Rivertown U.S.A.

Rivertown U.S.A.
Cannelton, Indiana's River History

Native Americans

Bill Spellazza, a Native American and curator of
Angel Mounds, holds up an artifact for us to see.

There is much evidence of Native American culture along the Ohio River. In fact, the Iroquois named it the "great river" (O-Y-O). It is known that the earlier natives to southern Indiana were the "mound builders" or Mississippians, and later it was the tribes of the Shawnee who mainly used Perry County as a hunting area. We decided to find out more about the Mound Builder cultures, so we visited Angel Mounds State Historic Site near Evansville.

Angel Mounds is well known around the United States as one of the best preserved prehistoric Native American sites. It is thought that from 1100 to 1450 A.D., the Middle Mississippians made their home here. The reason was because of the rich river bottom land along the Ohio River. There were as many as several thousand people who lived here at that time. The Angel Mounds site was the center of a larger community that spread out for many miles.

For some reason this large community of people deserted it after 1450. It is not clear why. It is great that the Department of Natural Resources and Division of Indiana State Museums and Historic Sites has made sure that this site will be preserved and will educate us about the lives and culture of the mound builder society of prehistoric Native Americans. You can read more about Angel Mounds at their official web site: http://www.angelmounds.org .

Below and on the next page are some photographs and information from our visit to Angel Mounds.

Bill Spellazza tells us about saving artifacts.
Artifacts like this arrowhead are
cataloged and given a number.

This is a beautiful sand dollar with a design
painted on it.
These are tools used to grind up things
like corn into cornmeal.

On the grounds of Angel Mounds you can see reproductions of many of the mound builder buildings.
This is the Winter House.
We went inside it. The roof had an opening so that the
smoke from the fire would go up and out of the house.

This is the fire area inside the Winter House. In the background you can see Brittany trying out one of the ledges that was probably used as a bed.
This is the Round House. The plaque in the next picture says it may have been used as a sweat house meeting place.

This is the plaque by the Round House.
This is a Summer House. It has no walls and no real ceiling.

Go to Page 2 of our Angel Mounds report

Click on each painting below to view this site