"We explain to the kids why, from the beginning of time in our homeland, we had the mounds. You can feel it in the classroom. There's a sense of dignity and a sense of loss."

Glenda Galvan, quoted in "Native Voices"

IN CONTEXT

Common Ground
by Francis P. McManamon

 Native Voices by Penny Jessel

Who are the descendants of the people that built the mounds on the alluvial soil that lines the lower Mississippi?

 Nanih Waiya: Mother Mound of the Choctaw by Ken Carleton

One origin story says the people arrived at the mound after a long trip from the west, carrying the bones of their ancestors with them. Another says they appeared from a dark underworld. Nanih Waiya is the center of the Choctaw’s creation tales, the Mother Mound.

 From Ancient Site to Tourist Attraction and Beyond

A teacher tells a jaded group of third-graders they’re going on a field trip to an archeological park. Can the event capture the attention of the video-enraptured?

 Speeding Ahead of the Plow by Joe Saunders

While the loss of earthworks proceeds apace, a pair of researchers work on ways to learn without excavating.

 In Search of a Mound by Joe Saunders

Looters already knew the route to the mound, down the back trails and through the twisted underbrush. The earthwork had been eviscerated, its artifacts long gone.

 Peril or Potential by Hester Davis

The ancients belong to the ages now; what’s left of their earthworks fast approaches extinction. Is it too late to save them?