark 2: The oldest form of exchange is barter- the direct trading of goods and services between people.

Benchmark 3: People voluntarily exchange goods and services because they expect to be better off after the exchange.

Arkansas History Frameworks:

Strand 4: Scarcity and Choice

Student Learning Expectation Grades K-3:

4.1.1 Demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of Arkansas natural resources.

Student Learning Expectation Grades 4-6:

4.1.5 Illustrate and explain how water, soil, and forests influenced the development of Arkansas.

Strand 5: Cooperation and Conflict

Student Learning Expectations Grades K-3:

5.1.1 Identify and discuss Native American groups in Arkansas before European exploration.

5.1.2 Compare and contrast the life styles of Native American groups in Arkansas with respect to meeting basic needs before European exploration.

5.1.3 Summarize the impact of European exploration and settlement in Arkansas.

5.1.4 Identify and discuss the life styles of Native American groups after European exploration.

5.1.5 Compare and contrast cooperation and conflict in Arkansas both within Native American tribes and between Native American tribes and Europeans.

5.1.6 Locate and discuss settlement in Arkansas prior to the Louisiana Purchase.

Student Learning Expectations Grades 4-6:

5.1.7 Identify and discuss the impact of the Louisiana Purchase and the Anglo-American expansion on Arkansas.

PREPARE:

MATERIALS:

4 Poster boards

9 Manila Envelopes

18 Small plastic bags

1 Package Construction Paper (Multi-colored)

Permanent Markers

24 Copies Exchange Rate

6 Copies Indian Goods

1 Copy French Goods

1 Roll Yarn

1 Hand Hole Punch

1 Jar Paste or glue

CONSTRUCT:

  1. Cut the Poster board into 24- 8x10 sections for identification of traders.
  2. Use the permanent markers and write the following on each section of the poster board: 6-Osage, 6-Caddo, 6-Quapaw, 6-French Trader
  3. Take the yarn and cut 24-20”sections.
  4. Take the hole punch and punch two holes in each poster board.
  5. String the yard through each poster board and secure for hanging around each student’s neck.
  1. Take the permanent marker and write the following on the front of each envelope: 1-Osage, 1-Caddo, 1-Quapaw, 6-French Traders.
  2. Use the attached guide for production to see how many of each French and Indian goods you will need for the activity. Cut out the goods and services, which belong to the Arkansas Indians, and paste on 2” X 2” sections of construction paper. Place the goods of each Indian group in the plastic bag and place in the correct envelope. (Note: Each Indian tribe will have six plastic bags in them when the step is complete.)
  3. Cut out the French Trading goods and paste on the 3” X 3” sections of construction paper and distribute equally among the French traders and place in each French manila envelope.

TEACH:

Introduction: Give the students the definition of scarcity (The condition of not being able to have all of the goods and services you want.) Sometimes, a want can be satisfied by bartering. Give the students the definition of bartering (the exchanging of goods and services without the use of money to satisfy a want). Have the students share occasions when they have bartered their own personal goods such as baseball cards, Beanie Babies, or Pokemon cards to get something they did not have and wanted.

Activities:

  1. Share the information provided in the Background Information section of this lesson.
  2. Explain to the students that many economic changes have taken place for Arkansas throughout the years. Many early inhabitants were unique in their ability to produce their own goods. When a scarcity existed, they would rely on trading to try to satisfy their wants for certain goods produced in other economies.
  3. Tell the students that they are going to be early Arkansas Indians and French Traders at Arkansas Post and are going to barter to satisfy their want for certain goods.
  4. Divide the class into 4 groups of 6 students each. Note: the activity will accommodate up to 24 students. The teacher will have to modify for more or less students.
  5. There will be two bartering sessions. One session for the Arkansas Indians to trade their goods and one session for the Arkansas Indians to trade with the French Traders.

6. Bartering Session 1:

  1. Distribute the Osage, Caddo, and the Quapaw signs to the 3 Arkansas Indian groups.
  2. Give each Arkansas Indian an exchange rate sheet, which identifies the goods, which the French have, and the goods which are in demand by the French to get these goods. The card also shows the equivalencies of the Arkansas Indian goods.
  3. Explain to the Arkansas Indians that they have some of the goods in demand by the French, but they must trade in order to satisfy some of the demands.
  4. Explain to them that they must check their card regularly in order to barter for the correct goods.
  5. Allow the Arkansas Indians 15 minutes for the first bartering session. After they have bartered, have them check to make sure they have the items in demand by the French Traders.

Bartering Session 2:

  1. The second session is between the Arkansas Indians and the French Traders at Arkansas Post.
  2. Explain to the students that the Arkansas Indians have traded and now it is time for the Arkansas Indians to trade with the French Traders. Due to a high demand and low supply, they must barter for one each of the French goods.
  3. The manila envelopes with the French goods inside should be distributed to the 6 French Traders.
  4. Tell the Arkansas Indians that they should have the goods in demand by the French if they have bartered correctly.
  5. Tell them that they will also barter the 1-day of service.
  6. Allow the students 15 minutes again for the trading.
  7. Have each student stand and announce the goods they received from the French Traders and tell whether their demand for the French goods was satisfied.

Closure: Did any of the students experience scarcity during the bartering? If so, ask them why they think the goods were scarce. (Possible answers: There could have been a scarcity of space on the ship or bad weather could have hindered production of some goods.) Ask the students to share their feelings about bartering and ask them whether they will use it again to satisfy their wants.

EVALUATION:

Performance Task: The performance task and scoring guide, which evaluates the student’s understanding of scarcity, is attached.