The Mississippian culture was a mound building culture that flourished between 800 CE and 1500 CE. They were present in a territory that extended from the Appalachian Mountains, to the Mississippi River. The Mississippian culture first began to develop in the Mississippi River Valley.
Many cultural traits are recognized as being a characteristic of the Mississippian culture. Although not every tribe practiced every trait considered to be Mississippian, they were discrete from their ancestors with the taking on of some, or all of these traits. The first major characteristic of the Mississippian culture is the construction of large, earthwork mounds. These mounds were usually square or rectangular. They were occasionally circular. Structures such as temples or burial buildings were usually constructed on top of these mounds.
Another major characteristic of the Mississippian culture is maize based agriculture. The Mississippians used a large scale system of maize agriculture that could support large populations. They also developed a widespread trade network. It extended west to the Rockies, east to the ocean, north to the Great Lakes, and south to the Gulf of Mexico. The Mississippians developed the chiefdom and used what would later be known as settlement hierarchy. In this system of hierarchy, one major center with mounds had a clear influence, or control over many lesser communities. Finally, the Mississippian culture had no system of writing, and they did not construct stone architecture. They did, however, work metal deposits that occurred naturally.
The Mississippian culture is usually divided into three periods: early, middle, and late. The Early Mississippian period lasted from 1000 CE to 1200 CE. These Mississippian ...
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... fighting. This would give them the upper hand, because they new Europeans would have no idea what the Mississippian peoples fighting style was like.
If this culture had survived, European settlement would have taken much longer than it originally did. The Mississippian people would no longer fear the Europeans, because of all the anger and resentment they had towards them for the devastation and despair they caused them. It would have taken a very large and skilled army to take down the Mississippian culture a second time.
Works Cited
Couglin, Ellen K. "The De Soto Expedtion." http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions.nchist-twoworlds/1694
"Soto, Hernando de (1500?-1542). American Eras. 1997. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2536600198.html
"Wikipedia" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture
"Wikipeida" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hernando_de_Soto
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