1. Mississippian Indians
CE circa.800 to Mid-1500’s

2. Organized Chiefdom Small number of “elites” (power holders)
Most were “commoners” (work force)

4. Mississippian Indians

5. Life Among the Common Folk at Italwa - 1295 CE
Etowah River Valley, Georgia

6. Mississippians were the most advanced ancient culture in Georgia

7. Large Towns Near rivers
Featured central plazas, residential zones, and defense structures (palisades, guard towers, and moats)
Center was a mound used for religious and social activity
Thousands of families lived there

10. Houses One-room wattle and daub
Walls made interwoven sticks covered with mud or clay

11. Trade Widespread network of trade connected Mississippian towns
Traded raw materials and finished goods
Shell beads, pottery and stone tools

12. Mississippian pottery was more ornate

13. New farming tools helped Mississippians become great farmers
Mississippian wooden farming hoe

14. Horticulture--They were farmers and grew most of their food
Cultivating the foods we think of today as being the “most” Native American
Three Sisters = Corn, Beans, and Squash

15. Horticulture
Did not plant just one crop per field
Tobacco was planted for religious reasons

16. Hunting and Gathering Continued during this period
Used bows and arrows
Chert (sedimentary rock) knives
Ate
Deer, rabbit, muskrat, beaver, raccoon, and turkey
Turtles and fish
Seasonal fruits (plums, grapes, blackberries, rasberries
Nuts

17. Why build mounds?
Thought to be religious purposes – believed in a sun god – tried to get closer to him
Some mounds had the chief living on top – when he died they burned him in his house and added to the mound to build a new house for the next chief

20. Many Mississippian Indians died due to exposure to diseases from Spanish explorers.

21. The Mississippian societies who were left broke off into smaller tribes forming the Creek Confederacy