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Archeological discoveries over the years have revealed that Native Americas have been living in the Americas for at least 25,000 years. Their population at one time was in the millions. Although the different tribal cultures varied from prehistoric to modern times, Native Americans have been grouped into the following areas: Eastern Woodland, Northern, Northwest Coast, Plains, Plateau and Southwest.
The Hopewell cultural exchange network of artifacts and merchandise at its height encompassed areas now known as the Southeastern United States all the way to Southeastern Canada by Lake Ontario. The Hopewell peoples migrated from the areas now known as western Illinois and western New York southwards into Ohio where they became mound builders like their Adena forbearers. Lasting from around 1000 - 200 BCE, the Pre-Colombian Native American Adena culture became known as the Woodland Period. The Adena culture thrived in such diverse locales as the areas now known as Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. There may have been thousands of Adena settlements spread throughout those areas at one time in the past. Shaped in the form of a circle, typical Adena dwellings were around fifteen to forty-five feet in diameter with bark covered dome shaped roofs. An agricultural society, the Adena cultivated native plants like goosefoot, pumpkin, squash and sunflower, using uneven stones with chipped edges and mussel shells as hoes. They also gathered edible seed grasses and nuts. The Adena produced notable artistic works and pottery. Most noteworthy of all these works were the Adena mound earthworks. Only several hundred of the mounds out of thousands survived into the modern era. Varying in dimensions from around twenty to three hundred feet in diameter, the mounds were built using basketfuls of premium quality earth. Set apart from the domestic living areas by sparsely populated settlements, the mound complexes often covered up to hundreds of acres. Most of the Adena deceased were cremated. Neither their remains or Adena pottery were placed inside the mounds. It has been conjectured that the mounds were originally used by the Native Americans for ceremonial sites, gathering places, historical markers and resting places for the deceased prior to restoration of higher light bodies. Around 100 BCE - 500 ACE, a large ceremonial center was built at a site where the rivers now known as the Ohio and Scioto joined together. Known today as the Portsmouth Earthworks, the site had a northern section with several circular enfolded spaces and two large horseshoe-shaped enfolded spaces. There was also a set of three parallel walled roads branching away from the area which could have linked the site with other nearby enfolded spaces. Native American Hopewell traditions era mounds were also comprised of grand geometric shaped earthworks. According to the speculations of several scientists, a pre-historic octagon shaped earthwork discovered near the area now known as Newark, Ohio was most likely used as a lunar observatory orientated to the cyclical lunar risings and settings on the local horizon. Other findings included the Fairground Circle in Newark which was aligned with the May cross-quarter sunrise; and, the Hopeton Earthworks which were encoded with sunrise and moonrise patterns for the cross-quarters dates, equinoxes, lunar events and solstices.
These mounds were similar in both appearance and function to encoded Celtic Sacred Mounds like Dowth, Knowth, Loughcrew and Newgrange which were aligned with various cross-quarter, equinox, moonrise, solstice and sunrise events. Besides the earthworks mounds, the Adena Native American artists created more personal arts and crafts. They infused their art with sacred designs like the all seeing eye, crosses, circles, spirals, curvilinear nature related motifs and shamanic animal totem depictions. These revered patternings were later emulated by subsequent Native American cultures. An agricultural, artistically advanced culture with a widespread trading system that stretched from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes, the Adena were named after the country estate where a large mound was discovered in the area now known as Ohio. Their usual cord or fabric patterned pottery was sometimes embellished with nested diamond designs. Adena spiritual artifacts included revered antlers from Deer and jawbones (Deer, Mountain Lion, Wolf) imbued with helpful Animal Totem qualities that were shaped into ceremonial objects; as well as, clothing, combs, necklaces ornaments and smoking pipes. Antlers and bones were also used to make small tools. The marine conch was used for beads, implements and spoons. Copper was hammered to form antlers, axes, bracelets, beads, rings and pendants. The finely crafted ceremonial artworks, ornaments and pottery of Hopewell Native Americans had spiritual significance. Using materials such as bear teeth, bone, fresh water pearls, mica, pipestone, seashells, stones and wood, they created necklaces, ornate cravings, pendants, pipes and statues. Shamanism was prevalent in the early Native American cultures. Sacred objects were often adorned with depictions of Native Americans shapeshifting from human forms to animal forms like those of bears, birds, deer and wolves and then back to human form once again. Smoking herbal plants with hallucinogenic properties may have been a shamanic practice which led to altered states of consciousness. More than two hundred stone smoking pipes portraying animals and birds were found at Mound of Pipes at Mound City, while, more than one hundred thirty pipes were found at the Tremper mound site. Other Mounds built by Etowah Native Americans were found in the area now known as Bartow County, Georgia. Between 1000 - 1550 ACE, there were at least three distinct communities in the area. The earliest archaeological remains found were pottery from the Swift Creek culture which had a cultural center two miles downstream at Leake Mounds. The name Etowah came from an archaic Muskogee place named Etalwa which might have referred to the solar cross symbol. In modern Muskogee the name meant "mother town". An outer ring of nut tree orchards along with a deep moat and ditch bank palisade walls and guard towers protected the community. The mounds were built by the Muskogee speaking Creeks. Both the Eastern and the Oklahoma Creeks deemed Etalwa to be a significant ancestral town.
The Etowah Native Americans were artistically and technologically advanced. Artifacts discovered included brightly colored clothing with intricate designs; copper ornamental plates, tools and weapons; clay and stone sculptures; as well as, jewelry and other ornamental objects. The effigy underwater panther ceramic with the spiral motif from the Mississippian Culture in the picture above was found in the Rose Mound in the area now known as Cross Country, Arkansas. The Mississippian culture encompassed the areas now known as the central Mississippi River Valley, the lower Ohio River Valley, the mid-South area and included Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. The Moundville archaeological park in the area now known as Hale County in Alabama was believed to be the ceremonial and administrative center for the Mississippian Culture between the 11th and 14th centuries ACE. Remains found on the one hundred seventy-two acres site included thirty-two platform mounds and a rectangular plaza. The Moundville peoples grew maize. The community planned architectural design was believed to be a sociogram based on clan rankings with the larger platform mounds (buildings) on the northern edge of the plaza and smaller platform mounds (residences) to the south. Circa 1340 ACE, the Moundville site was primarily used as a political and spiritual center. At its peak the Moundville culture was comprised of around one thousand residents within the walls with around ten thousand more people residing outside the walls in the surrounding countryside. Cahokia was an even more significant cultural and trade center for the Mississippians than Moundville.
Home to between eight and forty thousand people at one time with many more
living on surrounding farms, Cahokia had more residents than London, England
circa 1250 ACE. Situated by the confluence of what were now known as the
Illinois, Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, Cahokia remained the largest
settlement in America until the population of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
surpassed 40,000 residents circa 1800 ACE.
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These cultural groupings were
based on the agricultural and hunting traditions, the carvings and the crafts;
as well as, the traditions and the values that developed over time as a byproduct of living in a
certain area. Circa 200 BCE - 500 ACE, the Native American traditions flourished
alongside the trade route waterways in the areas now known as the Northeastern and Midwestern United
States.
Archaeogeodesy and Archaeoastronomy researchers of the
earthwork mound alignments, dimensions and interconnected positions have
concluded that the pre-historic Native American cultures understood advanced
architectural and scientific concepts.
"Etalwa Mikko" was the official
title of the Principal Chief (Miko) of the Oklahoma Creeks. A new large scale
model of Etalwa has been put on permanent display in the rotunda of the Muskogee
Creek Capitol in Okmulgee, Okalahoma.
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