Indian Mounds...

[Tom Hughes]

Prior to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990, the Park's museum had on display a beautiful pipe carved by one of the residents of the mound village but it along with other objects are no longer on display.

As a kid I remember vsiting a a univeristy lead excavation of a burial mound and being fascinanted by what was unearthed. I had no idea that this was offensive and culturally devastating to Native Americans.

So is it a good thing that NAGPRA was passed yes.
Regards
David

It would be nice if they could've made a replica of the pipe to have on display. Lots of visitors to the park would love to see it...including me.

 

[Ole Miss]

Tom this picture is from the Shiloh National Military Park Handbook Series 10 from 1955. It is a beautiful deep dark red stone and just gorgeous.
Regards
David

Shiloh National Military Park, Tennessee, by Albert Dillahunty

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Sounds like a Mississippian, the village could have been a village aligned with Cahokia, of course it could have been the Natchez. It is not so far from where I went to field school at Wickliffe Mounds. It is hard to say without more research. We had a major site at one time where I live, but it is gone now. Where I am from we have Woodland Mounds, much smaller than Mississippian sites. I have also seen houses built on top of Mounds here in Southeast Missouri. Not my idea of an ideal spot, but it might have been dry when it flooded. I remember seeing the Shiloh Mounds when I visited the park for the 1st time, and I remember the Mound display. It is ok to show artifacts, but not bones. I have been to Mound sites where they used plastic or plaster bones in lieu of the real remains, this was done to show how an open mound would look that has been excavated. Many mounds were long ago excavated.

THANK you. I've never been convinced Cahokia was some kind of one-off, here-and-gone singular place ( for want of a better word ) anyway? It's awfully hard pretending I'm discussing this stuff because I know so little- I mean in a meaningful way.

Sorry to pick your ear @mofederal ? When you say Mississippian culture, which time periods and where? Tough finding good information- I see ' mound builders ' is not thought quite accurate? Here's the thing. Ran into Cahokia in the first place trying to track down what on earth we could have here ( beyond nothing, apparently all Native Americans through all time stopped at the NY/Ohio/Maryland borders. Must have been a No Hunting sign.... ). Something vast was here. I sure have no stake in it or anything to prove, it would just be really nice to know. There are some ridiculously cool cliff carvings, rock shelters and cairns, too.

 

[Patrick H]

THANK you. I've never been convinced Cahokia was some kind of one-off, here-and-gone singular place ( for want of a better word ) anyway? It's awfully hard pretending I'm discussing this stuff because I know so little- I mean in a meaningful way.

Sorry to pick your ear @mofederal ? When you say Mississippian culture, which time periods and where? Tough finding good information- I see ' mound builders ' is not thought quite accurate? Here's the thing. Ran into Cahokia in the first place trying to track down what on earth we could have here ( beyond nothing, apparently all Native Americans through all time stopped at the NY/Ohio/Maryland borders. Must have been a No Hunting sign.... ). Something vast was here. I sure have no stake in it or anything to prove, it would just be really nice to know. There are some ridiculously cool cliff carvings, rock shelters and cairns, too.

Annie, I'm sure @mofederal will be back with some better information, but here's a typical wiki overview for you. It's wikipedia, so it might or might not be accurate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippian_culture

 

[James N.]

… Glad to think some states acknowledge these mounds. I've always had an idea some ( like ours ) do not exactly because the NAGPRA was passed. They'd have to actually protect these sites. I could walk a few hundred yards from my house and see several. What you're supposed to do, according to the state when ' finding ' this stuff is tell someone? That's always fun. We quit after the first 10 years. What you get is OHHH no, nothing like that in Pennsylvania! Or say, a pre-Columbian relic, stone tool, etc, that's just a rock. Seems a dreadful shame. Must have 207 ax-head, scrapers, whatever shaped just-a-rocks.

Sounds like a Mississippian, the village could have been a village aligned with Cahokia, of course it could have been the Natchez. It is not so far from where I went to field school at Wickliffe Mounds. It is hard to say without more research. We had a major site at one time where I live, but it is gone now. Where I am from we have Woodland Mounds, much smaller than Mississippian sites. I have also seen houses built on top of Mounds here in Southeast Missouri. Not my idea of an ideal spot, but it might have been dry when it flooded. I remember seeing the Shiloh Mounds when I visited the park for the 1st time, and I remember the Mound display. It is ok to show artifacts, but not bones. I have been to Mound sites where they used plastic or plaster bones in lieu of the real remains, this was done to show how an open mound would look that has been excavated. Many mounds were long ago excavated.

Tom this picture is from the Shiloh National Military Park Handbook Series 10 from 1955. It is a beautiful deep dark red stone and just gorgeous.
Regards
David

It would be nice if they could've made a replica of the pipe to have on display. Lots of visitors to the park would love to see it...including me.

I'm reminded that the outstanding ceremonial pipe in question and formerly displayed at the Shiloh Visitor Center is actually still on display, though it has been moved to the Tennessee River Museum in nearby Savannah where I saw it during my last visit in 2018.

 

[mofederal]

Cahokia was active from 1000 (1050) to around to 1350 to 1400 with a population of nearly 40,000 at it's peak. Other experts say it was only around 15,000 - 20.000 people. Some experts say smaller, others larger. The largest city in North America for a long time, it covered 2,000 acres and had 80 mounds (some sites say 120 Mounds) or more, including Monks Mound, the largest. The were located near the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. The towns tended to be near major rivers or river confluences. Their influence was far reaching, to Minnesota and Wisconsin to the North, to the East into Ohio, in West to Oklahoma, Spiro Mounds, and to the South to somewhere near a place called Holly Bluff in Mississippi, basically to the Gulf of Mexico. There were big on ceremony, hence the many artifacts they produced. They had many ceremonial plazas, and Woodhenge. Cahokia was a major trading center. There is the Piasa Bird which is in Ill., near the Mississippi River. Their influence in Missouri included the major river system to nearly KC. The Cahokians practiced cosmology and used calender events to influence their lives, the central plaza major part of these beliefs. They had many religious beliefs at some point practiced human sacrifice, played a very popular game called Chunkey. Unfortunately most of the information concerning Cahokia is based on careful archaeological work. All of the information in the articles is a distillation of various sites on Cahokia.

 

[mofederal]

 

[James N.]

I thought I'd also mention that the Union river gunboat Mound City was (obviously!) one of the city class ironclads, named for a community on the Ohio River in southern Illinois.

 

[donna]

Two mounds we have enjoyed Angel Mounds in Evansville, Indiana and Serpent Mounds in Ohio. There are others we have been too also.

 

[Ole Miss]

Shiloh National Military Park has posted a video on its Facebook page about the Indian Mounds
Regards
David

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=322702519073183

 

[Tom Hughes]

Shiloh National Military Park has posted a video on its Facebook page about the Indian Mounds
Regards
David

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=322702519073183

Thanks for sharing this information about the mounds at Shiloh. Most people don't pay as much attention to the mounds at Shiloh, mainly because of the heavy emphasis on the civil war battle. I had heard about a stone pipe that was excavated from the mounds decades ago. It was an effigy in the shape of a frog(?). Are there any artifacts in the civil war museum from the mounds?

 

[James N.]

Thanks for sharing this information about the mounds at Shiloh. Most people don't pay as much attention to the mounds at Shiloh, mainly because of the heavy emphasis on the civil war battle. I had heard about a stone pipe that was excavated from the mounds decades ago. It was an effigy in the shape of a frog(?). Are there any artifacts in the civil war museum from the mounds?

The most famous effigy pipe from the Shiloh mounds, which was at one time displayed in the NPS Visitor Center there, is currently at the Tennessee River Museum in nearby Savannah, Tenn. and is pictured on this page above:

Indian Mounds... | Shiloh / Pittsburg Landing

Prior to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990, the Park's museum had on display a beautiful pipe carved by one of the residents of the mound village but it along with other objects are no longer on display. As a kid I remember vsiting a a univeristy lead...

civilwartalk.com

 

[Tom Hughes]

Tom this picture is from the Shiloh National Military Park Handbook Series 10 from 1955. It is a beautiful deep dark red stone and just gorgeous.
Regards
David
View attachment 365741

Shiloh National Military Park, Tennessee, by Albert Dillahunty

That's FANTASTIC! What a beautiful effigy!! Thanks for posting it up.