The People of the Riparian Forest: Keywords: Caddo, Mississippi Mound Builders, mounds, earthworks technology, Cahokia, Poverty Point, Caddo Mounds, Mississippi River Basin, Hasinai, Native Americans, Texas history, 4th-7th grade Social Studies, the Pinewoods of East Texas.
THE PEOPLE OF
THE RIPARIAN FOREST
THE MISSISSIPPI MOUND BUILDERS
Many books and educational material about Native Americans usually divide the territory of the United States into main groups. They always begin with the Eastern Woodlands people, follow with the people of The Plains, move to the Southwest desert people and continue from there west and north.
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| Parkin Mounds, NE Arkansas |
I propose that this approach ignores the most important grouping of the First Nations: the people of the Mississippi River Basin. They were the most advanced at the times, with very ancient roots, with thousands of known archaeological sites, and with a distinctive cultural pattern. They are not the same as the Eastern Woodlands people, and they are not another nomadic group of the Great Plains. They lived primarily from the rivers and forests, but they also were able to develop extensive agriculture on the rich soils of the flood plains of the great river and its tributaries. They also had long distance trade relations. They are the Riparian Forest People, also known as the Mound Builders. 
MOUNDS
Although there is evidence that people entered what is now the Mississippi about
12,000 years ago, they may have not been the first. The earliest major phase of earthen mound construction in
this area did not begin until some 6,000 years ago. Early settlements in the ancient Mississippi River delta in what is now Louisiana may date to earlier periods. Mounds continued to be built
sporadically for several thousand years, or until around 1700 of our time, when the first Anglo farmers began to push to the west, crossing the Allegheny mountains. Earlier, the Spanish explorers had visited several cities with mounds. The French explorers of the rivers also witnessed their presence on the banks, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
How were mounds made?
Imagine groups of workers toiling from dawn to dusk, gathering baskets
of dirt. They carry their burdens to a clearing, dump the soil, and tamp it
down with their feet. As the days pass they retrace their footsteps time after
time until a shape emerges and begins to grow. An earthen mound is born. At the same time, borrow pits grow from where the dirt is extracted. These may become middens (trash dumps), ponds, lagoons, drainage ditches, and even protective motes.
Over
years of ceremonial use, multiple layers of earth are added during repeated
episodes of construction, gradually building a mound of impressive height.
Variations of this scene were repeated throughout Mississippi over a span of at
least 4,000 years.
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| Recreation of the main platform and structure of Cahokia, near present day St. Louis, Mo. |
A mound is an artificial (man-made) elevation, in the form of a hill, with a regular geometric form. A platform is similar, except that it has a large top surface upon which other mounds or buildings may stand.The shapes of mounds vary. They can be flat-topped pyramids, rounded
domes, or barely perceptible rises on the landscape. Some mounds in the north-eastern fringe of the region built mounds in the shape of animals.
Mounds can stand alone or be in groups of as many as 20 or more. Some mounds are arranged around broad plazas, while others are
connected by earthen ridges. Others are large platforms upon which smaller mounds are built. All the villages and cities with mounds follow a pattern. They are located near a significant body of water that is part of a network for communications, and they are on high ground, or a ridge. For anybody that has lived for some time in this area near the rivers there is a basic fact of the habitat: periodic flooding. History confirms what geology tell us. There is no mystery, in spite of what some authors conclude. The mounds were an ingenious work of earthwork engineering for the purpose of flood abatement.
How the aboriginal people of this region used the mounds also varied.As a culture develops a cultural pattern that has clearly an original practical function, over time, its purpose may be veiled by other functions: creating a public space, religious ceremonials, status, burials, defense, etc. Some societies buried
their dead in mounds with great ceremony. Other cultures built temples atop the
mounds, and worshipers approached by climbing steep stairs or ramps. Still
other earthworks were symbolic pinnacles of power for leaders who lived atop
them.
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| Locate the Caddoan Sites. The river shown is the Arkansas. The Red River is a parallel watershed to the south. Map shows only main archaeological sites. |
Regardless of the particular age, form, or function of individual
mounds, all had deep meaning for the people who built them. Many earthen mounds
were regarded by various American Indian groups as symbols of Mother Earth, the
giver of life. Such mounds thus represent the womb from which humanity had
emerged. With such sacred associations, mounds were powerful territorial
markers and monuments of social unity, reinforcing and perpetuating community identity
and pride. Others see a connection to the pyramid builders of Mesoamerica (Mayan, Teotihuacan, Mixtec, Toltec), and how corn was brought from that area into the Mississippi watershed.
One inference is clear: building the mounds required a communal purpose and an advanced socio-political organization. The effort required enormous investment of time and labor.
There are thousands of sites, but only a few are worth visiting. Most were plowed over by farmers in the last 150 years, and ignored by governments. Some states have done a better job at rescuing the remaining sites. The best site to visit is Moundville, in Alabama. The complex is impressive and has a good museum. Another one is Etowah, in Georgia, with a good museum and educational center. Mississippi has a handful of sites, as does Arkansas. Louisiana has a whole catalog of sites as they are numerous, but only three are open as public historic sites. Of these, Poverty Point, near Monroe, is the only one with a significant site and museum.
Of all the known sites, Cahokia, in Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis, Missouri, is the most important of all. It has been declared a World Historic Site by UNESCO. What is left of the site has slowly been studied and is being preserved and promoted with an effort worthy of praise. In Texas, there is only one pitiful site left, near Alto, in the Pineywoods. Caddo Mounds State Historic Site provides a good overview of a typical site. With imagination an some background, a visit may be worth while.
Other sites can be found along the rivers all the way to their headwaters. As a group, the Ohio river mounds are of particular significance because they present a variance. It is here where they were built in the shape of animals and other symbols. In my opinion, they may in fact be an outlier culture.
POVERTY POINT
One inference is clear: building the mounds required a communal purpose and an advanced socio-political organization. The effort required enormous investment of time and labor.
THE EXEMPLAR SITES
There are thousands of sites, but only a few are worth visiting. Most were plowed over by farmers in the last 150 years, and ignored by governments. Some states have done a better job at rescuing the remaining sites. The best site to visit is Moundville, in Alabama. The complex is impressive and has a good museum. Another one is Etowah, in Georgia, with a good museum and educational center. Mississippi has a handful of sites, as does Arkansas. Louisiana has a whole catalog of sites as they are numerous, but only three are open as public historic sites. Of these, Poverty Point, near Monroe, is the only one with a significant site and museum.
Of all the known sites, Cahokia, in Illinois, just across the river from St. Louis, Missouri, is the most important of all. It has been declared a World Historic Site by UNESCO. What is left of the site has slowly been studied and is being preserved and promoted with an effort worthy of praise. In Texas, there is only one pitiful site left, near Alto, in the Pineywoods. Caddo Mounds State Historic Site provides a good overview of a typical site. With imagination an some background, a visit may be worth while.
Other sites can be found along the rivers all the way to their headwaters. As a group, the Ohio river mounds are of particular significance because they present a variance. It is here where they were built in the shape of animals and other symbols. In my opinion, they may in fact be an outlier culture.
POVERTY POINT
The time was eight centuries after Egyptian laborers dragged huge stones across the desert to build the Great Pyramids, and before the great Mayan pyramids were constructed. The place was a site in what is now northeastern Louisiana. The people were a sophisticated group who left behind one of the most important archaeological sites in North America.
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| Location and Site Plan - Poverty Point |
The Poverty Point inhabitants set for themselves an enormous task as they built a complex array of earthen mounds and ridges overlooking the Mississippi River flood plain. This accomplishment is particularly impressive for a pre-agricultural society. The central construction consists of six rows of concentric ridges, parts of which were as high as five feet. The ridges form a semi-ellipse or C-shape, divided into sections by at least four aisles. The diameter of the outermost ridge measures nearly three-quarters of a mile. It is thought that these ridges served as foundations for dwellings although little evidence of structures has been found. However, features and midden deposits uncovered during excavations support this hypothesis.
Poverty Point is indeed a rare remnant of an exceptional culture. It has been estimated that landscape preparation and earthworks construction may have required moving as many as 53 million cubic feet of soil. Considering that a cubic foot of soil weighs 75-100 pounds, and that the laborers carried this dirt in roughly 50-pound basket loads, it is obvious that this was a great communal engineering feat.
Poverty Point's inhabitants imported stone and ore over great distances. Projectile points and other stone tools found at Poverty Point were made from raw materials which originated in the Ouachita and Ozark Mountains and in the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys. Soapstone for vessels came from the Appalachian foothills of northern Alabama and Georgia. Other materials came from distant places in the eastern United States. The extensive trade network attests to the complex and sophisticated society that built the Poverty Point earthworks.
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| POVERTY POINT- Artist's recreation. The circle in the plaza was an astronomical observatory |
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| The individual/family huts were built with poles and rows of thatch, on top of small mounds |
Dated between 1700 and 1100 B.C., this site is unique among archaeological sites on this continent. In 1962, Poverty Point was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The site also became a Smithsonian Affiliate in 2010. An interpretive museum, special events, programs and guided tours, highlight activities at the park.
CAHOKIA
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, some 13 km north-east of St Louis, Missouri, is the largest pre-Columbian settlement north of Mexico. Its site was a strategic location for trade: the confluence of the Ohio river with the Mississippi-Missouri. For the same reason, for as long as the Mississippi was a highway for steam paddle boats, St. Louis, Missouri, was a metropolis.
It was occupied primarily during the Mississippian period (800–1400), when it covered nearly 1,600 hectares and included some 120 mounds. It is a striking example of a complex chiefdom society, with many satellite mound centers and numerous outlying hamlets and villages. This agricultural society may have had a population of 20,000 people at its peak between 1050 and 1150. Primary features at the site include Monks Mound, the largest prehistoric earthwork in the Americas, covering over 5 hectares and standing 30 m high.
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| CAHOKIA - Artist's aerial view. The Mississippi river in the background |
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site includes 51 platform, ridgetop, and conical mounds; residential, public, and specialized activity areas; and a section of reconstructed palisade, all of which together defined the limits and internal symmetry of the settlement.
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| Monks Mound, CAHOKIA - present condition with highways cutting through the middle This acropolis has a base larger than the largest Egyptian pyramid |
CAHOKIA MOUNDS STATE PARK VIDEO
There was also an astronomical observatory (“Woodhenge”), consisting of a circle of wooden posts. Extensive professional excavations have produced evidence of construction methods and the social activities of which the structures are further testimony.
If the Poverty Point archaeologists are correct, this feature appeared in Louisiana 3,000 years earlier. Agricultural societies are the originators of number systems and archaeological observations, seasonal predictions and calendar control.
LIFE IN CAHOKIA VIDEO
The Mississippi Mound Builders, the Riparian Forest People, deserve a world class museum, located somewhere between St. Louis, Missouri and New Orleans, Louisiana (Between Cahokia and Poverty Point).
CADDO MOUNDS, TEXAS
Caddo Mounds Historic State Park is near Alto, Texas, along the route of the Historic Camino Real de Los Tejas.
The first colonial Franciscan Missions on East Texas were established not far.
There is a small interpretive museum on site and a Caddo house.
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| A view in winter of the main mound structure |
The first colonial Franciscan Missions on East Texas were established not far.
There is a small interpretive museum on site and a Caddo house.
More than 1,200 years ago, a group of Caddo Indians known as the Hasinai built a village 26 miles west of present-day Nacogdoches. The site was the southwestern-most ceremonial center for the great Mound Builder culture. Today, three earthen mounds still rise from the lush Pineywoods landscape, where visitors discover the everyday life and the history of this ancient civilization.
The Caddo selected this site for a permanent settlement about A.D. 800. The alluvial prairie possessed ideal qualities for the establishment of a village and ceremonial center: good sandy loam soil for agriculture, abundant natural food resources in the surrounding forest and a permanent water source of springs that flowed into the nearby Neches River.
From here, the Caddo dominated life in the region for approximately 500 years. They drew local native groups into economic and social dependence through trade and a sophisticated ceremonial/political system. They traded with other native groups in Central Texas and as far away as present-day Illinois and Florida. Caddo Mounds’ sphere of influence was only a small portion of the broader Caddo cultural domain encompassing northeast Texas, northwest Louisiana, western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. The Caddo culture, in turn, had trade connections, and perhaps religious and political ties, with similar cultures farther east in the Mississippi Valley and beyond.
The settlement at Caddo Mounds flourished until the 13th century, when the site was abandoned. Most archeologists agree that the elite ruling class left Caddo Mounds after the loss of their regional influence, as outlying hamlets and trade groups became self-sufficient and grew less dependent on the cultural center in religious and political matters. There is no evidence that war played a major role at Caddo Mounds, either in the maintenance of local influence or as a cause of abandonment. The Caddo culture that remained in the area was similar to the earlier culture in many ways, but lacked much of its sophisticated ceremonialism and material wealth.
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| The late Caddo-Hasinai were an agricultural society. The artist's recreates a "bee-hive" large home, a summer hut, and a workshop shed. Thatch was used in the area. In northern areas, birch bark was used. Near the ocean, palmetto strands were used. |
The Caddo selected this site for a permanent settlement about A.D. 800. The alluvial prairie possessed ideal qualities for the establishment of a village and ceremonial center: good sandy loam soil for agriculture, abundant natural food resources in the surrounding forest and a permanent water source of springs that flowed into the nearby Neches River.
From here, the Caddo dominated life in the region for approximately 500 years. They drew local native groups into economic and social dependence through trade and a sophisticated ceremonial/political system. They traded with other native groups in Central Texas and as far away as present-day Illinois and Florida. Caddo Mounds’ sphere of influence was only a small portion of the broader Caddo cultural domain encompassing northeast Texas, northwest Louisiana, western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. The Caddo culture, in turn, had trade connections, and perhaps religious and political ties, with similar cultures farther east in the Mississippi Valley and beyond.
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| The rivers and their forest provided the main sustenance |
The settlement at Caddo Mounds flourished until the 13th century, when the site was abandoned. Most archeologists agree that the elite ruling class left Caddo Mounds after the loss of their regional influence, as outlying hamlets and trade groups became self-sufficient and grew less dependent on the cultural center in religious and political matters. There is no evidence that war played a major role at Caddo Mounds, either in the maintenance of local influence or as a cause of abandonment. The Caddo culture that remained in the area was similar to the earlier culture in many ways, but lacked much of its sophisticated ceremonialism and material wealth.
A SITE PLAN PATTERN?
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| ETOWAH, GA - Site plan |
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| AZTALAN, WI - Site plan |
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| SPIRO, OK - Site plan |
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| TOLTEC MOUNDS, AR - Site plan |
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| MOUNDVILLE, AL - Site plan |
CADDO ART
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| CADDO POTTERY, TEXAS |
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| CADDO POTTERY, ARKANSAS |
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| ENGRAVED SHELL DECORATIONS - ETOWAH, AL |
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| SPECIALIZED FISHING ARROW HEAD - SPIRO, OK |
OTHER NEAR CADDO SITES
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| EMERALD MOUND, on the Natchez Trace, north of Natchez, MI This site has an enormous base platform and the main mounds are built on top. |
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| EMERALD MOUNDS View from the top of one mound towards the mound at the opposite end of the platform |
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| CADDO VILLAGE HISTORIC SITE near Natchez, Mi The site has a museum and interpretive center, a plaza with the remains of several mounds, and several reconstructions of typical thatched homes |
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