Arkansas Post National Memorial:
Mission, Purpose, and Significance Statements

MISSION STATEMENT
The mission statement is based on the park’s purpose and significance. It includes future conditions or visions, stated as outcomes, and articulates the ideals that the National Park Service is striving to obtain for Arkansas Post. It is qualitative in nature and expressed in terms of resource conditions and appropriate visitor experiences. The park’s mission goals are consistent with the mission goals found in the NPS Strategic Plan. Thus, they support the overall mission of the agency.

The Arkansas Post National Memorial mission is to:
Commemorate human settlement near the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers and the events associated with the first European settlement in the Lower Mississippi River Valley by interpreting and fostering an appreciation of the interaction of the cultural groups, their histories, and their significance to the region; preserving the cultural and natural resources; and promoting resource stewardship through education.

PURPOSE STATEMENTS
The following statements describe the primary reasons for which the park was created. They influence management priorities and are central to decisions about how the park should be developed and managed.

• Provide for the benefit and enjoyment of the people of the United States and historical use of the park while preserving and protecting the cultural and natural resources in an unimpaired state.
• Preserve the evidence of early contact and continued interaction among the French, Spanish, and British and the American Indians and U.S. settlers in the Lower Mississippi River Valley for scientific study, public appreciation and benefit, and access by traditionally associated groups.
• Commemorate and interpret the peoples and cultures that inhabited the successive Arkansas Posts.
• Interpret and commemorate the American Indian communities and later European interaction with American Indians at Osotouy.

SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTS
The following statements describe why the park resources are special and what sets the area apart from other areas. They create a tool that park managers can use in setting resource protection priorities and in identifying primary park interpretive themes and desirable visitor experiences. Arkansas Post National Memorial is significant because of the following:

• Geography and natural resources combine with the forces of global economy, politics, and society at Arkansas Post to create a rich heritage and lasting living legacy for the nation.
• Arkansas Post was the first permanent European settlement in the Lower Mississippi River Valley.
• Arkansas Post represents in a tangible way the struggle by European powers for dominance in the Lower Mississippi River Valley.
• Arkansas Post reflects where the United States gained control of the Arkansas River Basin by establishing Fort Madison.
• Arkansas Post served as a major temporary internment point along the water route of the Trail of Tears.
• The Civil War battle at Arkansas Post helped the United States to reestablish control of the Lower Arkansas and Mississippi River systems.
• The Osotouy site represents the spiritual center of the Quapaw tribal homeland and the culture of these American Indians as it existed in the late 17th century.
• The Osotouy site represents an archeological area consisting of Woodland, Mississippian, Quapaw, and European cultural resources that have retained a high degree of integrity over a long period of time. As the first high ground west of the Mississippi River and located between the White and the Arkansas Rivers, the location was particularly favored as a habitation site.