The Quapaw Nation Summary

Tar Creek and the destruction of the Quapaw Nation
This is a play to help us remember and learn.
Written By: Kashia Whittle, Tammy Huffman and Stephanie Neely. Research by: Doug and Stephanie Neely and Ashley Sheldon Edited By: Laura Hunt and

This play is set with a Quapaw elder sitting with children around a fire and telling them the story of their land and their people.
Cast:
Narrator one: Elder
Narrator two: Elder
Narrator three: Elder
Narrator four: Elder
Narrator five: Elder
Horse:
Native in Field:
Miners:
Scientist from EPA:
Lawmaker:
Fisherman:
Townspeople:
Scene opens
Narrator One: Children let me tell us the story of our people. Long, long ago we were a tribe of many. We lived off of the land with Mother
We lived here on our new reservation where we hunted wild deer, small game and buffalo. Our men fished the rivers and creeks and our women farmed to grow vegetables and fruits. This is how the Quapaw survived.
Narrator Three: We lived on this land for many, many years where we became the Quapaw nation. One day in the 1950’s the white men came again and this time they wanted some of our land to mine. By the early 1900’s the mining became heavy in our territories. They wanted to take some of the metals and minerals from our land. They gave us money and guaranteed that they would clean up the land that they destroyed.
(Enter Miners handing out money then chipping away at minerals and stone.)
Narrator Four: Dozens of mining companies and hundreds of miners came to live in the surrounding areas to extract zinc, iron and lead from the mines. They dug deep into mother earth and left all of the left over remains in huge mountains of
The Quapaw Indians depended on the land and these water sources for drinking, bathing, as well as survival of the animals, watering crops and fishing.
Narrator Five: Now the poison running throughout our lands is the cause of the sickness in our people. These miners stripped our land and contaminated our way of life. Our children are sick and some are dying. Having known no better the children had played on these poisoned chat piles, as though they were a sand box, thinking they were safe.
Narrator One: Now their blood is poisoned because they breathe in the air that carries lead particles from the chat piles. The homes that they live in are next to these mountains so they have no way to escape the contamination unless they move away from the land. Quapaw Indians did not know how to keep from getting sick except for leaving. We did not want to lose our land again afraid for the heritage of our tribe.
Narrator Two: We cannot stay or we will for sure be sick and die. We had to get help so the chiefs and heads of our tribe had to work with the government to find a way to heal our land. The lawyers and the EPA had come to help find ways to make the mining companies fix the mistakes that they made on our