The Mississippian Period (900 AD to 1550 AD)
by Russ Johnson
The word “maize“ means “Indian corn“. Indian corn is defined by Merriam Webster as:
Main Entry: Indian corn
Function: noun
1 : a tall widely cultivated American cereal grass (Zea mays) bearing seeds on elongated ears
2 : the ears of Indian corn; also : its edible seeds
If you remember watching television in the 1970s you probably remember the Mazola ad that featured a young, female Native American stereotype explaining that Mazola was made from “maize”. In fact it was made from modern corn varieties, not maize. Maize was at one time arguably the most important plant in North America.
The domestication of this grain had led to a less nomadic life style which in turn led to large, complex societies and cities. The Mississippian culture spread up and down the east side of the Mississippi River and further east. It is common for the people of this era to be referred to as “mound builders” due to their custom of building large, round, flat-topped earthworks in the middle of their cities. The tops of the mounds appear to have been occupied houses of the elite and temples. Many of the mounds appear to have also been fortified with ditches and earthworks. Life was no longer egalitarian. The people were tightly controlled by chieftans and priests who made all major decisions.
The cultivation of maize, beans, squash etc. now gave the people a food supply that could easily be stored or traded. This food supply was steady as the towns tended to center around fertile flood plains, their proximity to water also adding fish to their diet. Advances in the shell-tempered pottery of the period opened up more cooking options. Art becomes a significant part of pottery with animals painted and carved on their surfaces.
Farms were normally centered around villages and hamlets with some large cities existing at a distance. One of the most important of these cities was Cahokia in southern Illinois (shown above). That settlement is beyond the scope of this site, but there are many other web sites that give detailed information about Cahokia.
Above: Reconstructed Village at Chucalissa in Memphis, TN
At the beginning of the Mississippian period arrowheads began to appear. The development of the bow and arrow gave a major hunting advantage over the spear. Pottery began to standardize and centralized, large societies continued to grow.
By the end of the Mississippian period there is evidence of very involved rituals and ritual items often are found interred within burial mounds. Axes made from a single piece of stone are among these artifacts as are amulets and pendants. Many of the amulets are made from copper or shells. Etched designs include feathered serpents, spiders, weeping eyes and other animals and insects that would be readily recognizable today as “Native American”.
The practice of dressing like a bird of prey began during this time as did ritualistic dance and other facets that would later be called “shamanistic”. Jewelry was common and so was warfare. A rising population promoted competition for resources. The Mississippian cultures of the mid-south came to a relatively sudden end about a century before the arrival of Hernando De Soto. The dwellings were abandoned without evidence of what had transpired. For years it was believed the Spanish brought disease that killed off the population, but more recent evidence has shown this area was abandoned by that culture well before. When De Soto arrived in the mid-south the people he confronted were the fiercest fighters of that time, the Chickasaw Nation.