Part one of a two part series on the Mississippian Indian culture in Alabama

Human inhabitants have made Alabama their home for thousands of years. Because of its warm climate, abundance of game animals and naturally occurring edible plants, Alabama was a virtual paradise.

During the Mississippian Period (1,000 CE – 1550 CE), native people in the area made the transition from hunter/gatherer and small plot farming to living in larger settlements that grew large percentages of their food and established broad cultural traditions.

These traits were first established within the Mississippi Valley, including Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri, thus the term Mississippian Period was assigned to this development by archaeologists, scientists and historians. It was during this time period that the native peoples in the previously mentioned regions began living in fortified towns, built large earthen mounds and established wide ranging trade networks.

Historians like John Blitz of the University of Alabama maintain that the traditions of the Mississippian Period originated with the large scale planting of corn. With more food available, more was stored, and thus more food made available to the Indians. As a result, more people were able to live to adulthood, thus expanding the population greatly.

So how did the Mississippian Indians live? What were their homes like and how did they occupy their time each day? The Indians of the Mississippian Period constructed their homes of timber, mud and thatch, much like their Woodland ancestors. Their homes were slightly different in that they were square in shape rather than the rounded motif of the Woodland era.

Public structures and those of the elite were built on earthen mounds, providing them a prominence in the local settlement. The mounds themselves were built communally by the local populations, transporting large quantities of dirt and forming it into the desired shape. In many instances the “borrow” pits from which the dirt came were filled with water and stocked with fish.

The best examples of the mound structures from this period can be seen in Moundville, Ala. and here in Baldwin County at the Bottle Creek Mound Site.

Located in Hale and Tuscaloosa counties, the Moundville site is a National Historic Landmark that contains 26 mounds on 320 acres. Through extensive excavation, the site has been found to be a political and ceremonial center at its apex between the 11^th and 16^th centuries. The Moundville site is the second largest example of its time period, second only to the mound structures found at Cohokia in Illinois.

In our area, the Mississippian culture was at its height after 1250 CE, and its remains are visible at the Bottle Creek Mound site, which is currently maintained by the Alabama Historical Commission. The site contains 18 mounds of varying sizes with the tallest around 50 feet. The site served as the center of Native American society in the region but had lapsed into decline prior to the arrival of Europeans.