Many archeologists believe it to be part of the province of Casqui, documented as visited by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in 1542.

The Parkin phase is a series of twenty-one villages of varying sizes along the St. Francis and Tyronza rivers, most of them roughly 2.5 miles (4 km) apart from each other.

[7] Motifs on artifacts found at the Parkin phase sites show that the people were part of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, an extensive religious and trade network that brought Mill Creek chert, whelk shells, and other exotic goods to the Parkin phase sites.

The people of Parkin were intensely involved in maize agriculture, as well as cultivating other food crops originating in the Americas, such as beans, gourds, squash, and sunflowers.

[4] The men hunted such game as whitetail deer, squirrel, rabbit, turkey, and mallard, as well as fishing for alligator gar, catfish, drum, turtles and mussels.

The related group of phases present in the region may have all been Tunica peoples, with Caddoan speakers to their west and south.

By the time of later European contact in the 1670s and the beginning of the historic period, the area was occupied by the Quapaw, who spoke a Dhegiha Siouan language.

Unsuccessful attempts have been made to connect pottery styles and words from the de Soto narratives with the Quapaw.

It is believed that the large village was located at the confluence of the two rivers because this allowed the residents to control transportation and trade on the waterways.

The Spanish chroniclers describe the main mound as having a large structure at its summit, which was the residence of the chief, Casqui.

The archaeologist Clarence Bloomfield Moore described pottery from St. Francis River sites with adjectives such as "lopsided", "insufficiently fired", "rude and scanty", of "inferior surface" and "great monotony".

On the day of our arrival, the Cacique said that inasmuch as he knew the Governor to be a man from the sky, who must necessarily have to go away, he besought him to leave a sign, of which he might ask support in his wars, and his people call upon for rain, of which their fields had great need, as their children were dying of hunger.

He returned the next day, complaining much because we so long delayed giving him the sign he asked, and he had good- will to serve and follow us.

Thereupon he set up a loud wailing because the compliance was not immediate, which caused us all to weep, witnessing such devotion and earnestness in his entreaties.

The Indians did the same as they saw us do, nor more nor less; then directly they brought a great quantity of cane, making a fence about it; and we returned that night to our camp.In 1966, a Spanish trade bead, which matches descriptions of the seven-layer glass beads carried by the expedition, was found at the Parkin site, as well as a brass bell known as a "Clarksdale bell".

[6] This is one of only a handful of sites in the Southeast where items from the de Soto expedition have been found in a datable archaeological context.

[7] In 2016, a portion of a cypress log, believed to be part of the cross that De Soto erected on the site in 1541, was unearthed.