Possible Western Mexico Cultural Traditions at Mississippian Period Sites in GeorgiaBy Gary C. Daniels, LostWorlds.org http://www.LostWorlds.org9/26/2010, Revised 10/01, 10/26, 11/03, & 11/21/2010, 1/9, 1/17/, 2/8/2011 & 2/5/2012

Many of the cultural traditions and artifacts discovered in Mississippian period archaeological sites in Georgia have strong similarities to cultural traditions in the west Mexican states of Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima. These traditions include the creation of circular pyramids, shaft tombs, dog effigy pots, human ancestral pair sculptures, and tree of life symbolism. Other artifacts discovered in Georgia have strong similarities to Olmec artifacts from the west Mexican states of Guerrero and Jalisco including bird man masks, three-pronged ceremonial maces, and jaguar deities. Migration legends of historic Creek tribes living in Georgia also suggest an origin in west Mexico.

Two of the most famous artifacts discovered in Georgia are the male and female human effigy statues found at the Etowah Mounds site. Carved from local marble and discovered buried in a log-lined tomb in the Funeral Mound (Mound C) at Etowah, they are believed to represent venerated ancestors. It is theorized that these statues were part of an ancestor worship cult that existed throughout the Mississippian time period.

A similar tradition of ancestor pair ceramic sculptures buried in specialized tombs is known from west Mexico. These sculptures were part of what is referred to as the Western Mexico Shaft Tomb Tradition.i Such tombs and their associated artifacts are distributed across the states of Nayarit, Jalisco and Colima in west Mexico. It should be noted that in Colima by 600 AD the ceramic figures had become solid and they also integrated stone elements with their gods’ representations.ii

Male and Female Human Effigies from Mound C at Etowah Mounds

“Ancestral Pair” from Chinesco culture of western Mexico state of Nayarit (Metropolitan Museum of Art). Notice the face painting is very similar to the Mississippian styles.

In addition to the ancestral pair sculptures, dog effigy pots were also found buried in these shaft tombs. The most famous of the canine effigy pots are the Colima dog pots. These pots are thought to represent the Techichi breed. The Techichi was a small, mute dog that was fattened up to eatiii. The pots show the “fattened up” version of these dogs. The Techichi is the breed from which the Chihuahua is derived.

Colima Dog Pot Colima Dog Pot with spout

In Georgia a similar dog effigy pot showing a fat little dog was discovered at the Bull Creek site in Muskogee County. The pot includes a swirling design painted on its surface that suggests it was associated with the Creek Indian Wind Clan. Creek tradition holds that the Wind Clan was the most ancient clan among the tribe and the “aristocracy of all the clans.”iv

The breed of dog represented on the pot appears to be the Chihuahua. It has an upturned snout, bulbous forehead, erect ears and curved tail all consistent with the Chihuahua breed. The pot has been dated to 1325 AD.

Dog Effigy Pot from Bull Creek Site Modern-day Chihuahua for comparison

Historical eye-witness accounts of Chihuahuas or Techichis in Georgia exist in the journal entries of Spaniards that were part of the Hernando de Soto expedition. This expedition travelled through Georgia in the 1530s. In several entries the Spanish mentioned that Georgia tribes raised a “little dog” to eat which they kept very fat for that purpose. Like the Techichi, the Spanish noted that this dog could not bark.v Later historians thought the Spanish accounts could have referred to opossums instead of dogs.vi Yet the eye-witness descriptions of these “little dogs” along with the Dog Effigy Pot from Bull Creek seem to confirm they were Chihuahuas.

In addition to ancestral pair statues and dog effigy pots another type of artifact found in west Mexican shaft tombs were tableaux. One such tableau from Nayarit shows a “multi-layered tree with birds.”vii The tree is uniquely stylized. A similar uniquely stylized tree with birds was found engraved on a marine shell in Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma. The object, known as Tree of Life with Birds, is the only such design known to exist throughout the southeast.viii

Tree of Life with Birds, A.D. 1200-1450, Spiro, Oklahoma

A Nayarit tableau showing a multi-layered tree with birds.

The Spiro site, part of the Caddoan Mississippian Culture, is known to have had trade contacts with the Etowah Mounds site in Georgia. In fact, the population of Spiro moved away around 1250 ADix, the same time that a new population arrived at Etowah Moundsx. Is this a coincidence or did people from Spiro move to Etowah at this time? In fact, the funeral mound at Etowah was constructed after this 1250 AD repopulation of the site. It is in this funeral mound that we find the Bird Man copper breast plate and other objects that seem to reflect the same west Mexican tradition as exemplified by the Tree of Life with Birds artifact found at Spiro.

Additionally, other artifacts at Spiro have shown it had trade connections with both Mexico and the Ancestral Puebloan peoples of the southwest. For instance, a single obsidian scraper unearthed at Spiro was shown to have come from Pachuca in central Mexico.xi Also pottery from the Ancestral Puebloan peoples of the American southwest has also been found at Spiro. Turquoise and pottery from the Ancestral Puebloan cultures of the southwest have been found in other Caddoan areas of Texas as well.xii It should be noted that the Ancestral Puebloans are known to have had trade contacts with the people of west Mexico and thus it is possible that these west Mexican cultural traditions arrived in the southeast via the southwest.

The Caddoans also produced unique pottery featuring human faces with distinctive scarring. The people in the western Mexican state of Colima also created such pottery showing distinctive scarring not only on human faces but also the afore-mentioned dog pots.

This famous Caddoan human effigy pot shows distinctive scarring on its face.

This head pot includes a Puebloan sun symbol on its forehead.

This hunchback pot from Colima in west Mexico also shows facial scarring.

This Colima dog pot also shows facial scarring.

Another artifact from the west Mexican state of Nayarit shows a model of a mortuary temple constructed on a mound covering a tomb. Similarly, a temple topped the funeral mound constructed at Etowah and within the mound were specialized log-lined tombs.

A ceramic model of a mortuary temple constructed over a shaft tomb from western Mexico. It is thought to represent the house of the living above the house of the dead.

Circular Pyramids

A mound constructed at the Lamar Mounds site in Macon, Georgia near the Ocmulgee Mounds site was a circular pyramid accessed by a spiral ramp. It is the only such structure known to have existed in the eastern United States. Circular stepped pyramids were also a feature of the Teuchitlan Tradition in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. The latest research shows these circular pyramids were built at the same time as the shaft tombs and were part of the same

cultural tradition.xiii Circular pyramids in Mexico were usually associated with Quetzalcoatl, the Featherd Serpent deity, in his guise as Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, a wind god.xiv

Although the Teuchitlan circular pyramids were step-pyramids lacking a circular ramp and the layout of the two sites was also different, it does reveal that at least the “idea” of a circular pyramid existed in western Mexico and could have migrated along with the other ideas and evolved into its own unique expression as seen at the Lamar site.

The spiral mound at the Lamar Mounds site near Ocmulgee. Notice the man standing on top of the structure and the one on the ground to the left.

Circular pyramid from Teuchitlan Tradition in Jalisco, Mexico.

An Olmec Connection?

A little further south in the western Mexican state of Guerrero other artifacts were found that also have a correlation with artifacts found in the Etowah Mounds site in Georgia. A stone sculpture or stela believed carved by Olmecs after 900 BC was found in San Miguel Amuco, Guerrero.xv It depicts a man wearing a bird mask similar to the Bird Man copper breast plate found in the funeral mound at Etowah Mounds. Protruding from the head of the Olmec bird man is a three-pronged design similar to the design of ceremonial maces found at Mississippian sites throughout the southeast.

Olmec stone sculpture showing man wearing bird mask with a three-pronged ceremonial mace design on his head

Copper breast plate from Etowah Mounds, Georgia depicting a man wearing a bird mask, holding a three-pronged ceremonial mace with a rectangular symbol on his waist pouch.

One such ceremonial mace can be seen in the same Bird Man breastplate from Etowah though it has somewhat more rounded edges than the Olmec design. A nearly identical design can be found at Spiro Mounds. A three-pronged mace closer to the Olmec stela design can be found on a shell gorget which depicts a warrior with a forked-eye motif holding a severed head in one hand and the three-pronged ceremonial mace in the other hand.

Three-pronged ceremonial mace from Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma that is identical to the one on the Etowah bird man copper breast plate.

Mississippian shell gorget depicting warrior with forked-eye motif holding a three-pronged ceremonial mace

Interestingly, the Olmec also depicted themselves wearing a forked-eye motif in some of their ceramics. They also showed themselves wearing a rectangular breastplate very similar in design to the rectangular motif on the bellows-shaped pouch hanging from the waist on the Etowah Bird Man copper plate which may represent a clan symbol.

Olmec ceramic showing forked-eye motif Rectangular breastplate on Olmec statue from El Azuzul

The Olmec were also known for creating sculptures and masks featuring a distinctive cleft head. This same feature can be seen on Mississippian Long-Nosed God masks throughout the eastern United States.

Olmec mask with cleft head Long-nosed God mask with cleft head

Map showing distribution and variety of Long-Nosed God masks with cleft heads.

Variety of long-nosed God stone pendants from Guatemala

It should also be noted that the Long-Nosed God is a deity shared by many cultures throughout Mesoamerica and probably originates with the Olmec. Of

course, the Olmec are also the originators of the “feathered serpent” deity that can also be found throughout eastern North America.

The Olmec were also known for the creation of jaguar motifs in their art. Likewise, the Underwater Panther was a major component of the Mississippian belief system.

Caddoan pot featuring the Underwater Panther.

Another image of the Underwater Panther

Piasa creature which merges characteristics of both the horned water serpent/feathered serpent and underwater panther

The Underwater Panther was often associated with a swastika or swirling wind symbol. Swastica symbols are also known among the southwestern

Puebloan tribes. Among the Hopi it is said to represent the wandering Hopi clans.xvi The Hopi also have many aspects of Mesoamerican religion within their culture (such as the horned water serpent) that are thought to have arrived via trade contacts with west Mexico. Interestingly, the swastika or swirling wind symbol is said to represent the Wind Clan among the Creek Indians who hold that this is among their most ancient clans.

Thus multiple aspects of Olmec culture were shared by Mississippian culture: bird man masks, three-pronged ceremonial maces, forked-eye motifs, rectangular “clan” symbols,, cleft head masks, and deities including the long-nosed god, feathered serpent, and jaguar/underwater panther. Another shared cultural trait, the building of pentagonal earthen mounds, will be discussed later.

As was mentioned previously the state of Guerrero is somewhat south of the aforementioned states of Nayarit, Colima and Jalisco. Although the Olmec stone carving is proof that they had reached deep into western Mexico it does not preclude the possibility that they also penetrated even further north into the aforementioned states where the west Mexican shaft tomb tradition originates.

Is there any evidence of Olmec influence there? In fact, there is. Archaeologists unearthed a jaguar-form vessel from a shaft tomb at a site called Los Coamajales in the Mascota Valley of Jalisco that dates to between 1000-700 BC and is thought to be associated with the Olmecs.xvii Like the Underwater Jaguar it is shown bearing its teeth.

This jaguar-form vessel suggests an Olmec presence in west Mexico between 1000-700 BC the same time as the La Venta site on the Gulf Coast.

Also, pottery from Colima includes two distinctive forms that were also common to the Olmec: the acrobat form and the hunchback/baby form.

Colima hunchback pot showing distinctive form

Olmec “baby” pots also show identical forms.

Colima acrobat form Olmec acrobat form

This evidence strongly suggests the people of western Mexico were influenced by Olmec civilization. This helps explain how Olmec artistic traditions and west Mexican artistic traditions seem to have arrived together into the eastern United States.

One final piece of evidence from the state of Guerrero where the afore-mentioned Olmec bird-man stela was found is a stone figure created by the Chontal culture. It bears many similarities to a painting of a Creek Indian chief painted by George Catlin in 1834. The Chontal were also noted for portable stone statues used in a complex funeral tradition. This culture “disappeared” from the archaeological record around 600 AD suggesting they migrated elsewhere.xviii

Standing Figure artifact from the Chontal culture of Guerrero, west Mexico.

Steeh-tcha-co-me-co, Muscogee-Creek chief painted by George Catlin, 1834

Creek Migration Legends

Similarity in cultural and artistic traditions is not the only thing that links the Creek Indians to west Mexico. The Creek migration legends also support a western origin for this tribe. The migration legend begins:

At a certain time the Earth opened in the West, where its mouth is. The earth opened and the Cussitaws came out of its mouth, and settled near by. But the earth became angry and ate up their children; therefore, they moved further West. xix

What we can discern from this passage is that the Cussitaws originated in an area that experienced earthquakes. We can also discern that this location was not by the ocean because they were able to move further west, not possible if they were a coastal people. The legend says they returned to their original location and then, due to more earthquake activity, decided to leave again but this time headed towards the sunrise. After following two rivers east the legend says they

heard a noise as of thunder. They approached to see whence the noise came. At first they perceived a red smoke, and then a mountain which thundered; and on the mountain was a sound as of singing. They sent to see what this was; and it was a great fire which blazed upward, and made this singing noise.

This clearly refers to a volcano. There have only been a few active volcanoes in North America over the past thousand years. But the first order of business is to determine the time period in which to look.

Popocateptl at night showing “red smoke” that is actually “a great fire which blazed upward.”

A clue from another version of the migration legend states that one of the first structures the tribe built when they arrived at their final destination in the east was a “mound [with a] great chamber in the center.”xx Such a “mound with a central chamber” referred to as an earth lodge was discovered at a site in Macon, Georgia known as Ocmulgee Mounds. In fact, Creek Indian tradition holds that the Ocmulgee Mounds site is the place where they “first sat down” after their long migration from the west.xxi Thus the migration legend, Creek traditions, and archaeological evidence all seem to support the idea that Ocmulgee Mounds was the place where they built their “mound with a central chamber,” i.e., an earth lodge.

The Earth Lodge was found at Ocmulgee Mounds during excavations in 1938.xxii The earth lodge had been burned and archaeologists were able to date this charcoal to around 1019 AD. Thus we know the immigrants had arrived at Ocmulgee sometime before 1019 AD therefore we need a volcanic eruption before this time as well.

Searching for the Mountain of Fire (Volcano)

Here are the known eruptions in the western USA according to USGS data from 1200 AD and beforexxiii:

Name, Location Last EruptionMount Adams, Washington 500 BC +- 1000 yearsMount Washington, Oregon 670 ADMount Jefferson, Oregon 950 ADBlue Lake Crater, Oregon 680 AD +-200 yearsBelknap Crater, Oregon 460 ADSunset Crater, Arizona 1122 AD +- 58 yearsMedicine Lake Volcano, California 1080 +-25 years

Eruptions in the Pacific Northwest including northern California are unlikely candidates since the cultural traditions of the Muskogee-Creek do not match anything in that area. This leaves Arizona as the most likely candidate yet the Sunset Crater eruption in this area occurred after 1019 AD. Also, the eruption actually created the cone of the volcano. Before the eruption there was simply a crater or caldera and thus no “mountain” which to climb. Therefore with no suitable eruption in the right time period in the U.S. we must look for volcanic eruptions in Mexico. Here are the known eruptions in northern and central Mexico according to USGS data from 1200 AD and before:

Name, Location EruptionsCeboruco Volcano, Nayarit 930 AD +-200 (Ongoing since)Colima Volcano, Colima & Jalisco Most active in Mexico- ongoingPopocatepetl 800 AD (last major eruption)Pico de Orizaba ongoing

Of the volcanoes listed, Ceboruco and Colima are both in the same geographical areas as the artifacts from the western Mexican shaft tomb tradition. The Ceboruco eruption between 730-1130 AD is within the right time frame for a migration from this location to reach the southeastern U.S. by 1019 AD. (The migration of the Aztec from their homeland into central Mexico is thought to have taken 320 years, by comparison.) This eruption was also the largest in Mexico in the past 10,000 yearsxxiv causing devastation to an area over 500 square kilometers.xxv This eruption would have certainly been preceded by earthquake activity and its size would certainly have inspired people to move from the region. Thus the Ceboruco volcano is a good candidate.

To reach Spiro and the Caddoan Mississippian Culture Area in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana one would have to travel northeast from Ceboruco. The sun appears to rise from the northeast during the summer monthsxxvi and is at its most extreme northeastern position on the summer’s solstice around June 21.xxvii Since the migration says they were heading towards the sunrise it is likely this was the time of year they set out.

There is another possibility. The migration legend states they headed toward the sunrise and then reached the volcano. There is no directional evidence after this point in the legend except that they mixed the fire from the volcano with fire that came from the north.

Yellow line shows direction of sunrise (NE) on June 21 from Nayarit, Mexico. (Image produced with The Photographer’s Ephemeris software.)

The Creeks called themselves the People of One Fire. In Creek Indian tradition, the idea of mixing of fire is the same as mixing of people. Thus it is possible that the reference in the migration legend to mixing of fire from the volcano with fire that came from the north suggests they migrated north from Ceboruco and mixed with a new people. The preponderance of the evidence supports this conclusion as we will see.

Map showing (A) Mount Ceboruco in Nayarit, Mexico and (B) Pueblo Bonito at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and (C) Spiro Mounds in Oklahoma.

Can the Creek Migration Legends be Trusted?

Of course, all of the preceding evidence is conditional to the accuracy of the migration legends. Is there any evidence that may help confirm the reliability of these ancient oral traditions? Creek Indian tradition maintains that the Ocmulgee Mounds site in Macon, Georgia was the site where they “first sat down” after their long migration from the west.

Additionally, the migration legends of this tribe were all recorded between the early 1700s and 1800s long before any archaeological investigations took place at the Ocmulgee Mounds site in the 1930s. Thus, if the archaeological data from the 1930s matched data in the migration legends recorded a century or two earlier, this would provide strong corroboration as to the reliability of these legends.

In fact, there are many pieces of evidence uncovered at the Ocmulgee Mounds site that corroborate information in the migration legend. The migration legend mentions that Ocmulgee was originally inhabited by a race of “flathead” Indians whom they massacred upon arriving in order to take over the town. Archaeologists noted that the burials in the lowest part of the burial mound showed signs of cranial deformation while burials in the upper levels did not.xxviii This supports the idea that the people who practiced cranial deformation were replaced by a people who did not.

The legend also states that on their journey eastward towards the sunrise they encountered a man-eating large cat, i.e. a panther, which they killed. They kept the bones of this cat and would take them into battle with them to assure success. Archaeologists uncovered a headdress in one burial that was made from the jawbones of two panthers and featured two copper ornaments embossed with a rising sun. Both of these pieces of evidence seem to support these details of the migration legend.

Headdress found in Ocmulgee Mounds Funeral Mound

Finally, as mentioned previously, the migration legend states that the first structure they built at Ocmulgee Mounds was a “mound with a central chamber” which sounds remarkably similar to the earth lodge discovered by A. R. Kelly in 1938.

Ocmulgee Earth Lodge which is a “mound with a central chamber” as described in the migration legend

Archaeologist Lewis Larson noted that the 19th century researcher Swanton “provided the most detailed and exhaustive survey of the ethnohistorical literature covering the domestic and public architecture of the southeastern Indians. A review of his survey reveals that there are no structures comparable to the Macon Plateau earth lodge as it has been described by Kelly….”xxix

In other words, during the time period that the migration legends were recorded, no known structure similar to an earth lodge was in existence thus: 1) how could a Native American informant at this time describe such a structure and 2) how could the description of this structure match perfectly with the archaeological data from excavations conducted nearly 200 years after the legend was recorded? Either the informant in question was psychic or the legend is an accurate recounting of real historical events.

Larson goes on to call into question Kelly’s “earth lodge” interpretation of his findings and goes so far as to refute the very existence of earth lodges in the southeast even at Ocmulgee Mounds. Yet the migration legend seems to support Kelly’s interpretation of the data as, indeed, a “mound with a central chamber,” i.e., earth lodge.

There is other evidence, however, that the practice of constructing earth lodges was still in existence at least up until the early 1500s when the first Spanish explorers arrived in the North Carolina region. According to an entry in one of Juan Ponce de Leon’s journals it noted,

“When we arrived on the shores of the Northern islands we encountered an odd group of natives. They lead us to their village where they lived in hollow'd mounds and were fully covered in mud and refuse. My lieutenant, [Diaz de la Torre y Gonzaga-Palacios] exclaimed 'Son como micos sucios' (they are like dirty monkeys). From thence forth, until we departed those cold shores,

Mico Sucio was the means by which we referred to these happy natives.”xxx

Finally, William Bartram visited the Cherokee village of Cowee in Macon County, North Carolina in the 1770s and described what can only be an earthlodge:

“each house or habitation has besides a little conical house covered with dirt, which is called the winter or hot-house; this stands a few yards distance from the mansion-house, opposite the front door.”xxxi

This evidence once again completely contradicts Larson’s conclusions that earth lodges never existed in the southeast and should put his theory to rest once and for all.

It should be noted that earth lodges were quite common in the American southwest and Midwest. The Navajo hogan is the most well known of these type structures from the Southwest. Another round building type from the American southwest was the kiva. Although not earth-covered it was a semi-subterranean structure found at Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) sites such as Chaco Canyonxxxii which is known to have had trade contacts with west Mexico. In the Midwest the Arikara, a Caddoan-speaking Pawnee tribe were known for building earth lodges in city clusters featuring up to a thousand such structures.xxxiii

Interestingly, the Earth Lodge at Ocmulgee appears to have features of both the southwestern kiva and the Midwestern earth lodge. A kiva was constructed with a solid low wall which supported the roof beams and the structure was entered through the roof which was not earth-covered whereas an Arikaran earth lodge was constructed from wood pole walls with the entrance being a narrow, tunnel-like feature and the whole structure covered in earth. The Earth Lodge at Ocmulgee has the kiva-like low wall supporting the roof beams but with Arikaran-like features such as the tunnel entrance and being completely covered in earth.

Reconstruction of the interior of a kiva.

Model showing log wall construction of Pawnee earth lodge which is different from solid wall construction of a kiva and Ocmulgee Earth Lodge. But it also features the same type of tunnel-like entrance that the Ocmulgee Earth Lodge had.

Interior of Ocmulgee Earth Lodge

As stated previously, it is also known that the Ancestral Puebloan people of the American southwest at Chaco Canyon had trade contacts with central Mexico via contacts in western Mexico.xxxiv It is also known that the Ancestral Puebloan people of the southwest had trade contacts with the Caddoans and the Spiro Mounds site. The existence of these round structures ( kivas and earth lodges) in the southwest, Midwest, and southeast along the very route suggested by both the artifacts and the migration legend, adds further support for this route. There are also cultural traditions among the Creek Indians that claim they originated out west near the “backbone of the world”xxxv which is what they called the Rocky Mountains therefore this route is definitely a possibility.

Interestingly, the Earth Lodge at Ocmulgee features an elevated platform in the shape of a bird such as an eagle or hawk. When viewed from the entryway of the Earth Lodge this bird form is inverted.

Bird-shaped eagle or hawk platform in the Earth Lodge at Ocmulgee Mounds.

Caddoan head pot showing inverted eagle or hawk form around his eye.

An identical inverted bird form can be seen engraved on the previously mentioned Caddoan head pot. Were these the builders of Ocmulgee? The migration legend mentions that some of the people on the journey lagged behind the main group who first settled at Ocmulgee thus the Caddoans may represent these people.

One more piece of evidence supports the west Mexico-Chaco Canyon-Spiro route. Several Caddoan head pots show a Puebloan solar cross symbol from the American southwest engraved on their forehead suggesting that there was, indeed, a connection with the American southwest.

Caddoan head pot showing Puebloan sun symbol from southwest U.S.

The migration legend also clearly makes reference to earthquakes and a volcano. It is rare, though not unheard of, for the southeastern states to experience an earthquake. Thus this piece of data alone does not confirm a western origin. Yet the description of a volcano certainly begs the question as to how a Native American living in Georgia in 1733 could have given such an accurate description of something he could have never possibly seen. It is possible he had heard of a volcano from European colonists but in light of all the other corroborating evidence, the simplest explanation is that it is also an accurate recounting of real historical events.

One final note on the Creek Migration Legend: the legend was recounted to English authorities in 1735 at their newly established colony in Savannah, Georgia by a Creek chief. According to a newspaper account in the London newspaper American Gazetteer, the “speech was curiously written in red and black characters, on the skin of a young buffalo, and translated into English, as soon as delivered in the Indian language….The said skin was set in a frame, and hung up in the Georgia Office, in Westminster.”xxxvi

It is interesting that the newspaper used the term “characters” and not “pictures” suggesting that the written version of the speech was not simply written in pictographs but in an actual alphabet. We know that Mayan scribes wrote their codices in red and black characters but it is presently not known if Olmecs or the west Mexican cultures did so as well. It is generally not accepted that any Native American groups had a written language but this newspaper account seems to question that idea. Creek tradition also holds that their ancient priests once had a written language reserved for their use alone.xxxvii

Linguistic Evidence

In addition to all of the preceding evidence there is also linguistic evidence supporting a west Mexico origin. Nahuatl was the language of the Aztecs and many other tribes in Mexico. In their language the word chichi means “dog.” The first Native American leader that the British met when founding Georgia was named Tomochichi. In various documents Tomochichi is referred to as a “Dog King.” His name breaks down into two parts:

• Tomo- also sometimes spelled Tama (pronounced ‘taw-maw’), was an important Native American town named for a royal or chiefly lineage

• Chichi- Nahuatl for “dog”.

Thus “Dog King” was an apt title and translation for Tomochichi.

Tama was located down river from Ocmulgee Mounds where the Ocmulgee River and Oconee River meet and form the Altamaha River which flows to the Atlantic Ocean. An important satellite village of Tama was known as Tamatli. A river in this area is known as the Nottely River. The “-tli” suffix is a known Nahuatl suffix for nouns as is “-tla.”xxxviii Coincidentally, there was also a village named Tamatla.

In western Mexico we find two towns and a river known as Tomatlan suggesting this entire region was known as Tomatlan. The Nahuatl suffix “-tlan” means “place of” thus Tomatlan means Place of the Toma.

There is also a town named Tama in northern Louisiana. This area was once part of the Caddoan Mississippian Culture area whose capital was the aforementioned Spiro. Thus there are towns named Tama or Toma at important locations along the possible migration path suggested by the Creek migration legends. Whether any of these other locations named “Tama” are related will require further research.

Additionally, the Tennessee River was known as the Callimako River on the earliest British maps of the region. Mako was the title for a chief or ruler in Creek towns. It was common practice to refer to the main town of a district as Chief’s House since this was the town in which the chief resided. In Nahuatl, calli means “house” thus Callimako would translate as “House of the Chief” or “Chief’s House.”

Interestingly, in this same area of Georgia there is a river named the Soque named after a tribe of the same name that once lived there. It is pronounced identically to the name of a people in southwestern Mexico known as the Zoque. The Zoque are believed to be descendants of the Olmec.xxxix As mentioned

previously, features of Olmec culture such as the bird mask and three-pronged ceremonial mace as represented on a stela from the western Mexican state of Guerrero, appear to be similar or identical to designs found at the Etowah site in Georgia. Could Georgia’s Soque tribe have been descendants of the Olmec?

Coincidentally, the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian has a three pronged ceremonial mace collected from the Zoque of Mexico between the years 1930-1940.xl This ceremonial mace or “dancing wand,” as it is referred to, was used during the dance of San Roque. The bird man design from Etowah also appears to be dancing thus the so-called “ceremonial mace” could very well have been a “dancing wand” as well.

“Dance wand used in the dance of San Roque” by the Zoque people of southern Mexico. (Nat’l Museum of the American Indian.)

Pentagonal Mounds & Bearded Indians Another Olmec Indicator?

Additionally, near the previously mentioned Tama, Louisiana is a Native American mound site known as Emerald Mound. It was built around 1250 AD, the same time period that Spiro was abandoned and the Etowah site was repopulated. Emerald Mound covers over eight acres, is pentagonal in form and has several additional mounds constructed on top of it.xli It is very similar to the Stirling Acropolis at the Olmec site of La Venta in Veracruz, Mexico.xlii

Stirling Acropolis at La Venta with additional mounds built on top

Emerald Mound site plan showing its pentagonal form with additional mounds built on top

It should be noted that the Olmecs are known for constructing earthen mounds although they had the technology to build stone pyramids. Likewise throughout Georgia and the rest of the southeast, the inhabitants built with earth not stone.

The largest mound at the Etowah Mounds site is also pentagonal in form and constructed from earth. It has been noted that during the historic era, a Creek tribe named the Ocute still built pentagonal mounds. Curiously, early Spanish eye-witness accounts of the Ocute noted their men wore mustaches and their priests wore long beards.

An Olmec cave painting in Guerrero near where the previously mentioned stela was discovered shows an Olmec priest who is also bearded.

Olmec cave painting in Guerrero

Bearded depictions of leaders are rare throughout the Americas yet the Olmec have several such depictions of their leaders across time and geographical regions. Thus to have eye-witness accounts of such bearded leaders in the same geographical region in America where other western Mexico cultural traits also appear provides one more layer of evidence, though circumstantial, to the case for a western Olmec tribe (possibly the Zoque) being one of the four who took part in the migration out of west Mexico.

What was the significance of the pentagonal form? One clue comes from an engraved pot design which shows a pentagon within a swirling wind design thus suggesting that the pentagonal form was associated with the Creek Indian’s Wind Clan, their most ancient clan.

Swirling wind/swastika design enclosing a pentagonal shape used as the logo for the Southeastern Archaeological Conference

As noted previously, in Mesoamerica the god Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl is also associated with the wind. He is also associated with Venus as well. Is their any evidence that the Mississippian swirling wind/swastika design was also associated with Venus?

In fact, there is. A shell gorget from Spiro Mounds shows a series of four feathered serpents in the form of a swastika surrounding a central cross-shaped symbol that throughout North and South America is associated with the planet Venus.

Spiro Mounds shell gorget featuring a swirling wind/swastika design created from four feathered serpents surrounding a Venus cross

Thus three ideas (feathered serpents, wind, & Venus) are linked together on this shell gorget in the exact same way as they are in Mesoamerican religion.

Also, cloth adorned with the Mesoamerican Venus symbol was found in a high status burial at Etowah suggesting that the chief, who lived atop the pentagonal Temple Mound, was associated not only with the sun but also Venus, the Morning Star.

Corn, Cotton & Lima Beans

A new variety of corn arrived in Georgia at the same time that the first Mississippian sites appeared such as at Ocmulgee Mounds. Coincidentally, this corn arrived in the American southwest first around 800 AD. Cotton arrived in the American southwest at around the same time.xliii Both corn and cotton originated in Mexico and traveled along the new trade route established between Chaco Canyon and west Mexico.

Lima beans show up in the southeast around 1301 AD. This is the same time period that the newcomers arrived at Etowah thus making them the most likely candidate for the introduction of this crop.

There are two types of Lima beans. One, known as the Lima type, was first domesticated in Peru (hence its name). The second, known as Sieva type, was first domesticated in southern Mexico and Guatemala in the same geographical region where the Zoque live.xliv It is also the Sieva type that was first grown in the southeast in 1301 AD. In fact, the Sieva type is still considered a distinct bean from the Lima in the southeast and is referred to as the butter bean.

According to the latest research the distribution of the lima bean from southern Mexico and Guatemala “has been traced by the various ‘prehistoric varieties’ left along Indian trade routes. One course of prehistoric ‘bean migration’ extended up through Mexico into what is now [the American] Southwest, thence eastward to spread from Florida to Virginia.”xlv

Lima beans, corn, and cotton all appear to arrive in the American southwest via the same migration route suggested by all of the preceding artifact-based evidence as well as the Creek Migration Legends for the origin of the Creek tribe.

Thus the fact that three new food sources, corn, Chihuahuas and butter beans, all with Mexican origins showed up in Georgia the same time newcomers arrived in Georgia strongly suggests they arrived with these newcomers from Mexico.

A Question of TimingThere is a considerable time gap between the cultures of the Olmec, west

Mexican, Ancestral Puebloan and Mississippian cultures discussed in this paper. The Olmec culture is believed to have “disappeared” around 900 BC. Evidence presented in this paper shows they had very likely migrated into the west Mexican state of Jalisco between 1000 and 700 BC. The west Mexican shaft tomb tradition and the associated Olmec-style artifacts found in Colima date between 300 BC to 600 AD suggesting that Olmec ideas if not the culture itself survived in some form until this time as well. Perhaps by this time they were simply a priestly clan within a foreign society.

The known trade contacts between west Mexico and Chaco Canyon in the American southwest date to 800 AD to 1200 AD. This leaves a 200 year gap between the end of the shaft tomb tradition and the earliest trade contacts with Chaco Canyon. This gap happens to coincide with the earliest estimate for the eruption of Mount Ceboruco, estimated to have happened sometime between 730 AD – 1130 AD. This eruption was the largest in North America for the previous 10,000 years thus it may explain why the shaft tomb tradition suddenly ended and then people with similar pottery styles showed up at Chaco Canyon 200 years later.

It should be remembered that the Aztec migration from Aztlan into central Mexico is thought to have taken almost three hundred years. When an entire tribe migrates they do not do so non-stop. They must settle and grow crops for a few years before moving on again. The Creek Migration Legend says this is exactly how their migration took place.

Thus it would not be unreasonable to estimate a migration time of 200 years for the people of west Mexico to reach Chaco Canyon. Once arriving they would have undoubtedly retained stories about their original homeland and then sent out explorers to find it again. Once found they could have initiated a trading relationship between their new homeland and their old homeland.

This would also explain one version of the Creek Migration Legend that stated they originated from the area of the Rocky Mountains. Perhaps the tellers of this version of the legend simply forgot about their original location near an erupting volcano as referenced in another version of the legend.

The Caddoan culture was one of the earliest Mississippian cultures in the southeast. It developed beginning around 800 ADxlvi, the same time that the first trade contacts between west Mexico and Chaco Canyon had been established. The distance between Chaco Canyon and Mount Ceboruco in Nayarit, Mexico is approximately 1429 miles. The distance between Chaco Canyon and the Spiro Mounds site in Oklahoma is only 873 miles. Contacts between the southwest and the southeast had been going on for hundreds of years thus the ancestors of the Creek Indians could have migrated via established trade routes and arrived in the Caddoan area in 800 AD without problem. It should also be noted that corn arrived in the region at about the same time and seems to be an integral part of all Mississippian settlements.

The Long Nosed God masks featuring the cleft-head design first show up in Missouri around 900 AD. According to the Creek Migration Legend, the tribe encountered a river too large to cross, a likely reference to the Mississippi River, so they settled down for a few years. This may represent the establishment of the Cahokia site near St. Louis, Missouri. Evidence suggests that the copper breast plate found buried at Etowah featuring the Bird Man and three-pronged ceremonial mace was actually fabricated at Cahokia.

A burial at Cahokia between 950 -1000 AD featured a 40 year old man laid out on a bed of more than 20,000 shell beads arranged in the shape of a bird. Thus we can assume the Bird Man cult had arrived at Cahokia by this time. Cahokia then experienced a population explosion around 1050 AD.

The Ocmulgee Mounds site in Georgia dates from 950 AD -1150 AD. This is in the right time period to account for an eastward migration from the Mississippi River in 900 AD and arriving at Ocmulgee Mounds by 950 AD. According to their migration legend they were the first of the four migrating tribes to arrive in the east while several of the other tribes lagged behind. A completely new type of pottery showed up at Ocmulgee at this time as well which looked more like the pottery of the American southwest than it does the local Swift Creek pottery.

The new pottery featured shouldered bowls which is a common feature of pottery in desert areas because the shoulder forces water to bounce back into the pot instead of splashing out. This is an important consideration in desert areas where one must walk a long distance to retrieve water. This design feature enables one to return home with all the water one collects.

It would not be until 1250 AD that the Etowah Mounds site experienced a massive population influx and a major building spree. This building spree included the construction of the pentagonal Temple Mound and the Funeral Mound where the Bird Man copper plate and marble human pair statues were found in an elaborate log tomb inside the mound.

1250 AD is also the time that both Cahokia and Spiro Mounds experienced a depopulation of their respective sites. Though some of this population undoubtedly moved to nearby locales, it is likely many of these people moved to

Etowah. Both Spiro and Cahokia are known to have had trade contacts with Etowah.

It was also in 1250 AD that the so-called Southern Cult or Southeastern Ceremonial Complex emerged. It appears there was a major revival of religious symbolism that had a remarkable similarity to Olmec religious symbolism including bird men, three-pronged ceremonial maces, rectangular “clan” symbols, feathered serpents, jaguars/underwater panthers, to name just a few.

After arriving in Georgia the migrants would have realized their long journey was over. The only thing east of Georgia was the Atlantic Ocean from where the sun rises each morning, thus their mission of finding from where the sun rose had been accomplished. Perhaps the thrill of knowing their wanderings was over was the impetus for the great revival of old religious symbols.

Interestingly, the Kachina religious tradition would emerge among the Ancestral Puebloan peoples in 1250 AD as well and would take over the old kiva system. One important kachina was in the guise of a bird man. 1250 is also when the pentagonal mound at Emerald Mound in Mississippi was constructed that has many features of the Olmec’s Stirling Acropolis from La Venta. Thus 1250 AD seems to be an important date in North American archaeology.

It would not be until 1325 that the spiral mound would be built at the Lamar Mounds site near Ocmulgee. This is also when the Bull Creek Dog Effigy pot from Muskogee County, Georgia dates. This pot appears to represent a Chihuahua. By this time Etowah had collapsed and so had the great city of Cahokia.

According to Cherokee legends, a foreign priestly clan known as the Ani Kutani resided on the mounds and ruled over the local populations.xlvii The locals eventually rose up and overthrew these foreigners and massacred all of them. This was said to have happened 300 years before the arrival of Europeans which places it in the same time period as the fall of Etowah. Etowah Mounds does, in fact, show signs of having been subject to a serious attack in which its palisade wall was burned and its marble ancestor-pair statues smashed.

The Lamar Mounds site was built in the middle of a swamp with the mounds effectively becoming islands during the wet season. The Lamar-style pottery has features of both the earlier Swift Creek culture and the later Mississippian culture suggesting a merging of cultures at this time. Creek traditions suggest this is precisely what happened.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it appears that a culture influenced by both west Mexican and Olmec ideas settled in Georgia during the Mississippian period. Both the cultural traditions and oral history of the Creek Indians strongly suggest an origin from west Mexico. Linguistic evidence also supports a Mexican origin.

Archaeological evidence from excavations at Ocmulgee Mounds support the accuracy of the migration legends that suggest a western origin.

Although the volcanic eruption data rules out the western U.S. as a location for their origins, other evidence makes it likely they migrated through the southwestern U.S. area first before heading on towards the Midwest and Southeast.

The Ceboruco volcano is the most likely candidate due to the timing and size of its largest eruption and its location being in the same area as the shaft tomb cultural traditions. Chaco Canyon is also exactly due north of Ceboruco which coincides with the migration legend’s story of the original migrants mixing their fire with fire that came from the north. In Creek Indian tradition, mixing fire is the same as mixing of people. Chaco Canyon also shows the earliest evidence of platform mound building and the construction of round ceremonial buildings called kivas on the edge of open plazasxlviii similar in design to the Ocmulgee Earth Lodge.

It is likely that the Creek Indian Wind Clan represents the people who migrated from Mexico. The west Mexican shaft tomb tradition was associated with circular stepped pyramids which were likely associated with the Mesoamerican god Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl. Many Mississippian artifacts contain swirling wind/swastika symbols, feathered serpents, Venus symbols and sometimes all three together which supports the idea they also recognized a deity with characteristics of Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl.

Since many of these artifacts are similar to Olmec artifacts it is likely the Wind Clan was descended from or highly influenced by an Olmec tribe from western Mexico. They may be one and the same with the Ani Kutani of Cherokee legend. Evidence suggests the Olmecs or many aspects of their culture survived in west Mexico long after they “disappeared” from other parts of Mesoamerica. Since people don’t usually “disappear” it is more logical to assume they simply migrated away.

The obsidian scraper from Chopuca in central Mexico found at Spiro Mounds may have arrived by this same route or, more likely, it arrived by a more direct southerly route. It is doubtful the west Mexico-Chaco Canyon-Spiro route was the only one in existence. The Mayan Huasteca were located much closer to the southeastern U.S. and featured town plans more similar to Mississippian era sites than anything found in either the American southwest or west Mexico. In fact, the Creek Migration Legend and Creek tradition both hold that the mounds at the Ocmulgee Mounds site were constructed by an earlier people and the Creek’s only contribution was the construction of a “mound with a central chamber,” i.e., earth lodge. Thus the Creek Migration was just one of many that may account for the many Mesoamerican traits of Mississippian culture.

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