Today, the Quapaw are a federally recognized Native American Tribe, also known as the Ogáxpa, which when translated to English is "Downstream People." As their story has been told

They are part of the Dhegiha Siouan language family, of which there are at least four other tribes, including: Kansa, Osage, Omaha, and Ponca. Their ancestral homelands extended from the Ohio River southward to present-day St. Louis, across Arkansas and into Oklahoma. The Quapaw indigenous people currently has a tribal capital in Quapaw, Oklahoma which tribe has around 6,000 members.

The origin of these indigenous people is the Mesopotamian region near the ancient city of Ur, where their forefather, Joktan, upon leaving that region, migrated east and northeast through the Asian continent. However, at one easternmost area in Southeast Asia, Almodad, Joktan′s firstborn son informed his father that he will be stopping at this location because he had previously conferred with his sons and their families¹ and had determined that this location would be a good place to set up camp and to make this their tribal land. Thus Joktan made the first of his several extended camps where he would spend time with the entourage of those family members soon to be departing company from Joktan, because in all expectation this departure would likely mean that Joktan would never see these family members again.

With his firstborn now having left Joktan′s journey in quest of his own, that Father of Grandfathers, which Father was known as Joktan together with his twelve remaining sons continued northeast until the extreme limits of the Asian continent and then over what then existed as the Aleutian Land Bridge into, and unbeknownst to them arrive onto a new continent, with Joktan′s Sons now numbering twelve.

After several more of Joktan′s extended camps where others of his sons and their family would choose their own tribal land, the day came when Obal informed his father that he too had chosen his homeland and upon his departure from his father Joktan, Obal and his sons, also whose sons now which numbered twelve may their own path away from those of Joktan. From Joktan′s extended camp below the junction of the Slave River and the Peace River in the area near to what is now called Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, Obal revealed to his father Joktan that he, his wife and their sons and their sons wives would be taking a separate path . After that prolonged encampment, Obal, his wife, their twelve sons together with their families left and walked along side what they called Kwënàkunk Menuppek, (when translated means Lake of many reeds) and which was later to be named Lake Athabascan, heading east along its south bank.

Next Obal and the entire family walk many days along a long and broad lake, camping at several locations, which lake they name Quenek-Achgameu Menuppek and it is near the southernmost point of this lake that Obal decides to make his homeland. Not far south from this location, one of the grandsons of Obal, Quapah and his family is following a river downstream and at one point, when he tries to ford this river, he finds its current much to powerful and the water carries them downstream for some distance.

Thus, Quapah decides that this is his journey and walks further downstream along this large fast flowing river until he arrived at another major tributary. Thus, Obal left behind the other Dhegiha family tribes and migrated down the Mississippi River, then upstream along the Arkansas River into present-day Arkansas. This is when Obal and his tribe began to refer to themselves Ogâxpa, which when translated means the "Downstream People."

Obal′s arrival along the banks of the Arkansas River in the area on what is now present-day Arkansas and Oklahoma preceded the Europeans by many generations.