Mounds Made By Early North American Societies

The native tribes of the Great Plains and the Eastern Woodlands have surprisingly different adaptions and responses to their expansions by settlers; not only in their cultures, but in their subsistence, warfare, peacemaking, and gender roles as well. Both tribes were forced to adapt and change due to the overtaking on the European settlers, but both managed to do it in different ways.

The Salisbury Essay’s main purpose for being written was to show the reader how the certain patterns of the early Natives of North America shaped the continent into what it is today. Before the contact of Europeans, the Natives were a very intelligent and organize group of individuals that started trading goods and riches before the Europeans ever thought they could be able to. Archaeologists believe that the first main group of Natives that started all of the beginning patterns of the Natives and even 10 thousand years before Columbus landed was the Cahokia Indians.

Located in present day Collinsville, Illinois is Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, which was once home to the largest city north of Mexico from 700 to 1400 A.D. Settled by the Mississippian people, today their decline remains a mystery. First visited in 1811 by traveler Henry Brackenridge and considered the “discoverer of Cahokia” only in the sense that he wrote several papers and articles about the findings to the public’s attention. After walking around the mounds, Brackenridge described that the locations of the last inhabitants were clearly visible to him, as were fragments of their tools and utensils. Many extensive archeological excavations and several case study theories have come about through the years as to why this magnificent ancient metropolis faced such demise.

- In the geological aspect, the Native Americans that tended to the land did not aggressively control the land leaving rich soil for the incoming Europeans to later on control. But they also burnt down many trees to create living spaces for the tribes. Geographically it was good for the Europeans because it was by the water and all the rocks underneath the top layer of soil were rich for farming.

The Myth of the Moundbuilders is a myth accepted by American settlers from Europe, in North America into the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. America was being populated and the new colonizers began to notice many artificial earthworks all around the continent. Circular, straight and mound statues were built and uncovered when the new farmers started to clean around the trees in the forest.

Archaeologists were attracted to Cahokia because of the many earthen mounds that were built in the region by ancient Americans.

The reading states that there are three theories on how Mima mounds originated and provides three reasons of support. However, the professor states that recent studies state different opinions about the theories in the reading passage.

The Cahokia Mounds characterized Mississippian culture and environment from around 600 to 1400 CE. They were situated directly across the Mississippi river and were basically large human made earthen mounds. It was these large human made mounds of “packed earth” that impacted the social structure of the eastern woodland peoples in a profound way. These mounds were situated right next to large (around fifty acres) rectangular plazas. Small communities also filled the spaces all around the mounds. Above all the mounds were platforms to perform rituals and were also built to cover

Early civilization of North America With the discovery of America, several emigrants started moving to this newly discovered land. As a result of this, numerous colonies were formed in America. The Spanish settlers were the first to immigrate to America. They formed colonies in the West Indies, Mexico and South America. On the other hand, English emigrants arrived to New England, Virginia and other parts of America, which later formed the United States. Immigration to the “New World” took pace in the early 1600s and grew from a group of few hundred colonists to a flood of millions of newcomers. These new settlers started building a new civilization in the northern region. Immigration of English settlers started long after the settlement of Spaniards in South America and Mexico. Majority of the English colonists were those who escaped their homeland to avoid political coercion, to practice their religions with freedom and to explore new opportunities that were absent in their homeland. It was the time when England was facing an economic depression and job opportunities were rare even for skilled people. Immigration of English and other European settlers was primary due to the political instability in their homeland. The instable regime of Charles I forced many English people to move to the New World. In addition to this, the repressive policies of rulers in other parts of Europe and the destruction because of several wars played a major role in encouraging Europeans to move

The image that I first selected was the Cahokia Mounds. The land covered about 2,000 acres and ranged from 10,000-30,000 people (64). According to the image, the inhabitants live by farming and they had great architectures. They had a well organized community and it looks to follow a certain order. Basically, the community was well kept and organized. The image shows a society that is proper and that everyone in the community has an important part in the community. That each individual has a certain part in the community that keeps it rolling. Overall, the inhabitants had a structure of their society that showed how organized and well put the community was.

"a beautiful and complete history of wars against native settlers in North America until its almost complete extermination (the natives, that is). The book has been considered since its inception the definitive account on the subject and, although it may seem that sides with the Indians, the fact is that the general tone would be fairly neutral ... only that the facts were as they were. A view quite far from that has always given us the western, no doubt.

The Great Plains was the home of thousands of Indians. The Great Plains Indians is a tribe that still lives in part of the North of the United States and Canada. This tribe is also known as the Sioux’s, a tribe that still lives in this territory. Indian tribes struggle every day because they do not have recourses. They do not live a normal life because most of them have diabetes which makes their life expectancy shorter than other Americans. Males tend to live till the age of 48 and females to the age of 52 which is not normal for Americans. Some of the factors that affect this life expectancy are low income and their nutrition. Most Indians only make about $8,000 per years, that is not even one third of what a normal American makes per year.

The following report details the archaeological fieldwork conducted by New South Associates, Inc. for proposed widening and improvements along U.S. 158 in Forsyth and Guilford counties, North Carolina. The purpose of the survey was to identify and evaluate archaeological sites for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), within the proposed project area of potential effects (APE). This project was conducted for the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) (TIP R-2577ABC, State Project No. 37405). This is a state-funded project covered under a United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) individual permit. As such, the USACE serves as the lead federal agency and the work complies with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA), as amended.

North America was a land of quite diversities from the east to the south. One of the early periods was the Eastern Woodland period (800-200 BCE) which led to the mound emergence and when the Middle Woodland period (c. 200 BCE- AD 400) started, the mounds became more significant for ritual and spiritual meaning widespread (Scarre 681: 2013).

The Southern States made up of Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. The principal perpetual settlement in North America was Jamestown, Virginia