The Mississippian Culture: The Lost American Civilization (Documentary)

When historians or history teachers discuss the history of pre-Columbian America, they discuss a series of empires and civilizations that flourished in the regions of Central and Southern America. Think an empire, an empire nestled into the dry and cold Andes Mountains that line the western side of the South American continent, have captured the imaginations of so many people. In Central America, we talk about the massive empires of the Aztecs or the city-states of the Maya. Yet, historians often neglect a culture that inhabited the heartland of the present-day United States, one that rivals the influence, culture, and population of these previously mentioned civilizations. Today, on Lesser Known History, we will talk about the Mississippian Civilization. To begin, I will be breaking down this video into four distinct parts. The first will be discussing the rise and spread of the culture in the pre-Columbian United States. The second part will be about the actual culture and lifestyle of the people. The third part will be about the largest pre-Columbian city in the present-day United States. The final part will be about what caused the decline of the Mississippian culture and if there are any descendants of this culture still around today. The first developments in urbanization in the present-day United States began in the year 700 CE. Previous hunter-gatherer groups began to create small settlements along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. These settlements, much like their neighbors in the south in what is now present-day Mexico, cultivated corn, maize, beans, and squash along the fertile floodplains of the river valleys in which they inhabited. Crucially, there were no massive domestic wildlife in this region, so settlements would get their meat from other many wild sources. This would differ depending on where each settlement was. If a settlement was in the Ohio River Valley, they would be able to hunt deer and other game. In contrast, settlements that were nearer to the Great Plains might hunt bison. By the year 850, a cohesive society had begun to form in three distinct regions along the Mississippi and its tributaries. The first and largest of these areas is called the Middle Mississippian region. This area includes the main area surrounding the Mississippi from its earliest tributary rivers all the way down to the river delta in present-day New Orleans. This area can be further broken down into four more sub-regions. The Upper Mississippi, which had smaller settlements and were more spread out. The Ohio River Valley, which provided a safe and fertile region for more dense settlements to take hold. The Southern Mississippi, which had smaller settlements and clearings where the floodwaters and swamps of the area met dry land. And finally, the largest and most influential of the area is the Middle Mississippi. This area, the confluence of all the rivers, provided an unmatched area when it came to productivity of trade, hunting, and fertile farmland. This sub-region was the most densely populated and became the nucleus of the civilization. It is no surprise that the largest city in the pre-Columbian United States, Cahokia, arised in this area. The second region is the Caddoan Mississippian. This sub-group of people inhabited the swamps and plains of East Texas, Northern Louisiana, and Southern Oklahoma and Western Arkansas. This sub-group of the Mississippian culture diverged sometime in the 800 CE and are known for their cultivation of corn and many settlements along the Red River. The final sub-group is the Southern Appalachian Mississippian. This sub-group of people is the most removed from the other Mississippian people in the basin and instead are spread out across the Appalachian Mountains and towards the Atlantic coast. Geographical barriers meant that this group was most unlike the others, however, it was still an integral part of the wider Mississippian and Mississippian-influenced cultures. Much like the other influential first civilizations around the world, the Mississippian culture was centered around the Mississippi River and the surrounding floodplains and river valleys. The political culture of the Mississippians was very interesting. Each small region of the aforementioned territory would usually have one very dominant urban center and around it would be small, sub-dominant satellite villages. These smaller villages would have some nominal independence, but would still swear fealty and pay some kind of tribute to the larger city centers in a version of feudalism. The larger cities would act as city-states and were they were ruled by priests, meaning that they were a theocratic society. The Mississippian people would build characteristic mounds that were used for a variety of reasons. Some were used as housing, some religious, and then some for storage or miscellaneous use. While most of their housing no longer remains since they were made out of perishable materials, we can still find their mounds around the Mississippi River to this day. Much like the other American civilizations, the Mississippians made pyramid-like structures that would become the center for their cities. Much like the Roman Forum or the Ziggurats of Mesopotamia, the Mississippians' pyramids were the religious, mercantile, and social center for those cities. The biggest difference between the Mississippians' pyramids and the Aztec pyramids is the materials used to create them. The Mississippians used dirt and would push them into large, triangular shapes and mud to create these dirt pyramids that would ascend gradually. The best example of what remains of it can be found, again, in the modern-day ruins of Cahokia, their largest city. In contrast, the Aztecs would cut stone blocks and would make them into much larger, steeper pyramids, somewhat resembling those that happened in Giza. Today, all that is left of the once great city are ruins and mounds that are near the Mississippi River that is near the present-day city of Collinsville, Illinois. Cahokia was the largest pre-Columbian city in the present-day United States. It was founded in the year 1050 and constantly grew there afterwards. By the 1200s, the size of the city rivaled London, with a population between 14,000 and 20,000 people. The city was filled with artisans, farmers, and warriors. Large urban centers like Cahokia would serve as the nuclei for multiple alliances and confederations. Cahokia is home to the largest earthen mound in the United States, and the mound served as a center for the political and spiritual needs of its community and surrounding areas. However, what has puzzled many historians and archaeologists has been what has caused the decline and eventual abandonment of this huge settlement. Since the decline of Cahokia happened as the entire Mississippian culture also began to decline, this begs the question, what caused the destruction of the Mississippian culture? For many Native American cultures, a mixture of disease and conquest during the early age of colonization is what caused the collapse and destruction of their societies. One may expect this to be the cause of the decline of the Mississippian culture. However, this isn't the story for them. Around the year 1350, archaeologists have been able to detect a massive depopulation in Cahokia and in the subsequent other settlements along the Mississippi River. By the year 1450, most of the major settlements had been abandoned, and the remaining tribes began to disperse and create their own subcultures. So what caused this to occur? Sadly, like most other things in history, the answer is not known. Although by analyzing the teeth and bones of bodies that have been found in the area indicate a deterioration in the diet of the people in the cities. So this leads to the idea that agricultural degradation is a plausible theory. There was also some climate instability, so this would be the cause of this so-called decrease of agricultural production, and therefore the degradation of the diet of the people in those cities. While it is true that some settlements would still be inhabited until around the year 1650, such as Moundville in present-day Alabama, for the most part, all that was left of the Mississippian civilization were ghost towns and the remaining descendant tribes. In the late 1500s, the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto led an expedition to make contact with the rumored villages in the present-day American South. Throughout the next couple of years, de Soto would travel and interact with many tribes. Some interactions led to the altercations and violence, and then some were peaceful. The most important outcome of this interaction, however, was the spread of disease, which decimated the remaining population and irrevocably disrupted their society, and most of their history was lost. Today, there are still recognized tribes that can draw their descendants from the old Mississippians. The Apalachee, Alabama, Caddo, and Chickasaw are some of the largest of these groups. However, because of the loss of most of their written history, traditions are only passed down orally, so much of the history of the past Mississippian civilizations has been lost to time. To end this documentary, I want to read to you all a passage written by Charles C. Mann in his book 1491, New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, that describes what you might have been able to see if you were on the river approaching the civilization of the Mississippians. Anyone who traveled up the Mississippi in 1100 A.D. would have seen it looming in the distance, a four-level earthen mound bigger than the Great Pyramid of Giza. Around it, echoes were as many as 120 smaller mounds, some topped with tall wooden palisades, which were in turn ringed by a network of irrigation and transportation canals, carefully located fields of maize, and hundreds of wooden homes with mud and straw, plastered floor, and high-peaked, deeply thatched roofs like those on the traditional Japanese farms. Located near the confluence of the Missouri, Illinois, and Mississippi rivers, the city of Cahokia was a busy port. Canoes flittered like hummingbirds across its waterfront, traders bringing copper and mother-of-pearl from faraway places, hunting parties bringing such rare treats as buffalo and elk, emissaries and soldiers in long vessels bristling weaponry, workers fearing wood from upstream for the ever-hungry cook fires, ubiquitous fishers with their nets and clubs covering five square miles and housing of at least 15,000 people. Cahokia was the biggest concentration of people north of the Rio Grande until the 18th century. What a beautiful place. As previously mentioned, the passage above is from the book 1491, New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, written by Charles C. Mann. This book is not only what inspired me to create this video, but also was used heavily alongside with other sources that are listed in the description in order to create this video. I highly recommend reading this book because of its wealth of knowledge about various Native American societies in their prime before the great collapse of society that happened when smallpox was introduced into the new world. I do apologize that this video took so long to create, but I believe that this is some of the best work I've done yet, and is of the highest quality that I can make at this time. If you enjoyed this video and want to support the channel further, please hit that like button and subscribe, hit the notification bell and stay up to date with my channel. Recently, I have passed 200 subscribers and the support for the channel has been amazing, and I want to thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Have a great day, and I'll see you next video on Lesser Known History.