From Childhood Wonder to Ancient Lives — The Mounds That Stay With You

Traveling across the South, you see occasional road signs for Native American Mounds. We try to stop and visit each of them when we come across them. Mounds have been important to me since I was a child. We visited the LSU Campus many times since my father went to LSU, and my parents took us to the football games as soon as we were old enough to walk the long distance from the parking lot to the stadium. Two things on campus were always our favorites: Mike the Tiger and the mounds! At first, we did not really understand what they were, but deep down, we knew there was something ancient, special, mysterious, and sacred about these mounds along the Mississippi River. Now, experts have expanded our understanding of these mounds and how they were periodically used for ceremonial activities and secular events.

Emerald Mound, located on the old Natchez Trace, is about 10 miles northeast of the city of Natchez. It is much bigger than LSU's mounds! According to the National Park Service, it is the "second-largest Mississippian period earthwork in the U.S. (8 acres, 35 feet high), after Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois. I don't know what my colonial ancestors (Coles and Curtis) must have thought when they first came to this area. By the time they came, the Natchez Indians, who had destroyed and massacred the French at Fort Rosalie in 1729, were in turn decimated by the French and had taken refuge with the Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee tribes. But the original site included six smaller mounds flanking the primary mound, and a constructed ditch encircled the entire complex, most of which are now gone due to erosion and 19th-century plowing. In the 1950s, the owners donated the mound to the National Park Service, and it became a National Historic Landmark in 1989.

Another place to visit is the Grand Village of the Natchez Indians in Natchez itself. It features three prehistoric mounds, a museum, and a nature trail — with free admission and parking. So, if you are traveling near this area, take an hour or so to stop by, walk around, and be in awe of this mound and this Mississippian culture with the many hours, days, and years it took the men and women, basket by basket, hand scoop by hand scoop, to build this amazing and inspiring sight in the South!