hernando de soto was the first european person to discover the mississippi river.
hernando de soto was the first european person to discover the mississippi river.
who was the first european person to discover the mississippi river?
hernando de soto
the first european contact with arkansas was the spanish expedition led by hernando de soto in 1541. de soto wandered among settlements, inquiring about gold and other valuable natural resources. he encountered the casqui in northeast arkansas, who sent him north around devil's elbow to the pacaha, the traditional enemies of the casqui. upon arrival in the pacaha village, the casqui who had followed behind de soto attacked and raided the village. de soto ultimately engaged the two tribes' chiefs in a peace treaty before continuing on across central arkansas and into the ozark mountains in his search for riches. after finding nothing he considered of value and encountering native resistance the entire way; he and his men returned to the mississippi river where de soto fell ill. from his deathbed he ordered his men to massacre all of the men of the nearby village of anilco, who he feared had been plotting an attack with a powerful polity down the mississippi river, quigualtam. his men obeyed and did not stop with killing the men, but were said to have massacred women and children as well. he died the following day in what is believed to be the vicinity of modern-day mcarthur, arkansas in may 1542. his body was weighted down with sand and he was consigned to a watery grave in the mississippi river under cover of darkness by his men. de soto had attempted to deceive the native population into thinking he was an immortal deity, sun of the sun, in order to forestall attack by outraged native americans on his by then weakened and bedraggled army. in order to keep the ruse up, his men informed the locals that de soto had ascended into the sky. his will at the time of his death listed: "four indian slaves, three horses and 700 hogs." which were auctioned off to his men. his starving men, who had been living off maize stolen from native americans and who had not been allowed to eat the enormous herd of hogs but had had to care for them, immediately started to butcher them. later on his remaining men, now commanded by his aide de camp moscoso, attempted an overland return to mexico. they made it as far as texas before running into territory too dry for maize farming and too thinly populated to sustain themselves by stealing food from the locals. the expedition promptly backtracked to arkansas. after building a small fleet of boats they then headed down the mississippi river and eventually on to mexico by water.
history of arkansas
conservation of the mississippi river watershed has become an important issue that many organizations are undertaking because the capacity of the river to remove nutrients from the water is decreasing and the surrounding ecosystems are being diminished. the mississippi river basin encompasses 31 u.s. states with an area of 1,837,000 square miles. the mississippi river's capacity to remove nutrients has diminished due to a range of human activities, such as development, taking place along the mississippi river itself and the streams and tributaries linked to it. the layouts of the river, the floodplains, and the watershed have also been modified using engineering techniques for acres of agriculture fields and urban expansion. with increase of natural prairie land being converted to land for agricultural and urban use, there has been an excess of nutrients that are discharged into the mississippi river and its adjoining streams. nitrates and phosphorus are the two main contaminants that pollute the mississippi river watershed. this nutrient pollution comes from a surplus of phosphorus and nitrogen, both of which occur naturally in water and air. in the upper mississippi river basin farmland, nitrate fertilizer has been overused in farming, with the high demand for corn as a contributing factor. corn, which is used to make ethanol for biofuel, has become the number one crop in the farmland that drains into the mississippi river. soybeans are another crop in the upper mississippi river basin farmland that drain into the watershed, and nitrates are the main fertilizer used on soybeans and corn.
mississippi river watershed conservation programs