The Dhegihan migration and separation was the long journey on foot by the North American Indians in the ancient Hą́ke tribe. During the migration from present-day Illinois/Kentucky and as far as Nebraska, they gradually split up into five groups. Each became an independent and historic tribe. They are the Omaha, Ponca, Kaw or Kansa, Osage and Quapaw.
The term "Dhegiha" refers to all five Indian tribes since they speak a Dhegiha Siouan language. Besides having related languages, they share an oral tradition about a common origin from an ancestral tribe. The timing of the separation for these tribes and history prior to their existence as separate groups is the subject of some debate.
Pre-separation
The Quapaw, the Ponca, the Omaha, the Osage and the Kaw share a tradition, that back in time they were one people. >The claim is supported by similar tribal organization with kinship groups (clans) and closely related languages, although some of the tribes were widely scattered in historic time. (The Ponca and Omaha settled in Nebraska, the Kaw in Kansas, the Osage in Missouri, while Arkansas became the homeland of the Quapaw.)
The people in the initial tribe called themselves the Hoga. It translates "leaders", meaning the preceding generations or "ancestors". They lived in villages of bark houses, made pottery, hunted and gathered and raised a small amount of corn. According to tribal oral history collected by James Owen Dorsey, Alice Cunningham Fletcher, Omaha Indian Francis La Flesche and other interested people, the early Dhegiha people resided in the valley of the lower Ohio River.
This shared tradition has been controversial. As late as 1980, it was "generally rejected by professional archeologists". According to one theory, the tribes were longtime residents in the areas west of Mississippi River, where the whites encountered them. However, in 1993, Susan Vehik made a persuasive argument that the archaeology was less than definite, and that the oral histories of the existing Dhegihan nations would reconcile similarities with Mississippian phase cultures and lack of Caddoan features.
Migration
For some reason the tribe started on a journey down Ohio River prior to 1673. The migration may have been an answer to a breakdown of the old culture, climatic changes unfavorable for corn growing, epidemics and/or conflicts with Iroquoian and Algonquin Indians.
While travelling, they lived in tents with the bottom of the cover secured with stones. Since the Hogas moved into new territory, the migration sometimes turned into an incursion.
There are differing chronologies for the migration, as seen below. It may be that some groups traveled ahead into the Missouri/Cahokia area as early as AD 500. Then the rest of the people came later, perhaps drawn by Cahokia. The breakup of Cahokia, and/or pressure from Eastern Natives, could have been the impetus to cross the Mississippi for good, and make the rest of the moves as detailed below. Alternatively, it could have been the breakup of Cahokia around 1250 that allowed the rest of the Dhegiha people to cross the Mississippi. Either way, the Osage, when making their last "movement" (across the Mississippi, to the Osage River) met other Dhegiha people, and added them to the tribe, making them the modern Osage of the time of the first contact with Europeans (The Osage history tells of meeting groups of people who spoke their language but acted differently, the Honga U-ta-non-dsi [Isolated Earth People] and the Tsi ha she [The Last to Come]).
First separation
Reaching the mouth of the Ohio River, the Hoga began crossing the Mississippi River in skin boats. The first separation occurred here. A part of the people either followed the Mississippi southward on the eastern shore or they drifted away with the current. They became the Quapaw, which means Downstream People. Those who went against the current of the river on the western shore became the Omaha or Upstream People.
Quapaw oral history describes that the first separation occurred at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. This was stated to Thomas Nuttall in the early 1800s as well as others. In addition, the Ponca also state this, see "Walks on the Earth" by Headman. Just because one ethnographer theorized it was at the confluence on the Mississippi and the Ohio does not make it an accurate statement.