Arkansas was originally inhabited by many Native American groups. Many artifacts have been found that suggest these Native Americans inhabited Arkansas thousands of years before European settlers arrived. These original inhabitants include the Folsom people, Bluff Dwellers, Mound Builders, Caddo, Quapaws, Osage, Choctaw and Cherokee. Arkansas was left untouched by European hands until 1541 when Hernado de Soto of Spain traveled through the area.

The name "Arkansas" reflects both our French and Indian heritage. The French explorers referred to the native Americans who lived in northern Arkansas as "Arkansaes" (meaning South Wind).

The spelling comes from early French usage and the precedent set by the Arkansas Gazette. The pronunciation was determined by the General Assembly of 1881 after much investigation. The name is pronounced "Ark-an-saw", not "Ark-an-sas". At one time it was against the law to mispronounce the name, so be careful out there!

Little Rock was actually named for a little rock. Early travelers used a stone outcropping on the bank of the Arkansas River as a landmark. "La Petite Roche" marked the transition from the flat Mississippi Delta region to the Ouachita Mountain foothills.

Travelers would refer to the area as "the little rock" and the name stuck.

Arkansas is the "natural state" and our state motto is "regnat populus " (Latin for "the people rule").

Over 100 years later in 1682 La Salle claimed the land for the King of France. In 1686, Henri de Tonti, another frenchman, founded the Arkansas Post. This was the first permanent white settlement in the area. France owned Arkansas until 1762 when France ceded much of the Louisiana Territory, including Arkansas, to Spain.

Arkansas became a territory in 1819. In 1836, the territory had a population of 60,000 and was eligible to become a state. Arkansas became the 25th state in the United States on June 15 of 1836. The population grew steadily over the next 24 years and in 1860 had a population of 435,000. Farmers in the southern regions of Arkansas constituted the majority of the population although 25 percent of the population was slaves.

After becoming a part of the union only 30 years before, in 1861 Arkansas decided to secede from the Union to support the confederacy. The Pea Ridge and Prairie Grove battles of the American Civil War were fought in Arkansas. After the Civil War ended in 1865, Reconstruction began. As part of the Reconstruction effort changes were made to the state constitution. In 1874 the constitution that we use today was ratified.

The Arkansas flag was created in 1913 when the battleship USS Arkansas was commissioned. The Daughters of the American Revolution discovered that there was no state flag to present to ship with (presenting a flag to ships was traditional). They decided to hold a flag designing competition. Miss Willie Hocker of Wabbaseka designed the winning flag which looked much like the flag we fly today.

The original flag was a white diamond on a red field bordered by twenty-five white stars on a blue band. Three blue stars in a straight line were centered in the diamond. Miss Hocker explained that the three colors (red, white and blue) designated Arkansas as a member of the Union. The diamond shape signified Arkansas as the only state in North America where diamonds had been found and mined. The three stars in the center of the diamond had three meanings.

They represented the three countries that Arkansas had been a part of (Spain, France and the United States), the date of the Louisiana purchase which made Arkansas part of the US (1803) and the fact that Arkansas was the 3rd state created from the Louisiana purchase land. The 25 stars around the flag designated Arkansas as the 25th state of the Union. Hocker modified the flag several times before it was ratified as the official flag.

However, before it was ratified the flag had to be modified once again because there was no representation that Arkansas had been a part of the confederacy on it. The legislature eventually added a fourth star to represent the confederacy. The single solitary star above the name represents the confederacy. Because adding the forth star made the flag look asymmetrical (the bottom three stars were still arranged in a straight line) the legislator also offset one of the stars at the bottom giving us the flag we fly today.

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