Chasing History: Native America's Lost Tomb - Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center

Chase takes a tour of Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center in Oklahoma, the ceremonial site of a prehistoric Native American culture. Site director Dennis Peterson leads the tour as he and Chase explore both the grounds and the center's museum. This episode is produced in conjunction with Jason Pentrail of Seven Ages Audio Journal: sevenages.org.

[@loracaldwell6677]

Im so pleased to see this video. I will be taking my grandchildren as part of their homeschool education. They were born in CO but live in my beloved OK now.

[@ChasingHistory]

Thanks Lora for your comment!! Homeschool parents frequently use our KZbin channel as an education tool in their classes, as well as in some public schools. The history of this site is so rich & the story So important to understanding Prehistoric Native America. we hope that you will share this episode on your social media and tell your friends about our channel! Please try and subscribe because we have a LOT of Great content coming soon! Thanks for your comment

[@user-xi8hs8dv6m]

The best Native American information video!

[@ChasingHistory]

Thank you SO Much!! we really worked hard on this one! be sure to check out the Seven Ages Audio Journal Podcast! ... we did this episode in partnership with them. its the best prehistoric native American archaeology podcast out there!!! the guys are really passionate and very well researched. you can find them where ever you get podcasts!

[@WendyWms]

I am just finding your channel and yay!! I am so happy when I find channels that feature America's history... pre-European contact especially! I'm 48 and I cant remember learning any of this kind of history, so I am becoming a student NOW to learn the true history. I'm sure there's much more today thats been found and "figured out" since the 80's so I am adding your channel to my line-up....thanks!

[@ChasingHistory]

Thats what we are here for! please keep checking back, we have a lot of great episodes coming soon!

[@TheScamper44]

@Chase Good show! Couple things: U state by virtue of the title that the Spiro site is the only indigenous site in the US with “tombs.” I don’t know if U have visited or read abt. the Moundville, AL site, but it also has mound tombs. Also, there are mound sites not attached to the Moundville site in AL, that have tombs. One such site is very near me, and hasn’t been excavated, maybe not even investigated officially. There have been bones found at the base of one, that I’m certain are human long-bones. I used to visit the mounds regularly to keep check, ensure no one was illegally digging, but can’t now due to health. In the mid-70’s - 80’s, I would routinely find artifacts scattered abt. the surface, including stone blades, dart points, atlatl dart points, arrowheads, smooth celts, stone and clay effigy pipes, and pottery shards that were indicative of paddle pressed designs, as well as black smooth pottery shards. The largest mound has a ditch on the Eastern side base, somewhat similar to a mote. This site is on an entirely different tributary network than the Moundville site, and is abt. 170 mi.’s away to the NE. in AL. Mounds are so cool, and need protection to ensure they remain for future generations to visit and study.

[@ChasingHistory]

we are defining tomb by an open room that can be walked into once opened. you are correct, there are tombs all over north America... this was the only one you could walk into once excavated... all the others were completely filled with dirt. thank you for sharing the information!

[@ChasingHistory]

Be sure to listen to the Seven Ages Audio Journal episode on this site available on KZbin and podcast. just look up Seven Ages Audio Journal!

[@vondahartsock-oneil3343]

I can't help but notice that "Big Boy" effigy pipe is very "Olmec" looking. I've lived in Oklahoma my entire 54 yrs. and am a card carrying Indigenous person, yet I think I've only ever driven by Spiro mounds, and explored it on Google Earth. It's not that far from me. I hear there's not much to really see tho. We have mounds no one seems to recognize, but The Osage recently stepped in and have been taking care of the place. It's like around Bixby, at an intersection of 2 lane roads, there used to be an indian village. Complete with a Church, school, I'm going to guess Tipi's, as today, you can see the outlines of the place on the ground. There are house of course, all around. For the most part, they are not on the places themselves. I think there are 3 mounds. A large one, medium one and a bit further away a small one. Then after that, the natives decided to be buried at the cemetery. So now the Cemetery is what The Osage have uncovered and many native americans are buried there, from that time. Outside of my home is Claremore Mound. The Battle of the Strawberry Moon took place there. When the Cherokee attacked the village of Osage who moved in from Kansas...following either The Caney River which merges quite nearby, or the Verdigris river. I found a 10k yr old scraper on the banks up top of the river. Archaeological Society dated it for me. I love Oklahoma. I just never find any points.

[@ChasingHistory]

thank you for sharing! and we hope you will visit Spiro! it is really worth the drive!

[@ChasingHistory]

Be sure to listen to the Seven Ages Audio Journal episode on this site available on KZbin and podcast. just look up Seven Ages Audio Journal!

[@cecileroy557]

Fascinating - thanks for sharing with us!

[@johnnyallen5736]

Fantastic info. Thanks very much for a great video! Good luck.

[@ChasingHistory]

Thanks for joining the adventure! The Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center is full of history and so many more stories to be told within!! It was a true honor to go and film here! If you get the chance, go and check it out!! History Rocks!! wahoooooooooooo!

[@cecileroy557]

So happy I found this channel!! Subbed - of course.

[@NoReverse77]

For people not knowing why he said "papaw bottoms". Papaw is a fruit like a banana that grows in Oklahoma.

[@ChasingHistory]

hahaha.... yeah i would bet their are a lot of people who had that same question thank you for sharing!

[@user-xi8hs8dv6m]

Plants and fruits edit Asimina, a genus of trees and shrubs native to eastern North America, commonly known as pawpaws Common pawpaw (Asimina triloba), a temperate fruit tree, native to eastern North America

[@cecileroy557]

Song - with lyrics "Way down yonder in the Pawpaw patch". 😉

[@cindymarasligiller2115]

Great video. I learned a lot. Thank you.

[@ChasingHistory]

we have another coming soon on the Moundville site in Alabama, and be sure to check out the other episodes in our Moundbuilders series, Pinson Mounds and Poverty Point.

[@erichbrewer6403]

Probably Cahokia has similar caches of artifacts. Much of the Braden style shell work may have been made there along with the fireclay effigies. The site is so huge and only a small portion has been excavated.

[@ChasingHistory]

you are correct, and that is true for most sites. where the focus has been on the mounds and not the surrounding areas. a lot of sites are currently redirecting their efforts to the surrounding areas, so it will be really interesting to see what comes of that excavation over the next 20 years. we will be sure to cover that on this channel so we hope you will subscribe and check us out in the future. thank you for commenting and being a part of our community!

[@BenSHammonds]

hell, there are many mound sites in east Texas, the mound builders were here in OK and TX and on back east to MS river, a very early proto Caddo (Fourche Maline) site is in great bend of the Red River just east of Texarkana, in what is today Miller County, a very ancient site called Crenshaw Site, It is also important to remember one reason for mound is that they are often found in flood zones, villages were prone to floods and so they built up. Is common sense

[@ChasingHistory]

Thank you for sharing!

[@KimberlyHopper]

With utmost respect for every word you guys are saying I need to tell you that Spiro i🎉s not the only place ancient people represented themselves and their world in art.. I am in West Tn. And I have many examples of mostly stone effigys and tools.. that they left behind some of what I call pre historic 'home interior".. lol exceptional pieces that adorned their homes or ceremonies.. There is a whole other level out here they thrived on. That has made people question and say terrible things because they can not see this advanced art... the masses do not see this particular art.. I'm gonna send a pic or two of my examples of prehistoric life.. Looking forward to Sharing...love this video. Thank you

[@ChasingHistory]

Thank you for the comment. you are correct, prehistoric art was prevalent at every site. much like today where communities have local artist and tradesmen, but within our culture there are communities that are a center of art and creativity. Spiro is one of those centers in the prehistoric world, and archaeologically speaking the largest center of prehistoric art currently known in north America. we hope you will check out our other episodes in this series, and please check out the Seven Ages Audio Journal podcast episode on this site and other prehistoric Native American sites.

[@cecileroy557]

Fascinating!

[@michaelwutka9714]

A site is once known to have existed along the Detroit River region of southeastern Michigan (ni. Detroit) and is believed to have contained Burial Mounds up till the early 1900s, a site that too could have held the same Native ceremonies held in Oklahoma discussed in this documentary?

[@ChasingHistory]

possibly?? it would be depending on the time period of the Detroit site. i would reach out to the spiro mounds center for further clarification!

[@erichbrewer6403]

From the video Mr. Peterson makes it evident the location of Spiro was chosen due to the Arkansas river. Like the Nile, the Arkansas annually replenished the soil from being worn out by agriculture. As well, the point was the gatehouse for trade on the Arkansas. With that being said, what was being traded West? I can't imagine all trade was focused to the East. Current theory on Western/MesoAmerican contact is that it was of a very limited nature. I believe there is an obsidian flake from Central Mexico at the site as well as thousands of olivella shells from Coastal California. I would imagine further investigation will turn up additional Southwestern/MesoAmerican contacts.

[@ChasingHistory]

Thats a Great question and one we are not aware of an answer to. if you contact the site please let us know what you find.

[@bryanmckinnon9205]

fantasic

[@ChasingHistory]

Thanks you for the complement! we hope if your through Oklahoma you will stop and visit Spiro Mounds! what we learned at the site Truly changed our understanding of the Mississippian World! we also hope that you will subscribe and check out the other episodes we did on Mound Building Cultures! we have one on Moundville site in AL coming soon! Thanks for your comment and for being a part of our community!

[@cecileroy557]

Hoping to visit Moundsville on my way up north from Florida.

[@jessyjee8982]

Hope i can do this one here in the phillippines wanna know also history about philippines history specially when the time of war

[@ChasingHistory]

you should Defiantly start your own KZbin channel and tell the story of your home!! The Philippines has SUCH a Rich history and story! im sure you will have no trouble finding great things to talk about! be sure to tell the whole story all of the history, both the fossil history and human history.... and never lie! always be honest and give the facts of what happened! ..... good luck and if you do something please let us know!

[@SimonSozzi7258]

Very interesting to know

[@roguearchaeology5184]

Not sails they were shields and described by the Spanish in detail!!! I would suggest you guys read some journals and dated chronicles by the people who made 1st contact with the Ongweh Onweh of the Anowara kowa and the Keyenera kowa. Also suggest familiarize yourselves with some traditional oral traditions.....

[@amandaburnham.8817]

Ok, not to argue here, just wondering about your comment. Why are they shields and not sails? Why would the shields be up on piles like a sail? If... if they are sails, wouldn't being bigger make them more affective rather than small human sized? I have BS in Anthropology btw so I love questions and have learned never to take things at face value. Everyone interprets things differently.

[@roguearchaeology5184]

@@amandaburnham.8817 They were made from bamboo and Spanish crossbow projectiles couldn't even make it all the way through them.Im thinking if that detail was in their notes than why not mention the sail also? I would love for them to be sails and these shell type engravingings are widely misrepresented and not understood. Historical references to documented Archaeological sites and data seem to go un- acknowledged or intentionally ignored? The oldest most significant site's are along the Mississippi and it's tributaries in the middle of the USA and are not discovered yet.

[@amandaburnham.8817]

@@roguearchaeology5184 I'm certain you're right that the most important sites haven't been studied, either due to people destroying sites (intentionally or unintentionally) or just undiscovered yet. Archeology is a tricky subject to study, each site is data point in the grand scheme and each site has dozens to thousands of data points as well. Once the artifacts are remove from situ then it no longer is the same. If great care isn't taken to map, preserve and document every detail then that information is lost. I can't begin to decide how much we really know about any part of human history, but I'm sure it's just a tiny fraction. I need a TARDIS.....

[@ChasingHistory]

@roguearchaeology ...... this is unique to this specific site. The archaeologist we interviewed has read the Spanish accounts (as have we) and shields were first considered but quickly discounted... they are on a mast like fitting (only depiction/description of that in all of inland north America) in the documentary a thermal inversion is discussed where in the morning strong winds come up the river. the theory discussed in the documentary is that these proto sails were made to help aid canoes on their journey up the river and that this innovation is unique to this site because the thermal inversion is unique to this site. the quality of the textiles and access to cotton from New Mexico makes their ability of produce "Proto Sails" very possible and backed up by contemporary prehistoric artwork the likely conclusion. so in conclusion .... these are not shields .... but are more likely sails... i hope this helps to clear up your confusion.

[@trondirty]

@@roguearchaeology5184 These artifacts were made a few centuries before the spanish came

[@j.b.4340]

@16:35, there was a “Great Sun” figure/leader, in Natchez.

[@ChasingHistory]

thank you for sharing

[@ChasingHistory]

Be sure to listen to the Seven Ages Audio Journal episode on this site available on KZbin and podcast. just look up Seven Ages Audio Journal!

[@tomschmidt9923]

Spiro Mounds near Viking Rhunestons in Heavener, OK

[@ChasingHistory]

yes the supposed "Viking" runestones is near the site. there is no evidence the Vikings ever made it to the interior of north America. however there is lots of evidence that Swedish immigrants did carve runes throughout north America in the mid 19th century.

[@Peleg1331]

Have you been to the Keyhole? East of the Spiro mounds near the river

[@ChasingHistory]

We have not, but will look into checking it out!

[@Peleg1331]

Yahweh!!!

[@erichbrewer6403]

You might also say some of the images and ceremonies on the engraved shell were meant to be secret, not read or understood by all. Phillip Phillips notes this in his analysis of the shell from the site.

[@erichbrewer6403]

He interprets one gorget as an example of phantasmagoria.

[@ChasingHistory]

Completely agree with this assessment!

[@erichbrewer6403]

Du Pratz was of the opinion that the Natchez originally came from the South. He saw them as different from the rest of the tribes in the area. It isn't hard for me to imagine that you had some groups fleeing Mesoamerica and taking up residence in the South East. I don't think the absence of Mesoamerican artifacts in the Southeast is de facto evidence that this sort of thing didn't happen. No one would believe that macaws were present in the Southwest until they found the pens or a handful of bones and feathers from a dry cave. Without testing the mugs there, they wouldn't have thought chocolate was consumed. Natives often traveled great distances in the past. @@ChasingHistory

[@shanemiller6982]

I was unaware that Peter Chriss of KISS was a native American 0:58

[@ChasingHistory]

what are you talking about?

[@stanhutchins4365]

This site looks very similar to Aztec and the Maya civilization.

[@ChasingHistory]

it would have been contemporarily with Aztec .... but a city in the US looks like a city in Denmark that looks like a city in China.... when you have people of similar technologies and trade with each other ... each group picks up things from the other so there is no Suprise they look similar.

[@larryreese6146]

I would surmise that most of what we know of the mound builders come from accounts of the French about the Natchez. We have litt.e idea of what was here before the first contacts of Europeans because after those first contacts foreign diseases like small pox were wiping out huge portions of the native population. All that had to happen was a European ship coasting along and stopping for water. One sickly European makes contact with one group of native Americans and the disease, for which they had no natural resistance, spreads across a whole continent. Germ warfare, either unintentional or intentional, on a grand scale. Many early Spanish explorers reported contagion in places they visited.

[@ChasingHistory]

Yes, some was learned by the French who encountered the Natchez but also Spanish who entered the southeast during before the French on mutable expeditions. the transfer of European diseases is a complicated issue, meaning by understanding the development of disease you can understand the impact that any visit from one 1/2 of the earths population could have with the other having never been in contact. there was nothing that anyone could do to prevent what happened. history is not easy it is complex and as such we should take out time while learning it.

[@larryreese6146]

@@ChasingHistory most folks have no idea of the impact the New World had on the old. From a mainly barter system Europe transformed to advanced trade, fueled by Aztec and Inca gold. Because of New World crops and food stuffs European population doubled. Native american familiarity with herbs and medicinal plant healing influenced modern medicine. The resources. Of the New World built Europe from a back water to the world power. And you cant pass aside the influence of people who lived in an egalitarian where their leaders were picked for their ability and ability to contribute more than their wealth or lineage. I feel that those ideas, novel to Europeans of the time, were bound to influence the thinking of future politics and political thinking.

[@FacesintheStone]

Only Tomb? That 33:42 you may be interpreting this incorrectly. Citizens all over the country are studying this type of art. North Carolina has descendents from the Ohio river valley people’s. The Birdman of Cahokia is not just in Cahokia, it’s a North Carolina motif represented very well. This is may be more recent religion, however 34:20 you’re showing a multi faceted piece. It’s different, heading back to the ancient peoples Stone Art. As a private citizen, I have been blessed to be able to be the single person to excavate and document a village say that was being destroyed for a housing development. It happened 15 months ago. I’ve been looking for a Help ever since but they tell me to go to my state archaeologist- unfortunately, the person is too young and worried about their career speak out about anything unexpected. Why is this on the shoulders of citizens?

[@ChasingHistory]

we are defining toomb as a room you can walk into without excavation. This was the only one. you should document the destruction of the site if no professional help is available and share it online. best of luck!

[@ChasingHistory]

Be sure to listen to the Seven Ages Audio Journal episode on this site available on KZbin and podcast. just look up Seven Ages Audio Journal!

[@colemcclain7319]

I really thought First Nations had farmed tobacco here in North America and the Europeans took it back to Europe to farm ?

[@MrJsv650]

There is a wild tobacco, different bread of tobacco then burley and such. It's called tabaciana very strong like 10 times stronger then regular tobacco.

[@colemcclain7319]

@@MrJsv650 bread ? So who had which ?

[@erichbrewer6403]

Many reasons the Mississippian societies could have collapsed. These days, everything defaults to some variation of climate change.

[@ChasingHistory]

a lot of things go there because it is a very serious event! entire epochs are begun or ended due to climate change. there is a lot of substantial data backing up this idea. thank you for sharing your thoughts!! we hope you will check out the other episodes we did on other prehistoric mound sites on our channel, and you will continue to check out everything else we have coming up!

[@Datsyzerberg]

This climate change didn't effect the networks south of the Rio grande though? I find that unlikely. The sacred city in central America was also abandoned at this time but further south this is the first time in their history the various factions Indigenous experience universal peace for 300 years until the arrival of the Spanish in 1520. To me its likely both abandonments are connected.

[@SpottedStag]

The Europeans are a huge reason for the collapse. Europeans try to defect their role in this by pointing to. Linage change or whatever but it’s a smoke screen. There are accounts of Hernan Desoto going into various of these villages and taking the people as slaves into the islands of the Americas. This is the truth. Here in Memphis there was a village that Desoto came to. The Chief of the village was Chief Chisca. On top of the mound of Chisca Desoto first saw the Mississippi River. Desoto slaughtered the village and sent the rest down south to be sold as slaves

[@erichbrewer6403]

I suppose climate could have changed the Great Plains. It led to an exponential increase of bison. Natives decided it was a much freer life chasing buffalo than being tied down to agricultural settlements and maundering Spanish.

[@user-yr9lt7dz8k]

We don't have any history of the Mississipian civilization but we do have some written history of the Adena and Hopewell civilizations in The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of JESUS CHRIST. The Adena are the Jaredites who lived on the Western Hemisphere between just after the Tower of Babel until 600 BC. The Hopewell were two different groups, a Judahite group called the Mulekites and a Josephite group who became the Nephites and Lamanites. The Jaredites and Mulekites came from the Middle East into the St. Lawrence Seaway and then the Josephite group landed somewhere along Florida or South Carolina.

[@ChasingHistory]

appreciate you checking out our episode, Chasing History believes in everyone's rite to believe in what they want to believe, we just ask that you do not share your thoughts on our channel. This channel is based on what is known through the archaeological and historical record ascertained through the scientific method. Most first nations members find it highly offensive that their great works are considered by some to not be of their own creation, that the only way they can create such works of art and structure is if they come from the old world. Its a very Anglo-European notion popularized in the early to mid 19th century that the only way first nations can make such great things is if they were really white people or some other people from the old world. this is a terribly offensive notion, so please feel free to worship however you see fit, believe however you want but do not share those thoughts on this channel. Thanks

[@user-yr9lt7dz8k]

@@ChasingHistory then delete your dictatorial, tyrannical KZbin channel based on censoring others opinions because you are afraid of exploring the truth due to being woke pieces of crap.

[@trondirty]

hahahahahahahahahaha holy shit

[@SimonSozzi7258]

His explanations are way too detailed. How would we know all that? Even if their iconography is readable. Apparently it's more readable than Maya hieroglyphs because we don't know nearly as much detail about their ceremonies.?. Unless the local indigenous people told him these stories 🤔

[@ChasingHistory]

They do work with local indigenous groups as well as what has been recorded in cultural mythology, as well as what have been discovered in the ground in archaeological context. combining all of that archaeologist working with local indigenous groups come up with an ...... interpretation ..... of the story of the site. when you ask them they always point out that this interpretation is subject to change as new things are discovered in the ground or in the library. the folks involved with Spiro have worked very hard for many years to interpret what they shared with us and they work VERY closely with local native Americans to get the story as correct as possible. i hope this helps to answer your question

[@Datsyzerberg]

two questions, are you guys state funded or a private research group? second, do anthropolgists typically ask the culture of study to tell them out themselves? I remember an author of books on the commanche saying explicitely the first rule of anthropology is NOT to ask the people you are studying. If this is only a regional opinion of some anthropologists then it's incredibly scary to think how much unvetted opinion is intertwined into a subject that carries with it lucrative land claims, especially in OK.

[@ronmesser9091]

Well I don't think the women were farming bare tittied as depicted

[@ChasingHistory]

no one is really sure, but contemporary art depicting local women show them bare breasted.