1. Early Mississippi History
Mississippi has a deep history of Native Americans
Many of our cities and counties have Native American names
Even the name Mississippi is derived from Indian words meaning Great River

2. Woodland Culture 500 B.C. – 1,000 A.D.
Prehistoric Cultures
Paleo Culture 10,000 B.C. – 8,000 B.C.
Archaic Culture 8,000 B.C. – 500 B.C.
Woodland Culture 500 B.C. – 1,000 A.D.
Mississippian Culture 1,000 A.D. – 1,600 A.D.

3. Early Mississippi History
Paleo Indians were the first people in Mississippi
It is believed they crossed the land bridge connecting Alaska and Russia
Mounds are the most visible legacy of the Native Americans
Uses: religious temples, homes, and burials
Emerald Mound in Mississippi is the 2nd largest in the US
Most Native Americans live in clans
Clan – is a group of people who are related to each other

4. Early Native Americans
Paleo
Ice Age
Earliest Americans crossed land bridge from Siberia into Alaska (and downward from there)

5. Early Native Americans
Archaic
Climate warmer and drier
Native Americans adjusted to climate and became less nomadic
Woodland
Highly organized societies in Mississippi and Ohio River valleys developed
Built burial mounds over tombs
Moundbuilders – lived alongside rivers and streams (see slides below)
Villages grew larger and tied together politically
Used bow and arrow

6. Mississippian
built religious buildings and the homes of chiefs on top of their flat, rectangular mounds
Choctaw connect their early history with a mound called Nanih Waiya [Na’-na Wai’-a] along the Pearl River in southeastern Winston County

7. In Natchez

8. The Temple Mound at Winterville

9. Mound sites in Mississippi
Bear Creek
Pharr
Owl Creek
Bynum
Winterville
Jaketown
Nanih Waiya
Pocahontas
Boyd
Emerald
Grand Village

10. Mississippi Tribes (tribes in red indicate the larger tribes)
CHICKASAW (north Mississippi)
TAPOSA
CHAKCHIUMA
IBITOUPA
TIOU
YAZOO
HOUMA
KOROA
TUNICA
NATCHEZ (south Mississippi)
CHOCTAW (central Mississippi)
ACOLAPISSA
BILOXI
PASCAGOULA

11. CHOCTAW Connect early history with Nanih Waiya (Winston County)
Had 25 to 30 villages and each person had a voice in government
Major crop: maize (corn)
One of three largest tribes
The only major visible tribe in Mississippi today
(Choctaw Code Talkers – Choctaw nation – not just Mississippi)

12. NATCHEZ “Great Sun” chief lived on top of mound here
Major crop: maize (corn)
One of three largest tribes
mound-in-natchez

13. CHICKASAW
Major crop: maize (corn)
One of three largest tribes

14. MISSISSIPPIAN NATIVE AMERICANS
Smaller tribes: Choula, Pascagoula, Tunica, Biloxi
Larger tribes: Chickasaw, Choctaw, Natchez
Major crop: maize (corn)
Well organized and had developed ways of life that fit into
environment (HUMAN-ENVIRONMENT INTERACTION)
Each village included several clans (groups of related families)
Punished criminals
Protected individuals from violence
Exogamy: practice of marrying outside the clan
Polygyny: having more than one wife (occasionally,
a man in tribe had two wives)
Built villages close to streams/creeks
Religious beliefs: centered on sun and the sacred fires
(represented sun on Earth); believed in many spirits
associated with nature and animals

15. Introduced horses/hogs to America
SPANISH EXPLORERS
First to visit MS
( ) Hernando de Soto explored area searching for gold and silver
Attacked north of Mobile by Native Americans but NA did not know how to fight soldiers so were defeated
Introduced horses/hogs to America
MAIN OUTCOME: diseases spread from Spanish to Native Americans who had no immunity to them
Repeatedly attacked by Native Americans
Reached Gulf of Mexico and sailed to Mexico
Never returned

16. Visited MS after Spaniards
FRENCH EXPLORERS
Visited MS after Spaniards
Originally settled in Quebec, Canada and explored from there
1673: Louis Jolliet (trader) and Father Jacques Marquette (missionary) sailed down MS River and reached present- day site Rosedale, MS
Turned around when they realized that river flowed into Gulf and not Pacific Ocean
1682: Rene Cavelier, de La Salle, Henri de Tonti, and Father Membre traveled down MS River and claimed region for France
From 1699 to 1763, the future state of Mississippi was a part of the French colony of Louisiana.
During these years, the French explored the region, established settlements and military outposts, engaged in political and economic relations with the area’s American Indians, and sought to establish a profitable economy
Fort Maurepas – first permanent settlement in MS

17. French: built Fort Rosalie in 1716 (Natchez)

18. BRITISH MISSISSIPPI
MS officially part of province West Florida (1763) (included southern halves of Alabama and MS as well as parts of Florida)
1783 Treaty of Paris (between US and Great Britain…peace treaty of Revolutionary War): US controlled southern boundary at 31 degrees north latitude
Spain held territory south of that line (refused to give up Natchez District which was north of line)
Spain signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo (Pinckney’s Treaty) in 1795 in which it recognized the 31st parallel as the boundary between Spanish Florida and the United States.

19. SETTLEMENTS
Spain, England, and France established colonial settlements in eastern North America
First European settlement in MS – Ocean Springs
Mississippi ruled first by French, then English, and finally Spain
Mississippi Territory - after centuries of control by several European powers, the land that would become Mississippi became a part of the United States at the close of the 18th century… April 7, 1798, Congress created the Mississippi Territory

21. Mississippi Territory
Most Europeans living in the territory lived along the MS River
Natchez was the capital of the territory
By 1817 the Mississippi Territory applied for statehood
However the US Congress did not want to allow it to be a state because it was too large
As a result they split the territory
December 10, 1817 MS became the 20th state of the US