Mosaic of Notes on Native Trade Around Mississippi Mounds

Where much of Pasagoula, Mississippi is, there was a set of Indian earthworks. Pasagoula is not unique in its relation to ancient earthen monuments. St Louis, Missouri is built were there were a great number of ancient earthworks. There are similar mounds in Lincoln county, MS, more in Lowndes county of that state, and others near Brookhaven, Mississippi. The construction of the youngest of these particular Mississippi mounds began before 3000 BC.

Remember these are my best guesses of the moment. Please correct any errors you find!

Early Mississippi Indians have the fame of having made and traded beautiful stone beads. Stone worked into beads in Mississippi came from, at least, as far away as the Ouachita Mountains in What is now the state of Arkansas. There is evidence of Mississippi beads having been traded to people in what are now the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Alabama. However, the evidence for this trade may go back to 400 AD or later. 

Stone pendants in the form of turtle, duck, owl, kingfisher, and others of imaginary or composite form are found at or near mound sites.

American Indians have inhabited the area for over 6000 years.

Remarkably there is little evidence of warfare among Native Americans in the area until after 300 AD. That date suggests a period of relative peace for 4000 years.

Of the states mention here, six are of American Indian origin. Some place names came to us via the French, the Spanish, or via later Indian peoples:

Alabama is probably named after the river. The river may have been for a local tribe there called Alibamu. The Alibamu were probably part of the Muskogee/Creek confederacy. (What's an "Okie from Muskogee?)

Arkansas may be the French interpretation of a Sioux word meaning down-stream place.

Mississippi may be from a French rendering of the Anishinaabe, The Anishinaabe are an Ojibwa/Algonquin people. Mississippi may mean Great River.

Oklahoma may be based on the Choctaw for 'red people.'

Tennessee may have been named for a Cherokee village called Tenasi. Some say that the name Tenasi is Yuchi or Creek.

Texas is probably a Cado word which came to us via the Spanish. "Texas" may have been used by Cado people to refer to the greater Cado nation. Sometimes its said to mean friend or friendly.

Mati Are

The Metis have been for a long time. That is, they have long been a people. They have developed a new culture from very different cultures. They continue to develop their culture.
They have been at least since the 1600s. They may have spoken mostly a combination of Cree and Ojibwa and French then. Please help me through my ignorance with what you have heard. 
In those days they began to learn of Catholicism and to teach the French their way of doing business. I believe they are a beautiful blend of European and Native cultures. They may have begun that beautiful blending before the arrival of the Spanish in the new world. There are hints of a very old Hibernian speech in their language.


As an aside, I suspect that Irish may have arrived in the New World World as much as a hundred years before Norse. Say that the Norse arrived about 900 AD that then suggests that some blending was being done about 800 AD.


Anyway, I'm pretty sure that the blending I speak of well after the 'birth' of Christianity. Nearly all Matis speaking person has been touched by Catholicism. Mati were well recognized, acknowledged, and commented on by English speakers in the 1800s.


I imagine that if many Mati had a DNA check a strong touch of French, Cree, Ojibwa, and Saulteaux would be found, but also a bit of Irish, Inuit, Scot, Algonquin, and others.


Today, in the US and Canada, there are many hundreds o thousands of mixed blood people, but only about 300,000 who form a well identified Meti culture.


What kind of people are they? Got me.
I can say that they have been travelers. I seems incorrect to call them a stay-at-home people.
They have been voyageurs. They know British Columbia and have traveled to California in caravan. They know the Hudson Bay and the Great Lakes. They have used the Mississippi as their road; the Missouri and Ohio Rivers too. They probably invented the canoe as we know it.
They have traveled this land and its waters, including the sea.
They watch many of the same TV programs that you do.


They know the Chippewa and empathise with the Cherokee.


Some say that their language is built largely of Ojibwa and French, but it contains much more, including a touch of Gaelic.


I think that you can find great stories relate to this very American people. However, if you are a person who wants the facts, It might me good to start with Louis Riel and work your way back. Once you are sure of your admiration for these people go back to Louis Riel and explore and discover your way to today.


Please help me to overcome my ignorance of these things. Tell me where I have been true and where I have been mistaken. I have tried to write honestly.

Manitoulin Island

Seems like I've written about Manitoulin before. I wonder what it means. Sounds holy.


Please feel free to set me right where I go wrong.


Manitoulin may be the biggest fresh water island in the world, but it is only one of the about 30,000 on Lake Huron. Nice place for a boat or canoe.


I guess that there are seven or eight Indian Reservations in the area. The island is probably important to most of the people on those Reservations. To some it might seem a bit like Vatican City.


I can't name the tribes, clans, or groups there. They have probably been called Huron or Ojibwa. I believe that there are people there who proudly call themselves Wikemikong and M'chigeeng; the later reminds me of Michigan.


Who will tell me more of these things?

Hopewell System

Most tribal peoples of Canada and the United States don't speak of the Hopewell System, but from Chippewa and Ojibwa of the north to the Choctaw and Chickasaw of the south a feeling comes up. Its a feeling like, perhaps a stream of arterial blood or a stream of energy connecting them. There are Ojibwa who speak a language that can speak of that flow of wise energy. Its a language which caries more knowledge than many realize. Navajo, Cree, and Inuit speak powerful languages and they know the waters too. The Ojibwa have long known the water ways.


When a language dies much dies with it, but not all. There are other symbols and memories. When I was young perhaps 300,000 could speak the language known to the Ojibwa, now there are not that many. There are still those who can speak more than one sentence and those who can remember a whole chant without an error. The language has guardians and supporters.


These days the gene-pool of the Cherokee may be larger and spread more widely than the Ojibwa line. Who can tell the blood?


In a dream I have been told that we have a few drops of the blood of the sea-going Miigis, but that we ate the wrong turtle. I don't know what the dream means, suspect that it may speak of a lost power that is not completely lost.


My home is far from the great rivers and far from the Great Lakes, but I have heard of an island that has more than a hundred lakes on it! Many of those lakes have islands on them! I reminds me of something I saw on the paper on a can of milk. This same island may be largest island on fresh water. On that island, I hear, are those who ave some memory of thriving connections among many Indian people going back and back and far. They eat Haw berries and remember things. Some teach. They remember the old word for copper.


Some of the people who come to that island, I hear, know strange names like Anishiwaabe, Sheguiada, Shehewaning, and Miigis too. I may have been drunk in LA when someone told me.


If you know more please tell. If I have spoken a lie please tell me. I try to give my best understanding.