Mississippi Mounds
The Mississippian Culture constructed hundreds of temple, effigy, fortress, and observatory mounds from the flood loam of the Mississippi River and her tributaries. The earthen hills contain burials, funerary objects and iconographic artifacts. Many descendants of the Mississippian culture view the mounds as sacred, and some tribes perform ceremonies at the ancient mounds to this day. The mounds were built of rich humus in agricultural lowlands, and starting in the 19th century they were destroyed by farm fields, canals, roads, and pot-hunters. Today, looting, mechanized agriculture, erosion, urban sprawl, tourism, off-road vehicles, and highway construction continue to diminish the mounds for future generations.
The five most important mound complexes in North America—the Great Circle Earthworks, Octagon Earthworks, Great Serpent Mound, Alligator Mound and Cahokia Mounds—had to weather centuries of abuse to have the modicum of protection and respect they receive today.
- ↑ Sacred Land Film Project, "Mississippi Mounds" (updated 21 April 2021) https://sacredland.org/mississippi-mounds-united-states/