Ancestral Mounds: Vitality and Volatility of Native America by Jay Miller (review)

EARTHEN MOUNDS dot the landscape of the eastern half of North America, from Oklahoma to the Atlantic Ocean. These mounds are testaments to the interaction between humans and their environment, a means for balancing the relationship of people with the cosmos. Many of these earthworks are preserved on lands belonging to Native tribes, on private land, as protected historical sites, or have been destroyed. The building of mounds, which range in size from low earthen rises to massive construction projects soaring one hundred feet toward the sky, is rarely discussed outside Indigenous communities or academia. Are mounds only a remnant of the past? Do mounds still hold meaning for Indigenous communities today? How have historical events affected the relationship between Native peoples and mounds? Why may mounds be important?

Jay Miller, in his book Ancestral Mounds, addresses these questions by examining the historical and current understanding of North American mounds, primarily focusing on the Southeast. Throughout the book Miller relies on ethnographic descriptions of mound construction and their use, written by explorers, missionaries, naturalists, anthropologists, archaeologists, ethnographers, and linguists. A brief historical overview of the use of mounds is provided in chapter 2 for the Chicora, Western Chitimachas, Atakapa, Chickasaw, Natchez, Delaware, and Tutelo tribes. The construction and significance of the different types of mounds throughout the Southeast is also covered. Miller provides ethnographic examples of contemporary Native communities' mounding practices, including the cyclical process of renewal through burning and rebuilding. He also addresses how these present-day practices help in the interpretation of archaeological excavations of mounds.

Ancestral Mounds touches on the traumatic historical events endured by Indigenous groups in North America with examples focusing on the Southeast. Disease devastated Indigenous populations, causing different communities to merge. This was followed by the forced removal of many Native groups from their homelands, resulting in further consolidation. In being forced to move, these communities left behind their ancestral mounds, which had kept them safe and had weighed down the shifting earth. They took soil with them from their mounds in order to establish new mounds, thus providing a connection to their ancestral lands. This series of events has shaped the tribes present in the Southeast today.

Miller is adamant that readers understand how mounds continue to provide a source of vitality for Indigenous communities. As an example, he describes the Green Corn Ceremony of the Seminole, along with ethnographic accounts of historical ceremonial practices for several Creek communities. Mounds are part of the ceremonial landscape, helping to create a sacred space where the ceremonies are carried out, and they are added to and revitalized through mounding, song, and dance. The survival of the mounds and the Green Corn Ceremony demonstrates the importance and longevity of these practices in North America, a means for community renewal and for maintaining balance in the cosmos.

Ancestral Mounds is an introductory text on the role of earthen mounds in Indigenous communities. Miller offers readers brief glimpses into the historical and contemporary understanding of numerous Indigenous communities in relation to their practices and beliefs surrounding mounds. The pre-contact evidence presented is sparse, with the bulk of the interpretation coming from ethnographic descriptions gathered since the arrival of Europeans. Throughout the book, Miller calls attention to how the past can inform the present and vice versa, along with implementing a cross disciplinary approach to research.

While Ancestral Mounds incorporates discussions of pre-contact North America and of archaeological excavations, the archaeological studies presented are not explored in sufficient detail. The majority of the sources cited are outdated, pre-2000, and do not reflect the current theoretical approaches. More recent archaeological interpretations of sites, such as Cahokia, incorporate ethnographic studies in their research on mounds and ceremonial sites. Recognizing the continuity through time of different aspects of ceremonial practices is part of archaeological research, as is acknowledging the significance of mounds for contemporary Indigenous communities.

As one aspect of the Indigenous ceremonial landscape, earthen mounds are crucial for ensuring the safety...