# the transitions in the U.S. Southeast that saw the collapse of Mississippian cultures and the rise of coalescent societies like the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw. <cite>by u/anthropology_nerd (flaired user)</cite> ## Metadata - Full Title: Cherokee Oral History Recounts That a Hereditary Priesthood Called the Ani-Kutani Ruled Over the Cherokee Before Its Massacre in an Uprising. What Else Do We Know About This, and Is It Related to the Local Manifestation of Mississippian Culture. - Link: https://reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/psn5ut/cherokee_oral_history_recounts_that_a_hereditary/hdrzc3d ###### Outline - [[Mississippian civilization persisted long after Europeans arrived in the Americas]] - [[mound use near Cahokia reflected political power]] - [[Mississippian hereditary chiefs had vassals]] - [[Mississippians abandoned ineffective leaders]] - [[indigenous North American civilizations collapsed for a variety of reasons]] - [[well-known Native American tribes formed because of European encroachment]] ## Highlights ### q1 Mississippian civilization persisted long after Europeans arrived in the Americas > the transitions in the U.S. Southeast that saw the collapse of Mississippian cultures and the rise of coalescent societies like the Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, and Chickasaw. Oral histories from these coalesced nations, and the historic accounts of the chiefdoms that persisted into the historic period like the Natchez, help us understand the Mississippian worldview, and how that culture transformed in the years following contact. > > Early Spanish explorers describe densely populated settlements surrounding monumental earthen mounds with *micos* (chiefs) able to control sufficient numbers of fighters to decimate the Narvaez *entrada* in Florida, and push Soto around the Southeast. While these early Spanish incursions might have destabilized a few chiefdoms, like Chicaza in Mississippi and Tascalusa in Alabama, stability continued, and some chiefdoms like the Caddo, Natchez, and Apalachee continued until the eighteenth century - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgy1eatpfr7tdyfw2nbrwt2r) ### q2 mound use near Cahokia reflected political power > Around 1000CE complex chiefdoms arose throughout the eastern portion of North America, with the seat of power organized around large mound complexes. Cahokia, one of the earliest, largest, and most well-known of these Mississippian chiefdoms, boasted over a hundred earthen mounds spread out over six square miles, and was estimated to be the home of more than twenty thousand people. Cahokia was part of the Early Mississippian period, and for the next seven centuries a cyclic pattern of consolidation, mound complex development, and then abandonment of the site characterized power ebbs and flows across the Southeast. I didn't realize that Cahokia was just one chiefdom of the period. Need to #articleseed more about this period, particularly because the whole "mound" idea works really well with Celtic fae ideas and scifi arcologies. #articleseed could write about the overlap between those three things. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgy1f2hbkd2g5nammprwjz9k) ### q3 Mississippian hereditary chiefs had vassals > Chiefdoms varied in size throughout the Southeast, from smaller mound complexes, to larger paramount chiefdoms, where the chief of chiefs held sway. Chiefs held the power to extract tribute, usually food or labor, from comonomers and lesser chiefs, and the office appears to be hereditary. Elites demanded extreme deference in the presence of commoners, and enslaved captives from other nations. Isotopic analysis of skeletal remains show elites consumed more protein than commoners, indicating increased access to limited resources, and their burials contain far more trade goods. It's not clear to me how this stacks up against the social hierarchy in places like Mesopotamia or Egypt, but this sounds pretty standard just "yes this is actually a civilization." - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgy1fgfbk9wfnc6h39ktvqgx) ### q3 Mississippians abandoned ineffective leaders > Mississippian complexes were maintained by powerful elites, who would be deposed if they were unable to perform their duty to maintain order in a chaotic world. > > The legitimacy of the chief depended on their ability to provide for commoners, and their ability to maintain control in a volatile world. If a chief was unable to protect their people, or even themselves, they lost legitimacy and the mound complex would be abandoned. Scholars believe the cyclic pattern of complexes rising and falling indicate those dynasties that rose to power, but were unable to maintain their position, either through warfare or environmental insults like drought or famine. This thing about the mound being abandoned has fascinating implications for a science fiction arcoloy story. I also feel like this is probably how some nomadic bands worked — if a chief was bad you might just quietly split off and "emigrate" somewhere else. Kind of reminds me of [[motivations for colonization in the ancient world]]. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgy1jrdxsr157v761j0fjt8k) ### q4 indigenous North American civilizations collapsed for a variety of reasons > While earlier scholars originally thought epidemic disease prompted societal collapse in the Southeast, we now know a combination of factors linked to the deerskin and slave trade reshaped the region > > Between 1685 and 1715 highly conservative estimates indicate the English, and their Native allies, enslaved 24,000-51,000 Indians and shipped them to plantations in the Caribbean. The slave trade set off a refugee crisis. Survivors tried to flee into the heart of the continent, displacing existing nations and sparking further conflict, and Spanish allied mission Indians fled south to the Keys where they begged for ship passage to Cuba to escape the slavers. Disease followed the slaving trails inland, prompting the first large verifiable smallpox epidemic in the late 1600s. A combination of slaving raids, warfare, disease, territorial displacement, and social upheaval shattered the Southeast. ### q5 well-known Native American tribes formed as a result of European encroachment > Nations like the Cherokee emerged from the remnants of the grand mound complexes, shattered either through environmental change, or the disastrous effects of the indigenous slave trade. > > From this shatterzone previously distinct populations began to consolidate and form coalescent societies. The Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Choctaws grew in power as alliances of strength and convenience allowed formerly disperse groups to stand against European encroachment. The story of Cherokee origins is complex, and linked to this shatterzone created by the slave, deerskin, and firearm trade. - [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01fgy1qsj183e6jzvpt3ydhvhr)