A Word on the History and Prehistory of the Southeast

The first people appeared in the Southeast at least 12,000 years ago—and maybe a good many years before that. By 3,000 B.C. they were building Indian mounds and by roughly 1,500 B.C., the great Poverty Point site in northeast Louisiana was the focus of a wide-ranging trade network. In the first years of the Christian Era, a rich “woodland” culture developed, with ties to Indian groups of the Ohio Valley. A thousand years ago, new influences began to affect the Southeast, radiating from the great mound center at Cahokia, Illinois, and from Moundville, Alabama. These influences resulted in the construction of great multi-mound centers and the introduction of new, different types of pottery. These cultures were probably in decline at the time of the first white contact in the mid- 16th century, although diseases introduced by the Spanish explorers may have been the cause behind the disintegration of these Indian groups.

Thus, not only do most area of the Southeast have a rich history, beginning with the Exploration and Colonial periods, but there are thousands of years of occupation before that, an occupation often only evidenced by a few flakes and pieces of pottery.