Natchez Powwow 2011

[E.P. Grondine]

Hello everyone -

With the Maya seminar in Texas and the asteroid impact mitigation conference the following week, I went to the Natchez powwow instead. I really can't handle Mayan glyphs and calendrics; as far as catastrophism goes, the Maya scholars are dealing with 2012 con artists and Velikovsky believers. And the impact mitigation conference was focused on asteroids, not comets. Additionally, Texas is a lot further away than Mississippi, is a lot more expensive, and I like the folks in Mississippi just fine, thank you. Finally, Mississippi has better BBQ, in my opinion. And I had a series of rather immediate research problems to work. So off to the Natchez powwow.

I want to share with you some preliminary results and observations. There is so much "my head is ready to explode" as Dylan put it, and I can not let that happen again, so here goes, and thank you for letting me share.

First, there was wonderful hospitality in Natchez, and I want to thank all of the powwow organizers and participants.

Two, the Natchez survive as a distinct community within the Chickasaw nation, and they are trying to obtain separate federal recognition. Their language and traditions survive to some degree as well.

There is part of a major early Natchez site at Natchez named Anna which needs to be saved.

I drove the Natchez Parkway down to Natchez, as it was easier for me and safer for all, and I needed to do work along the way. The parkway and Trace followed the high path along the ridge, which was convenient for horses, and not the lower trace along the lowlands. For example, there was not even a sign on the Parkway indicating the major Mound and museum in Florence, Alabama. With the nearby musical site of Muscle Shoals another local attraction, there is a need for signs on the Parkway indicating the Mound and Museum, as that is the only way that minor burial sites along the Parkway can be understood.

The following of the high ridge trace/trail has left sites from many ages entirely unexamined, in particular YD sites.

Could they make hunting a requirement for archaeology degrees? I swear, most archaeologists could not find a lick or a waller in their very own locales if their lives depended on it.

I was confidently told by one local degreed archaeologist in Natchez that Bison came late to the east of the Mississippi, when there are 4 foot deep bison traces in Ohio and Indiana.

There were major Mississippian remains and Chicasaw remains west of Tupelo, none of which are developed or publicly owned that I know of. I spent time in Ponctocton researching the earlier records.

Natchez, Florence, and Tupelo may account for three of the buildings on top of Emerald Mound, which leaves two more major sites somewhere along the Parkway/Trace.

The Louisiana Mound tour is doing well, so well they run out of tour maps. Mississippi is considering a mound tour, a project which will hopefully go forward. Local activists in Illinois have opened the Kincaid complex for viewing, but the is no tourist information easily available about this yet, and there are no roadsigns either.

On the way back north, I visited my favorite Mississippian site, Walnut(!!!) Hills: Vicksburg. I am particularly interested in the base of the radio tower in downtown Vicksburg (just go to Walnut(!!!) Street on google Earth), and the general Yazoo River/Big Black River complexes. You'll see a ton of thesis work done on Cahokia/American Bottoms, Coosa, and Spiro, but too few thesis on Mississippian complexes along other major river systems.

Further north was Winterville Mounds, open this time with a very nice and helpful docent, and Morgan Freeman's Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale. I tried to find Elvis's old hang in downtown Memphis near the mound complex there, but they have changed the streets, and few of the younger folk knew what the hell I was looking for. The mound complex has been renamed from DeSoto Park to Chickasaw Park . There are areas there that could be excavated with and without Chicasaw consent or approval, but as they are not protected I will not mention them publicly.

Continuing north, there is the mystery of Mound City. I am trying to locate descriptions or sketches of the complex there, and any help any of you could provide would be appreciated. Note again that there are a ton of thesis on American Bottoms, but all of them pretty much ignore this major nearby ancient polity. There are other major remains in the junction area, some publicly known, and some not.

It is interesting that the earliest maps all show what they claim to be an abandoned French Fort on the Mississippi River immediate to the junction of the Ohio River with it, but there are no French records of it, nor any remains now located and known.

I visited the Shawnee settlement at Cape Girardeau, which should be preserved, in my opinion.
Of course saving the site of Tecumseh's Prophetstown in Ohio has far greater importance.

At the Natchez powwow I not only learned the correct way to pronounce Natchez, but also how to correctly pronounce Osage and Omaha. My visit to the petroglyph site and YD site south of St Louis will be a separate trip.

BTW, when in Walnut Hills, I recommend staying at the Dixieanna Motel. The view across the street is tremendous.

[gunny]

Texas BBQ?----Only experience with SE BBQ was a friend went to National Shoot in South Carolina which had BBQ on the banquet---He said it looked like tuna fish with kitchup on it. I dont know, but ive been told, Eskimo pussy is mighty cold

[kbs2244]

The eternal question……..

Beef or pork.

A lot depends on which side of Main Street in TexArkana you are standing.

East of Texas and north of Orlando it is pretty much pork.

But I still remember the sign at a smoking grill on the side of the road somewhere between Dallas and Huston that read:
“You don’t need no teeth to eat our beef.”

It sounds like a nice, spring, get out of the house, road trip E.P.

[gunny]

As Rhett Butler would say--"Frankly my dear, I prefer BEEF"

[kbs2244]

Well…..
I don’t know.

She was a decent looking heifer.

But he walked away.

[Minimalist]

Rhett was the original inspiration for this poster.

[gunny]

Touche min---Touche

[kbs2244]

You know Gunny, I have seen that poster.
Not quite of that vintage though.
The ones I have seen were in little more in line with current, internet, mores.

I never though back to the origin of the saying,
But you may very well be correct.

[Barracuda]

BBQ is pretty much the only thing I ever missed about the south.

[Minimalist]

You know Gunny, I have seen that poster.
Not quite of that vintage though.
The ones I have seen were in little more in line with current, internet, mores.

I never though back to the origin of the saying,
But you may very well be correct.

We don't want to push Michelle's good nature!