June 23, 2015

This image belongs to Melissa Reese Etheridge.

In 1500, Conquistadors were sailing into the area that we now know as Mobile Bay in the state of Alabama in the United States. On Spanish maps, it was called the Bay of the Holy Spirit. The Pensacola Indians were the tribal folk living in this area. Many of us are familiar with the name of the town in Florida. The Pensacola lived in the area around Mobile Bay until they assimilated into other Indian tribes in the mid-eighteenth century. These Indians were very fearful of the Spanish conquistadors. The Pensacola were so fearful that they burned their villages and fled.

Hernando De Soto, the Spanish explorer and conquistador, encountered a group of Indians called the Muscogee. The Muscogee also go by the name of the Creek Indians. De Soto would have encountered these Indians while exploring what is now the states of Florida, Georgia, and Alabama. The Muscogee Indians, descendants of a group of people from the now state of Mississippi, were mound building Indians. Indian tribes used these earthen mounds for religious and ceremonial purposes. Visitors find these mounds along the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. A modern related group of people would be the Tunica-Biloxi Indians. Do those names sound familiar? Well, they should. Those are the names of two casino towns in Mississippi.

The records of Hernando De Soto show that he and his conquistadors had regular contact with Indian tribes throughout this region. De Soto may have been instrumental in developing peace treaties among the tribes. De Soto’s copious records are invaluable to historians as they study these Mississippian culture people. While, on the forefront, it may seem that these Indian’s encounters with the Europeans may not have had much effect on the people, just the opposite is true. Europeans brought diseases to which the Indians were not immune. In some instances, it seems that political structures may have broken down in the tribes. Because of all of this change, many Indians are not aware that their ancestors built the earthen mounds. Cyrus Thomas, a famous historian, brought the information about the mound builders to light.

A famous mound found along the Natchez Trace is the Bynum Mound and Village Site. The Mississippi Culture Indians built these mounds in the archaeological period known as the Middle Woodland. The Middle Woodland Period was from 1 to 500 CE. The Indians during this time were moving from coastal areas to the interior. There are six mounds in this area. This area is now near the Tombigbee State Park near Tupelo, Mississippi. The National Park Service excavated some of the mounds in 1940 and found items made of materials from that region and items from materials not found in that region. These items proved that these people were part of the Hopewell Exchange System, which is a set of related tribes who traded with each other along common trade routes. The materials traded were often raw materials and used in the manufacture of items like tools and weapons.

Indian Burial Mound

Like headstones in a graveyard

They rise from the earth

Singing sweet and bitter memories

Along an ancient trail

Giving forth clues of our heritage

A forgotten heritage

Mindful of the past

Unsure of the future

Rhapsodies heard along a singing river

Mournful wails and chants

Holding hands

Drowning our sorrows and our fears

Taurus storms into our land

Ending our way of life

A life that is forgotten by our children

We must be reminded by the white teacher

Of who we are

Where we came from

Our trail leads us in contact

Hope leads us in contact

Along a bitter trace

Among forgotten ancestors

Calling along the singing river

Chanting a funeral song

Holding hands

Holding hearts

~Melissa Reese Etheridge