Mississippi Valley Prehistory

Mississippi Era (A.D. 900 - 1541)

SITE GUIDE
•	Introduction
•	Mississippi Valley Prehistory
•	Historic Native Americans
•	European Explorers
•	Project History & Background
•	Frequently Asked Questions
•	ORDER the CD!

Courtesy of the University of Arkansas Museum.

Indians in many parts of the Mississippi Valley turned from hunting, gathering, and gardening to a way of life based on agricultural production of corn, beans, and squash in the centuries after 900 A.D. These communities grew rapidly and large, fortified towns were built in many localities, some with platform mounds used for ceremonial purposes. These Mississippian societies were highly organized with powerful leaders, productive agricultural economies, and long-distance trade networks.

A reconstruction of the Parkin site. Coutesy of Arkansas State Parks.

One example of a large, well-organized Mississippian society is the Parkin culture, represented by several archeological sites in eastern Arkansas. The key site, preserved as Parkin Archeological State Park, is a fortified village containing a large earthen mound and evidence of dozens of the houses these people lived in. This illustration depicts the Parkin site as it may have appeared during the height of its occupation around A.D. 1350.

Hernando de Soto. Courtesy of the Arkansas History Commission.

Spanish explorers led by Hernando de Soto were the first Europeans to meet the native people of the interior Southeast. The Spaniards landed on the Florida peninsula in the spring of 1539 and entered the Mississippi Valley during the winter of 1540. The Spaniards crossed the Great River on June 18, 1541, and entered present-day Arkansas.

Title page of an early edition of the Gentleman of Elvas's account of the De Soto expedition.

The written accounts left by members of De Soto's expedition mark the beginning of what modern scholars call the historic era when written records become an increasingly important source of information on Native American and European encounters.

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