Article Outline
The legislature, known as the General Assembly, consists of a Senate of 35 members, elected for four-year terms, and a House of Representatives of 100 members, elected for two-year terms. The legislature meets in regular session in odd-numbered years, beginning on the second Monday in January. Sessions are limited to 60 days but may be extended by a two-thirds vote in both houses.
The judiciary consists of a seven-member supreme court; circuit courts; chancery courts; and county, municipal, and justice-of-the-peace courts. A county judge has wide powers to manage county affairs generally and preside over juvenile courts, county court sessions, and the county justices of the peace when they sit as a quorum court. The quorum court levies taxes and appropriates funds for county offices and agencies.
Arkansas has 75 counties, each of which is administered by a county judge. Other elected county officials include the treasurer, assessor, sheriff, clerk, coroner, surveyor, and collector. Until 1956, when Little Rock adopted the council and city manager plan, municipal government in Arkansas was traditionally by mayor and council. Since then most other cities have adopted the council and city manager plan.
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National Representation
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Arkansas has two U.S. senators and four U.S. representatives. The state has six electoral votes in presidential elections.
During the prehistoric period, successive waves of human culture spread over Arkansas. Nomadic hunter-gatherers, whose culture is called Paleo-Indians by archaeologists, were present about 10,500 to 12,000 years ago. Divided into small bands, they ranged widely over the area, hunting many now-extinct animals. Next was the Dalton era, which started about 10,500 years ago and lasted about 1,000 years. The Dalton-era Sloan site in northeast Arkansas ranks as one of the oldest prehistoric cemeteries in the United States. The Dalton period saw the introduction of improved stone tools, notably the adze, a woodworking tool. In the Archaic period, 9,500 to 3,000 years ago, woven baskets and highly specialized stone tools abounded. The people of the Woodland era, beginning about 3,000 years ago, practiced horticulture and mound building, and made clay pottery. The mound complex in Toltec State Park on the Arkansas River was erected during this era. These mounds were apparently used for ceremonies.
Large burial mounds were a prominent feature of the final prehistoric culture, the Mississippian, which began about 700 ad. The Mississippians used bows and arrows, conducted organized warfare, and erected cities that depended on an agriculture of corn and beans. The first European to witness the Mississippian culture was the ill-fated Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1541.
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Exploration and Settlement
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