Once people arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they spread
over the landscape like water through a burst dam. They roamed the countryside, hunting and
gathering their way from the frozen tundra near the Bering Sea to the equally
cold tip at Tierra del Fuego on the southern continent, from the steamy jungles
in the tropics to dense woodlands and from mountains to beaches to swamps to
deserts. Natural barriers like bodies of water or mountains which prevented
easy traveling could only be crossed when rivers froze or high passes thawed. In whatever way humans came to the
Americas, once here they migrated over the countryside as their bands grew and
like migrants today, they looked for the perfect place to live and thrive.
Throughout all of these periods, humans worked nodules of flint
and obsidian to fashion some of the most refined stone tools and weapons in the
world. They crafted a way of living that continues to amaze. They hunted large
mammals like mammoths and bison with spears and harvested most of the carcasses
for food, clothing, tools, and shelter. With sharp stone edges, they trimmed
hide into clothing. They wove sandals out of fibrous plants, carved and painted
art on rock walls, and made religious and ornamental objects out of shells,
turquoise, bones, and even the landscape itself. These humans also studied the
heavens and developed a complex understanding of the movement of the sun, the
moon, and the planets. They flourished for thousands of years and eventually,
hundreds of generations lived in all corners of what would be become the United
States.
Isolated from the rest of the world once the Arctic land
bridge sank due to global warming, humans in the Western Hemisphere evolved
differently than the rest of the world. In his book 500 Nations, Native American historian Alvin Josephy, Jr. explained
this differentiation: as the indigenous peoples of the Americas
“adapted to the different environments, cultural and physical variations began
to appear among them.”[1]
Eventually, these early Americans’ unique responses to where they lived evolved
into the 500 distinct tribes that spread across the land.
The people who lived at Hopewell, in the central part of
North America, developed a woodland civilization. Southern Ohio served as the
cradle of Hopewell culture which expanded along the tributaries of the
Mississippi River as far west as today’s Nebraska and Kansas and as far south
as the Gulf of Mexico. Archeologists call these people by several names,
including Adena, Hopewell, Late Woodland, and Mississippians.
As early as 1500 BCE, people in the area began burying their
dead with items that showcased the skills and artistry of their craftspeople,
and by 1000 BCE, they started building mounds over these graves. Copper
earspools, headdresses, breastplates, and other ceremonial objects and tools
along with effigy pipes of birds and other animals found in these burial mounds
illustrate the exquisite workmanship and wealth of the Hopewell people. In one
mound, archeologists found a delicate profile of a hand while in another, they
discovered a bird claw, both made out of fragile mica.
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| Mica hand found in a mound (NPS photo) |
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| Mica bird claw and other artifacts from mounds |
These funeral objects also hint at a deeper motivation – a spirituality that pervades the 500 nations in the Americas. From origin beliefs to migration stories, Native Americans imbued their world with a rich spirituality. From such stories, Josephy concluded: “The Creator, the Master of Life, the Great Spirit, Wakan Tanka—whatever terms the various Native American groups used – breathed life into humans and bound their spirits to those of all else in their universe.” For many of these peoples, both animate and inanimate things possessed a spirit and even a consciousness that enlivened all that surrounded them.
The objects found in the burial mounds give us a glimpse of
the Hopewell way of life. Sea shells from the Gulf of Mexico, mica from the
mountains in North Carolina, fossil shark teeth from the Chesapeake Bay, copper
and silver from the Great Lakes region, and obsidian from Yellowstone area
point to a vast trading network that covered almost two thirds of the country –
from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic.
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| Mounds at Hopewell (NPS photo by Tom Engberg) |
The most important item that allowed people to develop their
complex civilizations throughout the Americas came to the woodlands region
around the beginning of the Current Era. Corn cultivation changed human
existence in the Americas. Developed in what is now southern Mexico about 7,000
years ago, corn (maize) is a unique plant. Disagreements exist over how corn
evolved, but the main point is that it since a tough husk engulfs the cob, corn
can’t sow itself. An outside agent, like people, have to do it.
As Charles Mann notes in 1491
(his book on the Americas before Columbus): “Modern maize was the outcome of a
bold act of conscious biological manipulation— ‘arguably man’s first, and
perhaps his greatest, feat of genetic engineering’.” One corn seed produced hundreds of kernels
on multiple cobs and allowed a farmer to produce enough food on a small plot to
feed a family for a year. This revolutionized agriculture, and as corn spread north
and south from Central America, it transformed hunters and gatherers into farmers
with improved diets. In addition to corn, the Mound Builders also grew squash,
sunflowers, marsh elder, and knotweed while continuing to hunt and forage far
and wide for food and material.
Archeologists speculate that this culture developed strict hierarchal
lines with an elite body of priests and managers directing the efforts of many people
to dig the earth, carry basketfuls of the dirt to the mounds, and build the
massive earthen architecture that rose high over the land. Whether this was
free or slave labor is unknown. From the simple early burial sites of 2,000
years ago, the mounds evolved into elaborate platforms for ceremonies and even served
as residences of the elite. Large ceremonial complexes grew around the mounds
so much that archeologists estimate that the Cahokia mound complex east of St.
Louis had more people than London in 1250 CE.
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| Monks Mound at Cahokia (Photo by David Darling) |
Some experts also speculate that the mounds housed
astronomical observatories that tracked the seasons. Perhaps the mounds served
as landscape calendars and were aligned to mark summer and winter solstices and
equinoxes. In an agricultural society without written calendars, having a way
to announce the turning of the seasons, of when to plant and when to harvest, prove
vital to the success of the community.
Mounds in a variety of sizes and shapes unified this culture.
Some mounds rose over thirty feet high and up to two hundred feet in
circumference, and just in the Ohio River Valley alone, ten thousand mounds dotted
the landscape. In addition to the traditional circles, squares, and elliptical
shapes of the mounds, some assumed intriguing shapes. These “effigy mounds”
depicted birds, serpents, panthers, bears, and even humans. Built between 700
and 1300 CE, these intriguing shapes occurred mainly in Iowa, Illinois, and
Wisconsin. This was a vibrant and interconnected society.
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| Marching Bear Mounds at Effigy Mounds NM (NPS photo) |
The Mississippians started to decline even before contact with European explorers in the middle 1500s. Whatever the cause, the Mississippians are considered to be the ancestral peoples for many of the tribes that have lived in the region, even to this day. The tribes of the Apalachee, Caddo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Houma, Kansa, Missouri, Mobilian, Natchez, Osage Nation, Quapaw, Seminole, Yamasee, Yuchi, and others trace their ancestry to the Mississippian mound builders.
The people who lived and developed their communities in the
central part of the United States laid the foundation for a vibrant and varied
collection of tribes. Agriculturally based, they positioned their mounds to
mark the passing of the seasons, they were connected to a vast network of trade
and commerce, and they had a stratified social structure that included priests
and rulers supported by craftsmen, farmers, and possibly slaves. As we continue
our exploration of pre-contact Native Americans and their NPS parks, we will next
traverse 1,200 miles to the desert southwest and to the Chaco Culture National
Historic Park.
The Mound City Group National Monument was established by
President Warren G. Harding in 1923 to preserve prehistoric mounds of
"great historic and scientific interest." Hopewell Culture National
Historical Park was established in 1992 by renaming the Mound City Group
National Monument and expanding the park to include Hopeton Earthworks, High
Bank Works, Hopewell Mound Group, and Seip Earthworks.
Hopewell Culture National Historic Park
16062 State Route 104
Chillicothe, Ohio, 45601
(740) 702-7677
www.nps.gov/hocu
[1]
Alvin M. Josephy, Jr., 500 Nations: An
Illustrated History of North American Indians (New York: Alfred A. Knopf,
1994), 17.
Well written, interesting story, Dr. Hunner!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment. I will post a new history every Monday evening and then in May, will post from the road as I visit many parks. Stay tuned!
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