Mississippian culture

The Mississippian culture was a group of Native American societies that lived in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from around 800 to 1600 CE. These societies built large, earthen platform mounds for important reasons.

They lived in big towns and smaller satellite villages linked by trade. The largest town was Cahokia, thought to be a major religious place, in what is now southern Illinois.

The Mississippian way of life started in the Mississippi River Valley, and cultures in the Tennessee River Valley also developed similar ways. Most Mississippian places were there before 1539–1540 when Hernando de Soto visited the area, though some groups like the Natchez kept their traditions until the 1700s.

Cultural traits

The Mississippian culture had some special features that made them unique. They built large, flat-topped mounds made of earth, often square or rectangular. They used these mounds for homes, temples, or important buildings. They grew a lot of corn (maize), which helped them have bigger communities and develop new skills. They also made pottery using crushed shells to make it stronger.

They traded goods over long distances, from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean. Their societies had leaders with a lot of power, and some people had more status than others. They lived in towns where one big center controlled several smaller villages. They had special rituals and beliefs, often linked to games, and made beautiful copper decorations. However, they did not write or build with stone.

Chronological history

The Mississippian stage has three main time periods. Each period shows changes in how people lived and built their homes.

• The Early Mississippian period (around 1000–1200) was when people stopped moving and began to stay in one place. They grew more corn, which helped them build bigger villages.
• The Middle Mississippian period (around 1200–1400) was when large towns and important ceremonies grew, especially at Cahokia in what is now Illinois. Many people lived there, and special art and symbols became common.
• The Late Mississippian period (around 1400–1540) had more fighting and moving. Some towns, like Cahokia, were left empty. Changes in the weather made it harder to grow food, which may have caused people to leave big towns. This period ended when Europeans arrived in the 16th century.

Regional variations

The term Middle Mississippian describes the heartland of the classic Mississippian culture. This area includes the central Mississippi River Valley, the lower Ohio River Valley, and parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi. Sites here often had large ceremonial platform mounds, homes, and were sometimes surrounded by ditches or wooden fences.

Middle Mississippian cultures, especially around Cahokia near East St. Louis, Illinois, had a big influence on nearby areas. Valuable items like stone statues and special pottery linked to Cahokia have been found far beyond this region. Local artists also copied these styles.

Important sites include:

• Cahokia (1050–1350 CE): The largest Mississippian site and the biggest settlement north of Mexico before European contact. It had important ceremonial areas.
• Angel Mounds: A chiefdom in southern Indiana near Evansville.
• Kincaid site: A major mound center in southern Illinois.
• Moundville: One of the two most important Mississippian sites, located near Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
• The Parkin site: Believed to be the home of the Casqui people visited by Hernando de Soto in 1542.

The South Appalachian Mississippian area covered parts of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Tennessee. These people started adopting Mississippian ways later than those in the Middle Mississippian area. Their villages, often near rivers, had defensive wooden walls around platform mounds and homes.

Prominent examples include Etowah and Ocmulgee in Georgia, both with large earthwork mounds. Villages with single platform mounds were common in the mountainous areas of western North and South Carolina and eastern Tennessee, which were home to the historic Cherokee people.

The Caddoan Mississippian area covered parts of eastern Oklahoma, western Arkansas, northeastern Texas, and northwestern Louisiana. The Caddo people and their ancestors lived here for a very long time. The climate was drier, making farming harder.

Major sites like Spiro and the Battle Mound Site were in the Arkansas and Red River Valleys. The Caddo spoke languages that are still spoken today by the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto met several Caddoan groups in the 1540s.

Main article: Caddoan Mississippian culture

The Plaquemine Mississippian culture was in the lower Mississippi River Valley in western Mississippi and eastern Louisiana. Examples include the Medora site, Anna, Emerald Mound, Winterville, and Holly Bluff sites.

• Emerald Mound: A very large earthwork near Stanton, Mississippi, dating from 1200 to 1730.
• Grand Village of the Natchez: The main village of the Natchez people, with three mounds.

Main article: Plaquemine culture

Known Mississippian settlements

Main article: List of Mississippian sites

The Mississippian culture had many towns and small villages. Researchers have found many places where these people lived. These settlements help us learn about their lives.

Related nations

The Mississippian people were the ancestors of many American Indian nations. These nations lived in the Midwest, East, and Southeast when European trade began. Some of these nations include: the Alabama, Apalachee, Arikara, Caddo, Chickasaw, Catawba, Choctaw, Muscogee Creek, Guale, Hitchiti, Ho-Chunk, Houma, Iowa, Kansa, Koroas, Missouria, Mobilian, Natchez, Omaha, Osage, Otoe, Pawnee, Ponca, Quapaw, Seminole, Taensas, Tunicas, Yamasee, Yazoos, and Yuchi.

Contact with Europeans

See also: Mississippian shatter zone

When Spanish explorers like Hernando de Soto traveled through areas where Mississippian people lived in the 1500s, they met many villages. Sometimes these meetings were peaceful, and other times they were not.

Sadly, diseases brought by the Europeans, like measles and smallpox, made many Mississippian people very sick. This changed their way of life. Some groups began using horses and moving around more.

In one place called Joara near Morganton, North Carolina, Spanish explorers built a fort named Fort San Juan in 1567. But after a short time, the local people destroyed the fort and the soldiers there.

As more stories were written, the Mississippian way of life changed forever. Some groups still remembered their history, while others moved far away and did not know their ancestors built the mounds that dot the land.