Native American prehistory—Southeast
Native American prehistory in the Southeast encompasses a rich tapestry of cultures and developments spanning from approximately 9500 B.C.E. to 1600 C.E. This period is characterized by five distinct phases: Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Early and Middle Woodland, Mississippian, and Later Woodland Tribal. Early inhabitants known as Paleo-Indians, including the Clovis culture, were nomadic big-game hunters who adapted to changing climates and eventually transitioned to the more settled Archaic cultures around 8000 B.C.E.
The Archaic peoples demonstrated advanced skills in hunting, gathering, and fishing, and began to establish semi-permanent settlements. The rise of the Poverty Point culture around 1700 B.C.E. introduced complex village structures and early agricultural practices. The ensuing Woodland periods saw the establishment of burial mounds and extensive trade networks, reflecting increased social stratification and spiritual practices.
By 800 C.E., the Mississippian culture emerged, marked by sophisticated agricultural systems and the development of city-states centered around mound complexes. This culture thrived until European contact in the 16th century, after which many of these societies faced significant challenges, including disease and social disruption. The later tribes, such as the Cherokee and Choctaw, arose in the Southeast, continuing the legacy of these diverse and dynamic cultures.
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Native American prehistory—Southeast
The prehistory of the Southeast may be divided into five basic periods: Paleo-Indian, Archaic, Early and Middle Woodland, Mississippian, and Later Woodland Tribal.
DATE: c. 9500 B.C.E.-c. 1600 C.E.
LOCATION: Southeastern North America
CULTURES AFFECTED: Alabama, Atakapa, Biloxi, Caddo, Calusa, Catawba, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Coushatta, Creek, Hasinai, Hitchiti, Mobile, Natchez, Pensacola, Seminole, Timucua, Tuskegee, Yamasee
Evidence indicates that people lived in the Southeastern region of North America by 10500 B.C.E. A handful of tools discovered in the 2010s on Parsons Island in Maryland were carbon dated to over 22,000 years ago, while other artifacts at the site were found buried in sediment dating between 15,000 and 20,500 years old. While the site was contested in the 2020s due to the discoverer, Darrin Lowery, bypassing traditional scientific reporting by publishing his findings online instead of in a peer-reviewed journal, many archaeologists concurred that Parsons Island, along with other sites, including Mote Verde in Chile, Cactus Hill in Virginia, and Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania, proved that people had lived in the area earlier than previously believed.
In 9500 B.C.E, Paleo-Indians from the Clovis culture arrived in the Southeastern region following the herd of mammoths. They were efficient hunters, and by 9000 B.C.E., aided by a warming climate, they had killed all the mammoths. The Clovis people were replaced by the bighorn bison specialists known as Folsom people. Adopting the atlatl (or spearthrower), they moved in smaller bands but still in a nomadic manner. Local variations of nomadic big-game hunters, including the Cumberland, harvested a variety of large animals until approximately 8000 B.C.E. One of the oldest Indian skeletons was found at Little Salt Spring in southern Florida, dated at 9000 B.C.E.
At approximately 8000 B.C.E., a transition was made to the Archaic culture. For 6,500 years, or more than half of the entire period of human occupation, the Archaic peoples dominated the Southeast. Spread over eons of time and a large region, there were many variations of the culture. All showed a mastery of hunting and gathering and effective adaptation to life in the river and stream bottoms of a wet area. They hunted white-tailed deer, buffalo, rabbit, squirrel, and ducks and other birds. They became the first fishers of the area, specializing in catfish in many areas. They also gathered the abundant wild plant matter. From the first, they wandered less, and by 4500 B.C.E. they had settled down to centralized movement based on two homes: one on the stream and one nearby in the hill country. This brought about a population explosion. By 2500 B.C.E., pottery had reached the Savannah River area, from where it slowly spread throughout the Southeast. In 1700 B.C.E., the Poverty Point culture appeared in northern Louisiana; it probably consisted of migrants from Mexico. They brought elaborate villages, small-scale agriculture, and jade-working.
Combined with influences from the north, Poverty Point led to the Early Woodland phase. The most noticeable factor in Early Woodland is the appearance of a cult of the dead, with its burial mounds filled with grave goods. By 1 C.E., improved agriculture had led to the much more elaborate Middle Woodland period, with hundreds of oval and circular burial mounds. Their grave goods included copper from Lake Superior, obsidian from the Rockies, and soapstone from Minnesota, indicating both a long-range trading system and excellent craftsmanship. After 400 C.E., Middle Woodland declined from overpopulation, too much violence, local goods competing with the imported, and perhaps other causes.
About 800 C.E., the climactic Mississippian culture emerged to dominate most of the Southeast, except Virginia and Florida, until 1600. Based on an elaborate maize, beans, and squash agriculture (with fields often running for miles along river bottoms), they developed city-states such as Moundville, Alabama; Mound Bottom, Tennessee; Etowah and Okmulgee, Georgia; and Natchez, Mississippi, all of which were centered on mound towns. Mound towns were temple mounds on which were built religious and governmental centers and possibly homes for the prominent. They were a highly stratified society led by priest-rulers and a nobility. After 1200, the Southern Death Cult imported from Mexico dominated religion. Art reached its pre-white climax in pottery, statuary, and shell-work.
The Mississippians dominated the Southeast when Hernando De Soto traveled the region from 1539-1543, but they had disappeared from everywhere but Natchez by the early 1600’s. European diseases are often blamed for their downfall, but it is also known that Moundville split up from overpopulation. The Mississipians were replaced by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw, as well as many other tribes, by the time of white entry in the early 1600’s.
Bibliography
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