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Spiro started upward spiral in 700 A.D.

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Akecheta
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« on: February 26, 2011, 01:22:21 am »

Spiro started upward spiral in 700 A.D.

By TEDDYE SNELL Staff Writer The Tahlequah Daily Press Wed Feb 23, 2011, 10:46 AM CST

TAHLEQUAH — LeFlore County, often referred to as “Little Dixie,” was once home to a thriving national center of commerce.

This lively metropolis enjoyed its heyday not in recent memory, but between 700 and 1400 A.D.

According to Dennis Peterson, archaeologist and site manager of the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center in Spiro, the Mississippian culture of the time had contact with over 60 tribes from coast to coast, involving 30 languages and over three million people.

Peterson presented “The Mississippian Culture from the East to the West: Spiro Mounds and Its National Connections” as part of the Cherokee Nation’s history presentation. The lecture focused on how leaders at Spiro Mounds overcame language barriers to forge alliances with tribes, including the Cherokee, to create a vast trade alliance.

The Mississippian culture at Spiro built its community on the south bank of the Arkansas River and its initial interest was to control trade along the river. But eventually, this trade expanded nationwide, said Peterson. The people at Spiro are credited with building boats as large as 60 feet in length and could transport up to 80 people.

The 12-mound site is the largest recorded west of the Mississippi, and is one of 20,000 such sites documented.

“Spiro has the largest number of fancy items – or burial items – found anywhere in the U.S.,” said Peterson. “Because of its location along the Arkansas River, the people at Spiro Mounds were able to develop trade routes via waterways all the way to the Gulf of California through natural systems.”

Peterson explained the vast majority of smaller mound sites across the country served as county seats, with larger sites, such as Spiro; Moundville, Ala.; Etowah, Ga.; and Cahokia, Ill., serving as state capitols.

“The bigger the mound site, the more control you had over the people, since this period in history was not one in which war was waged,” said Peterson. “What happened through the U.S. in 700 A.D. was that it was a very lush period, and we saw a resurgence of maize cultivation.”

Peterson said maize was a wonderful crop and impetus for commerce, because its growth is prolific, it grows in a wide variety of climates, and it stores for a very long time.

“The down side is that it isn’t a great food source,” said Peterson. “The more you eat, the less good you gain from it. Not only that, the bigger the city/state, the more you come to rely on it.”

Maize has been attributed to a higher infant mortality rate, bone disease and tooth decay in ancient civilizations.

“And those people couldn’t really take a chance on better foods, such as sunflower, barley or pig weed, because it doesn’t have the production rate or the shelf life of maize,” said Peterson.

Spiro was ideally suited in its location, because it was a big city in a vast region and had a national footprint. The land allowed for a diversity of food sources, which increased life expectancy and reduced infant mortality rate, said Peterson.

“The location on the river and the transport by boat made Spiro’s location similar to being on the I-40 of the time,” said Peterson. “They also had control over two of the most-desired items of the time.”

During this period, women were farmers, producing 80-85 percent of the food, while the men, who hunted, produced the remaining 15 percent. Men were more involved in the spiritual and political aspects of the culture.

Spiro controlled the plains bison populations at the time. Women were responsible for hoeing fields, and often the materials they had to use were bulky and heavy, and dulled quickly. The shoulder blade of the bison, however, was much lighter and sharper, and made hoeing much easier. In controlling the bison population, the people at Spiro controlled the trade of a much-wanted commodity. And the region was rife with stands of Bois d’Arc, the wood most sought-after for bow-making.

“So they essentially had an economic monopoly over all the tribes in the east,” said Peterson. “They had the location, access to the west, fertile land and the bison herds.”

Peterson said that once trade was established among tribal cultures, maintaining the control without warfare was often tricky.

“Spiro exerted its influence by being not too big and having perfect regional placement,” said Peterson. “They often acted as a go-between for smaller, county groups and larger sites like Cahokia. They created an ambassadorship, which was faced with two problems: How to get everyone doing the same thing and to get past oral tradition roadblocks.”

The people at Spiro created the only pan-tribal writing system, which had no real developed language, but used icons to solidify stories that crossed over from tribe to tribe.

“The did this through conch shell engravings,” said Peterson. “These shells were only found on the southern tip of Florida, which reiterates the vast reach of the Spiro people. Spiro actually sent an ambassador to the region so they could control the distribution of the conchs.”

Peterson said most Native American tribes have a “first fire” story, and it was the Spiro people who sought to standardize the story through its iconic language, so that “everyone was singing from the same page.”

“The ambassador would have the engraver transcribe the story, then the ambassador would take the conch along the river, making stops along the way to tell the story to other smaller groups,” said Peterson. “He would make sure everyone understood the story, the eventually would make his way to a larger site, such as Cahokia, where he would meet with the leader there, and relate the story.”

Peterson said the conch was viewed as visible proof, in case the story became diluted or changed through oral transmission.

“It was art for information’s sake, essentially,” said Peterson.

http://tahlequahdailypress.com/features/x62853622/Spiro-started-upward-spiral-in-700-A-D
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