[Why our area has its unique political and religious attitudes.]

We are continuing to pursue the first people in our area from pre-historic time. Nevertheless, archaeologists have developed a significant record from artifacts. History is not static.

Road trip – some of our favorite words in researching the history of our region. Nothing beats sneakers on the ground to understand the terrain and experiences of the region’s earliest ancestors. We loaded up our 4-WD, off-road pick-up with water, food, and supplies for a multi-day adventure and began the trek down the Arkansas River to near where the Arkansas enters the Mississippi, a pivotal point for travel of all the early occupants to our territory for 6,000 years.

How far do you suppose that confluence is from the Poverty Point civilization, the largest mound-community in North America at the time? The distance is only 100 miles, about the same distance as our first leg down river to the legacy Spiro Mounds. Does that hint at why the mounds people progressed the way they did?

Why do we traverse the river paths? Have you tried to walk through the iron-wood of the cross-timbers on the eastern edge of our area? Have you tried to hike through the rugged, wooded mountains of southeastern Oklahoma? Have you tried to slog the swamps and bayous of central Louisiana? It does not take long to realize why all early civilizations used the rivers for their transportation corridors. The dispersal and trade corridors of the mounds people show why the early people did not overland across the mountains and deserts of the West.

When stepping back in time to ancient peoples, we also must step into their way of thinking. In our ignorance of their ways and arrogance of our presumed superiority, many look at the early people as less than civilized.

Revelations from early mounds excavations and coring is showing that is simply not the case.  Analysis of peoples from whatever era tends to take one of two perspectives. The “derogatory” perspective is that the people were animals climbing up the tree of knowledge, progressing in their mental development. The “epitome” perspective is that the people were civilized, valued others, had a very broad knowledge of how the world works and we have lost that broad knowledge for more specialized technology.

Who has not marveled when looking at ancient civilizations, their accomplishments and wide travels, then lamented, we seem to have lost knowledge?

We especially apply this marvel to the Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Babylonians, even to the point of identifying the Seven-Wonders of the ancient world.

From their own histories, they used sails on sea-going vessels for months-long voyages. They sailed up and down the ancient rivers. They built ziggurats (pyramids or mounds) and created great-walled cities which archaeologists have excavated from 5,000 years ago.

Why were we on this road trip? Oh, to see precisely the same architecture and civilization development of the Original Americans, which later migrated up the Arkansas to our own civilization center at Spiro. The cultural development in pottery, artwork, figurines, metal work and other enduring artifacts which can survive millennia buried in the earth, precisely parallels the Ancient Civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean.

So, why has there been the perspective that the Ancient World was sophisticated and the Original American world was crude?

The one story we get from reading the archaeologists, visiting the Poverty Point Museum and site, while traversing and analyzing dozens of other sites is that archaeology and anthropology history is necessarily undergoing correction from the derogatory to the epitome model. Our local North Americans simply have not had the appropriate press until very recently.

In September 2021 issue of “Southern Archaeology”, discussed the research by Dr. Kidder of Washington University at St. Louis. “Far from the simplicity of life sometimes portrayed in anthropology books, these early Indigenous people were highly skilled engineers capable of building massive earthen structures in a matter of months ó possibly even weeks ó that withstood the test of time, the findings show.”  “We as a research community ó and population as a whole ó have undervalued native people and their ability to do this work and to do it quickly in the ways they did…They really were incredible engineers with very sophisticated technical knowledge.”

They built structures out of dirt, because there was no stone, where it rains incessantly, yet the architecture on the banks of rivers has withstood the pressures of millennia.

As numerous academic articles are now demonstrating, the traditional “derogatory”, progressive history was fanciful, assuming ignorance, and inability. It is contrary to the Second Law of Nature (thermodynamics) which affirms that systems exponentially decay when left to their own devices.

Data shows all the Original People accomplishments were without a hierarchal government to limit their abilities. These early mounds-builders were the original and only human beings in this part of the world. The “epitome”, innovative perspective of real history is far more fascinating than any fanciful story that is imaginable.

Think about: Who were these incredibly intelligent people? From whence did they come? Why settle where they did? How did they commute? How far did they commute and trade?