First Peoples

Prehistoric North American peoples traveled in small nomadic family groups.

- Andrew Matthews

Thousands of years ago, nomadic hunter-gatherers first explored along the banks of the Mississippi River. They traveled in small family groups. They followed the paths of bison and mastodons animals that provided food, clothing, and tools. They gathered what was available from the land through which they traveled. Archaeologists have categorized this pre-Columbian period as the Archaic period. To those prehistoric hunter-gatherers, the Mississippi River was a source of fish, mollusks, and fresh water. It also became an extensive waterway for moving around the interior of the continent.

Around 3,000 B.C.E., the Woodland period began. People of that period still hunted, but they didn't travel as far. They learned to plant maize, beans, and squash. They used the river's mud to make simple clay pots to store their food and seeds. They began to bury their dead in earthen mounds. Around 1 C.E., during what has become known as the Middle Woodland period, the Hopewell culture emerged. At the peak of the Hopewell culture (before 500 C.E.), populations grew. People lived in communities of log houses. The Mississippi River provided them with all they needed: rich land to grow plentiful crops and fish, birds, and animals to hunt.

The Hopewell culture developed a vast exchange system. People traveled extensively on the Mississippi and its tributaries. They reached as far away as New York and Georgia and the Gulf of Mexico. They traded food, feathers, furs, and river pearls. Grizzly bear teeth from the Rocky Mountains, copper from Lake Superior, and conch shells from the Atlantic Ocean all found their way back to Hopewell communities.