The Mississippian Moundbuilders

At a time when Europe was plunged into the Dark Ages and crusaders fought holy wars to gain Jerusalem for the Church, a Native American culture thrived in what is now the Midwest and Southeast United States. These Native Americans are known today as the Mississippian Moundbuilders.

Read more about them at The Mississippian Moundbuilders and Their Artifacts.

Here are a list of Mounds in Mississippi

1. Emerald Mound, one of the largest ceremonial mounds in the United States, is a flat-topped earthen structure that rises 35 feet high on eight acres along the Natchez Trace Parkway. Given to the National Park Service in 1950, in 1989 it became a National Historic Landmark.
2. Grand Village of the Natchez Indians - These three platform mounds, an adjacent ceremonial plaza and associated habitation areas mark the political and religious capital of the Natchez Indian chiefdom of the late 17th century and early 18th century. A number of French colonists who witnessed the use of the mounds at Grand Village recorded their observations. These 18th-century accounts offer a rare firsthand glimpse of mound ceremonialism, by then a nearly extinct holdover tradition from the precontact period.
3. Bear Creek Mound and Village Site
4. Pharr Mounds - This site complex consists of eight burial mounds built during the Middle Woodland period, between 1 and 200 A.D.
5. Owl Creek Site
6. Bynum Mound and Village Site - The six burial mounds and associated habitation area at the Bynum site were built during the Middle Woodland period, between 100 B.C. and 100 A.D.
7. Winterville Site - Most of the mounds at the Winterville site were constructed during the Mississippian period, between 1200 and 1250 A.D. This intensive time of mound building reflects contact between local Indians of the Coles Creek culture and influences emanating from the great Cahokia site in Illinois, the largest mound center in the United States.
8. Jaketown Site
9. Pocahontas Mound A
10. Boyd Mound Site - The six small burial mounds at the Boyd site were built during the Late Woodland and Early Mississippian periods (circa 800 to 1100 A.D. ). One of these mounds, Mound 2, is situated in a clearing adjacent to the parking area and is accessible to visitors.
11. Nanih Waiya Mound and Village - Although built by American Indians, by the 18th century Nanih Waiya had come to be venerated by the Choctaw tribe. The site plays a central role in the tribe's origin legends. In one version, the mound gave birth to the tribe--the people emerged from the underworld here and rested on the mound's slopes to dry before populating the surrounding region.

I have actually been to Nanih Waiya. Alas it was in the days before I had a digital camera. There really wasn't that much to see, but the kids had a wonderful time exploring. If I can get the scanner to work, I'll scan some of the pictures in.