Moundbuilders’ lessons
POINT OF VIEW: Learning about American Indian culture

BY GENA TIMBERMAN Comments 2
Published: November 4, 2009

November is Native American Heritage Month. What better way to celebrate than to learn about the cultures of some of the first people who inhabited Oklahoma?

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The American Indian Cultural Center & Museum is honored to partner with The Oklahoman in presenting the Native American Heritage Educational Supplement that will be distributed to schools around the state this month. We have selected Moundbuilders as the theme. What can we learn from the moundbuilders?

Oklahoma has a rich legacy of moundbuilding beginning many centuries ago with indigenous people dating to around 500 A.D. Many American Indian tribes today are descendants of these progressive and complex cultures. Regulators of early trade, these innovative people flourished as an extension of the Mississippian moundbuilders east of the Mississippi River. For more than 3,000 years, the civilizations associated with the mounds were part of a highly sophisticated culture, one that can be compared to the great civilizations of Rome, Greece and Asia.

The name "moundbuilder” comes from the unique earthen mounds they built throughout their territory. It is from these mounds that we have learned most of the moundbuilder cultural information we know today. In fact, the Spiro Mounds in eastern Oklahoma are considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries in North America and were considered a major center for trade and intertribal movement from across the continent.

The Spiro Mounds were not only part of a large city, but also a destination for people to come for technological advances; religious renewal; and scientific discoveries in medicine, astronomy and agriculture. After formal excavation of Spiro, it became clear these people had an advanced trade network established with other cultural groups that spanned a large portion of the present-day United States. From these people, we have learned that cultural exchange, trade and progressive thinking were vital to society and growth.

Also, community life was the foundation of these cultures. Without community support, the amazing art, homes, mounds, temples and life-sustaining crops they produced would not have been possible. Similar to our communities today, people then often lived close together, they understood the value of the rivers as "highways” and they worked together.

Moundbuilding philosophies continue to flourish in Oklahoma. We advance initiatives that support growth and innovation, we motivate the development of creative communities and we honor the importance of community life. Today, as 21st-century Moundbuilders, we are building on the rich legacy of the past, honoring the tradition of moundbuilding at the American Indian Cultural Center site.

Driving by the intersection of interstates 35 and 40, you may notice Oklahoma’s newest earthwork, the "Central Promontory Mound” located at the center and rising proudly on the Oklahoma River. The American Indian Cultural Center will celebrate the remarkable continuation of culture and innovation that is prevalent throughout our great state. As we build the American Indian Cultural Center & Museum, we strive to again position Oklahoma as an epicenter for cultural exchange, continuing our ancient legacy as the gateway to Indian country.

Timberman is executive director of the Native American Cultural & Educational Authority.