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Mississippian culture

The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States in the centuries leading up to European contact. The Mississippian way of life began to develop around 900 A.D. in the Mississippi River Valley (for which it is named).

Cultures in the Tennessee River Valley may have also begun to develop Mississippian characteristics at this point. The Mississippian (archaeological) Stage is usually considered to come to a close with the arrival of European contact, although the Mississippian way of life continued among their descendants. There are many regional variants of the Mississippian way of life, which are treated together in this article.

1. Cultural traits

A number of cultural traits are recognized as being characteristic of the Mississippians. Although not all Mississippian peoples practiced all of the following activities, all of them were distinct from their ancestors in their adoption of some or all of these traits.

  1. The construction of truncated pyramid mounds, or platform mounds. Such mounds were usually square, rectangular, or occasionally circular. Structures (domestic houses, temples, burial buildings, or other) were usually constructed atop such mounds.

  2. Maize-based agriculture. In most places, the development of Mississippian culture coincided with adoption of comparatively large-scale, intensive maize agriculture.

  3. The adoption and use of riverine (or more rarely marine) shell tempering agents in their ceramics.

  4. Widespread trade networks extending as far west as the Rockies, north to the Great Lakes, south to the Gulf of Mexico, and east to the Atlantic Ocean.

  5. The development of the chiefdom or complex chiefdom level of social complexity.

  6. The development of institutionalized social inequality.

  7. A centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one.

  8. The beginnings of a settlement hierarchy, in which one major center (with mounds) has clear influence or control over a number of lesser communities, which may or may not possess a smaller number of mounds.

  9. The adoption of the paraphernalia of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (SECC), also called the Southern Cult. This is the belief system of the Mississippians as we know it. SECC items occur from Wisconsin (see Aztalan State Park, Wisconsin) to the Gulf Coast, and from Florida to Oklahoma.

The Mississippians had no writing system, metallurgy, or stone architecture.

2. Chronology

The Mississippian stage is usually divided into three or more periods. Each of these periods is an arbitrary historical distinction that varies from region to region. At one site, each period may begin earlier or later, depending on the speed of adoption or development of given Mississippian traits.

  • Early Mississippian cultures are those which had just made the transition from the Late Woodland period way of life (500-1000 A.D.). Different groups abandoned tribal lifeways for increasing complexity, sedentism, centralization, and agriculture. The Early Mississippian period is considered to be, in most places, c. 1000-1200 A.D.

  • The Middle Mississippian period is often considered the high point of the Mississippian era. The formation of complex chiefdoms besides Cahokia and the spread and development of the SECC art and symbolism are characteristic changes of this period. The Mississippian traits listed above came to be widespread throughout the region. In most places, this period is recognized as occurring c. 1200-1400 A.D.

  • The Late Mississippian period, usually considered from c. 1400 to European contact, is characterized by increasing warfare, political turmoil, and population movement. The population of Cahokia dispersed early in this period (1350-1400), perhaps migrating to other rising political centers. More defensive structures are often seen at sites, and sometimes a decline in mound-building and ceremonialism. Although some areas continued an essentially Middle Mississippian culture until the first significant contact with Europeans, many areas were already experiencing social stress by the 16th century.

3. Contact with Europeans

Upon the arrival of Hernando de Soto, the Mississippians and Europeans received the first full taste of each other. Due to aggression on both sides and cultural misunderstandings, the encounter left nearly all of the Spaniards and perhaps many hundreds of Native Americans dead. The chronicles of de Soto are essentially the first documents ever written on Mississippian peoples, and are an invaluable source of information on the cultural practices of these peoples.

After the destruction and flight of the de Soto expedition, the Mississippian peoples continued their way of life with little direct European influence. Indirectly, however, European introductions would change the face of the Eastern United States.

Diseases tore apart many chiefdoms, while some groups adopted European horses and changed back to nomadism. Political structures collapsed in many places. By the time more documentary evidence is available, the Mississippian way of life had changed irrevocably.

Some Native American groups, having migrated many hundreds of miles and lost their elders to diseases, did not even remember that their own ancestors had built the mounds dotting the landscape. Nevertheless, the cultural legacy of the Mississippians lives on in the vibrant practices of living Native American groups today.

4. Known Mississippian Chiefdoms

Although the Mississippian culture was heavily disrupted before a complete understanding of the political landscape was written down, many Mississippian political bodies are still known. Some links are listed below.

  • Spiro Mounds: one of the best preserved archeological centers of Mississippian culure; located in east central Oklahoma

  • Cahokia: Possibly the first important center of the Mississippian cultures.

  • Saint Louis, Missouri: A major Mississippian mound center, now almost entirely destroyed, once occupied downtown St. Louis, thereby earning the nickname 'Mound City'.

  • East Saint Louis, Illinois: Another major mound center just across the Mississippi River in East St. Louis is better preserved under the city streets and in backyards.

  • Wickliffe mounds: A chiefdom in western Kentucky.

  • Angel Mounds: A chiefdom in southern Indiana.

  • Aztalan State Park, Wisconsin: Gives excellent detail on a small Mississippian chiefdom in Wisconsin, the northern edge of the greater Mississippian culture.

  • Caddo: The historic and modern Caddo Native Americans are known to be derived from at least one Mississippian chiefdom.

  • Ocmulgee National Monument: Ocmulgee was a Mississippian chiefdom, and the site was later used by the Creek Indians, who used the site into historic times.

  • Moundville: Probably one of the three biggest Mississippian chiefdom centers, located near Tuscaloosa, Alabama

  • Etowah: Another of the really major Mississippian chiefdoms, believed by some to be a long-standing antagonist of the Moundville polity.