First Peoples

The first peoples to inhabit the Southern Appalachians in permanent settlements were the Mississippians. From 900 to 1200 A.D., Mississippian civilization developed into a network of state-like chiefdoms that reigned over the entire mountain region. What anthropologist generally call the Late Mississippian period began around A.D. 1200, with the introduction of eastern Flint corn and the common pole bean into Mississippian agriculture.

At the time of first Spanish contact in 1540, the Mississippians were already well established along the regions major rivers and tributaries. Populations of Mississippians werelargest along the slower moving streams of the southernmost river valleys. The population of Coosa township, a major Mississippian villageon the Coosawattee River near Cartersville, Georgia, probably peaked out at about 4,000 residents. Most Mississippian settlements in the mountain region were smaller, containing somewhere between 500 and 1,000 individuals (Davis 1993).

Mississippians inhabiting the Southern Appalachians made their settlements along the floodplains of meander-belt river bottoms. Villages were established at these sites not only because of the availability of easily tilled soils, but also because of their proximity to a wide range of plant and animal life (Odum 1975).In the floodplain ecosystem, Mississippians were able to utilize a variety of protein-rich fish and waterfowl species. The proximity to water also provided a route for dugout canoes, which they regularly used to transport food and other goods to distant villages upstream and downstream.

The environment of the alluvial river bottom gave the Mississippians important access to one of their most important natural resources: river cane. River cane, a bamboo like reed that once grew abundantly in the Southern Appalachians, was used for tools, arrow shafts, basketry, and dwellings. Throughout the mountains, Mississippian craftsmen constructed circular or rectangular homes by first placing small saplings, several inches apart, firmly into the ground. The framework was then stabilized by weaving additional saplings horizontally across the structure. Finally, the walls were covered with a thick cane lathing and then covered with a tempered clay made of mud and crushed freshwater clamshells.

Perhaps unique to Mississippians village sites are the large earthen platform mounds that were centrally located above the towns main plaza. The Mississippians directed almost all their public activity toward the structure built atop these mounds, a sacred temple that also served as the residence of the principal ruler. Because the sun also played such an important role in the religious beliefs of the Mississippians, almost all temple mounds and the structures atop them faced east towards the rising sun (Davis 2000).

Not only did the environment of the mountains help to shape the Mississippians religious beliefs and practices, the mountain ecosystem also influenced their daily activities. Recent archaeological and historical evidence has given us new and important evidence concerning the use of the local environment by these fascinating native peoples. As villages increased in size and social complexity, additional clearing of land for settlement and cultivation became necessary in order to keep pace with the demands of a growing population. It is also likely that the Mississippians used fire to control the growth of underbrush around villages, a land-use practice that provided additional habitat for important dietary staples for the Mississippians, including white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and bobwhite quail (Cridlebaugh 1984).

In addition to hunting large and small mammals in the near and distant forest, Mississippians also fished local streams and rivers. Freshwater fish, mussels, turtles, and migratory waterfowl were important to their subsistence base. Fish were caught using a variety of ingeniously designed traps, the largest and most productive being the V-shaped weir dam that was commonly built across streams and rivers.

The American freshwater eel, a fish that may weigh as much as seven pounds and grow to 40 inches in length, was no doubt a frequent visitor to the fish traps of the Mississippians. Before the construction of hydroelectric dams, there were fewer obstacles to block the route of these migratory fish. Prior to the20th century, eels were fairly common as far upstream as the headwaters of the Caney Fork River atop the Cumberland Plateau, the Clinch River of southwestern Virginia, and the Chattooga River in northeast Georgia (Tennessee Wildlife 1937).

Mississippians also made use of the abundant freshwater mussel. They preferred Unios or Quahogs, large mollusks that commonly reach 6 inches in length. For the Mississippians, the freshwater mussels had a number of important uses: not only were they a readily available source or protein, they were also the source of the important prestige good---the pearl. The Indians also made opulent "mother-of-pearl" neck, ear and body ornaments, and cylindrical beads for necklaces from the iridescent mantles of freshwater mollusks (Davis 2000).

In the Southern Appalachians, Mississippians utilized an entire range of plant and animal life.They organized their lives according tonatures seasonal rhythms. Early spring was the time for preparing garden plots and larger outfields. In late spring, large numbers of wild mulberries and wild strawberries were gathered. Midsummer signaled the ripening of berries: the ceremonial harvest of green corn, beans, squash, and the seeds of the semi-domesticated sunflower. Early fall was reserved for the gathering of late corn andthe storing of hickory nuts and walnuts. After the first frost, the Mississippians carried large quantities of chestnuts and persimmons out of the surrounding forest. In late fall and early winter, the hunting of game and the gathering of firewood for winter use intensified, ending a subsistence cycle that would start anew the following spring. Each season brought a new harvest, a new task to be performed.