The Artistic Legacy of SPIRO

By America Meredith

Craig with yaupon holly and poke growing at , . Photo: America Meredith ( Nation). N EASTERN OKLAHOMA near the Classified as Caddoan Mississippian, archaeologist Timothy Perttula.2 At least border sits Spiro Mounds, an Spiro is part of the Mississippian 72 mound sites have been identified in there preserved perishable items such as The nearby Norman site was an region while trade along the Arkansas extraordinary Mississippian mound Ideological Interaction Sphere, a wide- the basin alone.3 The same wood, basketry, and textiles that quickly important ceremonial center with six River basin increased connections to the Icomplex abandoned by 1450. House spread network of Eastern Woodland culture that built Spiro first built mounds degenerated elsewhere in the humid mounds 8 during the Norman Phase Plains and Southwest.11 mounds and two platform mounds ring cultures centered on the at the Harlan site in Cherokee County, southeast. Perhaps as much as 95 percent (1250–1350). Around 1250, when most In the early 15th century, the its central plaza; to the west stand the that flourished between 800 and 1500. Oklahoma, then the Norman site in of precontact material culture was of Spiro’s residents moved to nearby people of Spiro buried an unprecedented, two Ward Mounds and Craig Mound. Maps often give the false impression that Wagoner County. After establishing Spiro, perishable. Spiro artifacts provide one of villages, Spiro functioned as a ceremonial unparalleled concentration of sumptuous The name for this site is Ditteh Spiro was an isolated community. In they built the nearby Skidgel Mound. the few windows into this world. center and cemetery.9 ceremonial and prestige goods in the and was built by the Keeohnawah’wah, or reality, Spiro was part of a regional cluster While many mistake the Major changes happened during largest cone of Craig Mound, a unique “Old People.”1 The 1930s looting of Spiro of mound sites, villages, and camps in Mississippian Ideological Interaction Context & History the Spiro Phase (1350–1450). “Spiro structure of four conjoined conical is considered one of the greatest travesties eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas Sphere for a single culture, it is a shared continued as a spiritual center long mounds. The cone was capped, and Spiro in American . The mound that traded east and west. set of conventions and a network of many WHEN SPIRO WAS FIRST SETTLED after the collapse of , which Mounds was abandoned. complex produced one of the largest “From AD 850 to 1250, Spiro was cultures from diverse language families during the Evans Phase (900–1050), was believed to have been around 1275 In Fort Coffee Phase (1450–1650), Toltec Mounds in central Arkansas was assemblages of precontact artifacts of any one of at least twelve ceremonial centers across a broad geographic expanse. to 1350,” says Peterson. Cahokia, today Spiro Mounds remained largely unoccu- a prominent spiritual center, and early site in the country, most notably fragile, in the region, with it and the Harlan site Mississippian cultures generally share in Collinsville, , was the largest pied. Anthropologist Charles M. Hudson Spiro pottery resembles that found at perishable fabrics and basketry. Today, being preeminent among independent horticulture, shell-tempered pottery, precontact city north of the Rio Grande. believed that ’s 1540–42 Toltec Mounds and at Caddo sites along Spiro’s future is uncertain. Arkansas River communities,” writes social stratification, and monumental Archaeologists debate Cahokia’s impact, expedition camped near Spiro. In 1700, the Red River. “But then Spiro took off in the Eastern Woodlands. but some consider it to be the origin of the Mentos, a band of Wichita, lived at the on its own, particularly after Toltec fell “Now we understand better than many Mississippian traits. Peterson is convergence of the Arkansas, Neosho, and into disuse after about AD 1050,” explains 12 we did 20 or 30 years ago that the skeptical and explains, “Cahokia was the Verdigris Rivers, and the Osage settled Sabo. “It became a very important 13 major Mississippian period centers had big city, but for the Mississippian peoples, the region in the late 18th century. ceremonial center of its own renown.” it’s really about these regional powers.” From 1831 to 1833, very distinctive cultural expressions,” In the Harlan Phase (1050–1250),6 When Cahokia collapsed, its residents, people were forcibly relocated to the says George Sabo III, director of the the nearby Harlan mound group which may include ancestors of Dhegiha southeastern corner of . Arkansas Archaeological Survey, reached its zenith, while Spiro had its Siouan tribes, migrated westward.10 Today, Spiro falls within the Choctaw chairman of the Caddo Heritage largest residential population, residing “Early on in the history of Spiro, Nation of Oklahoma tribal jurisdictional Museum board, and a professor at the in rectangular, wattle-and-daub houses we can trace a lot of interactions and area. The Choctaw didn’t settle the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.4 with thatched roofs. Men fished and relationships with places like Cahokia. site—then an impenetrable canebrake. Spiro Mounds stands out from hunted deer, bison, , geese, wild But after about 1400,” says Sabo, the Anthropologist Frederic Clements wrote other Mississippian centers. Dennis turkeys, and various small game. Women archaeological evidence “in the Spiro area that the Choctaw and the freedmen were Peterson, archaeologist and site manager harvested water lily rhizomes, hickory indicates much stronger ties developing “familiar with ancient burial mounds in of the Spiro Mounds Archaeological nuts, acorns, hazelnuts, persimmon, with Southern Plains tribes to the west.” their Mississippi and homeland Center, points out that “Spiro had a pawpaw, and Jerusalem artichoke, and Circular houses replaced the rectangular and so recognized the true nature of these smaller population, which didn’t necessi- 14 When the federal 5 farmed maygrass, little barley, beans, houses. The main east-west trade routes earth structures.” tate the primary use of maize.” Peterson squash, and maize.7 shifted south to the Red River valley government divided Choctaw lands into also points out that Spiro didn’t need defense structures because they were 6. A. T. Mayes, “Spiro Mounds, Oklahoma: Dental Evidence for Subsistence Strategies,” International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 26, no. 5 (August 14, 2015): 751. surrounded by cousins. 7. James A. Brown, The Spiro Ceremonial Center: The Archaeology of Arkansas Valley Caddoan Culture in Eastern Oklahoma, Volume 1 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Museum, 1996), 29–30. Unknown Middle Mississippian Artist, Cup, ca. 1200–1400, incised whelked shell, Craig Mound, Spiro Not only does Spiro have an 8. Vogel, “Viewshed Characteristics of Caddo Mounds in the Arkansas Basin,” 146. Mounds, 13 1/3 × 7 in. National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 18/9121. astonishing array of artwork, conditions 9. Brown, The Spiro Ceremonial Center, 197. 10. Robert L. Hall, “The Cahokia Site and Its People,” in Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South, Richard F. Townsend and 1. Vynola Beaver Newkumet and Howard L. Meredith, : A Traditional History of the Caddo Confederacy (College Station: A&M Press, 2009), 36. Robert V. Sharp, ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004), 101–102. 2. Timothy K. Perttula, “Spiro Mounds,” in The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, Volume 1, Neil Asher Silberman, ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012): 211. 11. Brown, The Spiro Ceremonial Center, 31–32. 3. Gregory Vogel, “Viewshed Characteristics of Caddo Mounds in the Arkansas Basin,” in Archaeology of the Caddo, Timothy K. Perttula and Chester P. Walker, ed. 12. Mildred Mott Wedel, “The Deer Creek Site, Oklahoma: A Wichita Village Sometimes Called Ferdinandina, An Ethnohistorian’s View,” Oklahoma Historical Society (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012), 142. Series in Anthropology 5 (1981): 21. 4. All quotes by George Sabo III from discussion with the author, March 27, 2017. 13. Brown, The Spiro Ceremonial Center, 27. 5. All quotes by Dennis Peterson from discussion with the author, March 15, 2017. 14. Forrest E. Clement, “Historical Sketch of the Spiro Mound,” Contributions to the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation 14 1945), 51.

18 | WWW.FIRSTAMERICANARTMAGAZINE.COM SUMMER 2017 | 19 where he saw a vitrine “that was of exceptionally high in lime, and copper nothing but Spiro, which was cool for salts further preserved wood, cane, and somebody from Oklahoma.” One display textiles that would normally decompose briefly lit up to reveal a fragment of rapidly in the humid environment. bobbin lace openwork. “But to see not Inwardly leaning cedar poles, shaped like only fabrics that are a thousand years old a tipi, created an air pocket, which saved here in the US, but incredibly complex, fragile items from the crush of tons of tatted lace, this is incredible. It blew my earth. mind …” He was hooked. How Spiro came to possess such a Archaeological research at Spiro wealth of exotic items is debated. How Mounds has grown less invasive and much was traded and how much was destructive. Sabo says, “We’ve been using religious offerings? Perttula writes, “The some of the modern technologies that are accumulation of shell, copper, and other available to archaeologists, like ground- mortuary objects is best attributed to the penetrating radar, magnetometry, and attractions of the ‘sacred economy,’ not electrical resistance,” which have revealed the operation of a centralized previously unknown archaeological or the mobilization of a long-distance 21 features. network of trade and exchange.” Spiro was part of an exchange ABOVE: Unknown Late Mississippian Artist, Mace, ca. 1200–1300, chipped stone, Craig Mound, Spiro Earliest photograph of Craig Mound, prior to any excavation, December 1913, collection of the network that spanned coast to coast. Mounds, 20 × 5 1/2 in. National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 20/7099. Oklahoma Historical Society, P1986.001. Photo: Joseph B. Thoburn. Image courtesy of the Oklahoma Exchange Networks BELOW: Unknown Caddoan Artist, Tripod Vessel, ca. 1200–1500, hand-coiled clay, Le Flore County, Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Haliotis shells came from the Pacific Oklahoma, 13 1/3 × 7 in. National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, 20/742. THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY Ocean, Olivella dama shells from the Gulf individual allotments, most of Spiro sensationalized the looting further, of Spiro artifacts come from the largest of California, and Busycon shells from 22 Mounds was allotted to Rachel Brown, gawkers flocked to the site. cone of Craig Mound. The earlier feature Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. a Choctaw freedman, who protected the The six pothunters didn’t record of secondary burials is called the Great Peterson believes that Spiro mounds from trespassers. One night, where artifacts or burials were placed. Mortuary Chamber, and a second feature, was central to a trading economy by Rachel Brown “was mysteriously roused Horrified by the destruction of this the Spirit House, was where ceremonial exporting bois d’arc bows and bison from sleep and, on looking out toward irreplaceable information, Oklahoma items were carefully laid out as a cosmo- scapula hoes. Meat, furs, and textiles were the mound, saw it covered by shimmering legislators passed one of the first state gram and imago mundi around 1400.19 also potential exports, albeit perishable, sheets of blue flame. In this ghostly laws protecting antiquities. Only briefly Effigy pipes, masterworks of precontact so no evidence of these survived. Spiro pottery and shells have illumination she distinctly perceived a deterred, the Pocola Mining Company sculpture, were placed in cardinal been discovered in Southern Plains team of cats harnessed tandem-fashion hired coal miners to tunnel directly into directions. Copper plates wrapped in villages in Western Oklahoma. Southern to a small wagon which they were pulling the center of Craig Mound, where they hides were displayed in intricately double- Plains villagers, likely ancestors of the around and around the summit.”15 discovered the Great Mortuary Chamber. woven, rivercane baskets. Engraved, whelk They even detonated dynamite in Craig Wichita, were farmers and bison hunters Brown’s land went to William shell cups encircled the entire chamber. Mound. Archaeologists Philip Phillips from Texas and Oklahoma. Southern Craig, who also protected the site. Then The staggering quantities of rare and and James A. Brown noted, “They precious items include fossilized shark Plains pottery of Washita River phase his grandchildren inherited the land managed to wreak havoc on one of the spine, mastodon molars, nine T-shaped (1250–1450) features styles possibly when they were minors. In 1933, during adopted from Spiro.23 A Spiro engraved most unusual mounds in the Eastern pipes, 18 copper plates, 20 bone hair pins, the , their maternal 17 was found at a Washita River .” 30 copper axes, 54 marine shell discs, 604 grandfather and guardian leased the land site in , Oklahoma. Oklahoma In 1936, University of Oklahoma pearl beads, and 50,899 hand-ground shell to pothunters.16 Archaeology Survey archaeologist archaeologists began excavating the beads.20 Throughout the chamber were Richard Drass says that the Spiroan Six local men formed the Pocola site. In the 1960s, the Army Corps of hundreds of burials, some in cedar litters. items in these sites suggest trade from Mining Company and dug into the Engineers purchased the land, and All the artworks from Craig Mound are Mississippian cultures to the Plains.24 mounds until their lease expired in 1935, Craig Mound was reconstructed. The grave goods. Since Southern Plains villages despite desperate attempts by archaeolo- Oklahoma Historical Society opened the While the accumulation of such traded with Ancestral Pueblo peoples, gists and the Oklahoma Historical Society Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center to diverse and masterfully made items is they might have been the conduit for to stop them. The quality and quantity of the public in 1978,18 where archaeologist remarkable, even more astonishing is the Cerrillos turquoise and a cotton the works they excavated aroused atten- Dennis Peterson is the site manager. that so many perishable items survived textile found at Spiro. Ancestral Pueblo tion from collectors. After the article, “A As a teenager, Peterson visited the the centuries. The earthen walls of the peoples were part of a long-distance ‘King Tut’ Tomb in the Arkansas Valley” National Museum of Natural History Spirit House in Craig Mound were trade network that reached Mesoamerica. 15. Clements, “Historical Sketch of the Spiro Mound,” 52. This may have been how an obsidian 16. David La Vere, Looting Spiro Mounds: An American King Tut’s Tomb (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007), 47–48. knife arrived at Spiro, the only concrete 17. Philip Phillips and James A. Brown, Pre-Columbian Shell Engravings from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma, Volume 1 (Cambridge: Peabody Museum Press, 1978), 3. link between Mississippian peoples and 18. “Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center,” Oklahoma Historical Society, web. 19. James A. Brown, “Spiro Reconsidered: Sacred Economy at the Western Frontier of the East Woodlands,” in The Archaeology of the Caddo, Timothy K. Perttula and 22. April K. Sievert with J. Daniel Rogers, “Artifacts from the Craig Mound at Spiro, Oklahoma,” Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology 49 (2011), 119–120. Chest P. Walker, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press), 117–138. 23. Brown, The Spiro Ceremonial Center, 32. 21. Timothy K. Perttula, “The Archaeology of the Caddo in Southwest Arkansas, Northwest , Eastern Oklahoma and ,” in The Archaeology of the Caddo, 24. Richard R. Drass, email message to author, May 4, 2017; Richard R. Drass, “Washita River Phase,” Southern Plains Village Complexes in Oklahoma, 2001, web. Timothy K. Perttula and Chest P. Walker, ed. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press), 22. 25. John H. Blitz, “New Perspectives in Mississippian Archaeology,” Journal of Archaeological Research 18, no. 1 (March 2010): 14.

20 | WWW.FIRSTAMERICANARTMAGAZINE.COM SUMMER 2017 | 21 that the residents of Spiro were Caddoan- have direct ancestry to any one particular speaking people. The Caddoan language group but rather drew ancestors from a family includes , Caddo, Kitsai, number of groups.” Pawnee, and Wichita. Some archaeolo- Ceramic artist Chase Earles gists believe that the Kitsai,30 Wichita,31 explains how dealt with neigh- and Caddo are the most likely descen- boring tribes: “The only way you could dants of the people at Spiro, and the term be by our homeland is some of your Caddoan includes them all. people come and live in our village and The Kitsai spoke a language distinct have a family. And we had to have some from either Wichita or Caddo. Historic of our people go to your village and have Kitsai homes along the Grand River in a family. That way we are bonded by northeastern Oklahoma share similar- kinship, so we are friends, allies; taysha is ities to residences at Spiro. At different what they call it. times, Kitsai families lived among both The 1990 Native American the Caddo and Wichita. The sixth and Graves Protection and Repatriation Act seventh songs of the Caddo (NAGPRA) established procedures for cycle are sung in Kitsai.32 Today, Kitsai federally funded institutions to inventory descendants are part of both the Wichita and potentially repatriate Indigenous and Caddo. human remains, funerary objects, sacred Neither the Wichita and Affiliated objects, and items of cultural patrimony. Tribes nor the Caddo Nation of The law forced museums to work with Oklahoma is a single, homogeneous tribes and gave tribes a legal voice in the ethnic group. The Wichita and Affiliated handling of this material. Tribes include the Wichita, Waco, Keechi As required by NAGPRA, the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural (Kitsai), and , among others. The History met with Wichita and Caddo Caddo Nation is a confederacy of at least leaders in 1996. When the museum 25 tribes. The three major Caddo groups proposed displaying Spiro artifacts in a were the Hasinai, , and permanent exhibit, both tribes pointed Natchitoches, which were composed of Jeri Redcorn (Caddo-Potawatomi), Bell Dance Red, hand-coiled pot. Image courtesy of the artist. out these were grave goods and sacred. Chase Kahwinhut Earles (Caddo), K’ah-un K’ah (Duck Bottle), 2016, incised, hand-coiled, pit-fired smaller groups. Red River clay with shell temper, 15 × 14 in. Image courtesy of the artist. Joe Watkins (Choctaw) wrote that former Mesoamerica.25 traditions of the Southeast, Mesoamerica, “The Wichita and Affiliated Tribes Caddo chairman Vernon Hunter “felt that Spiro symbolism is often mistaken and other regions of the Americas share and the Caddo Nation both consider ‘cultural affiliation’ is not completely clear associated or unassociated funerary the artefacts demonstrated the high level for Mesoamerican. While most a common source. Spiro a site that is sacred, and they trace according to the sciences, the connection objects? Different groups within one of accomplishment of the Caddo Tribe in 35 archaeologists today reject the idea their ancestry back to the communities is powerful and undeniable. tribe may have different opinions on the past, and could be a source of pride of Mesoamerican influence at Spiro, “To hold a beautiful object that was these matters, naturally.… Tribes don’t Cultural Affiliation that were involved with Spiro,” explains to contemporary tribal members, and archaeologists of the 1930s and 1940s Sabo. “From an archaeological perspec- molded by the hands of your ances- always have immediate answers nor do WHO BUILT SPIRO MOUNDS? should be proudly displayed in the Caddo tors—stunning pieces that you had never they always have the capacity to answer believed Mississippian iconography came tive, we have difficulty establishing Tribe’s Cultural Heritage Center near Archaeologists use terms like Arkansas even known existed—evokes a fierce these important questions quickly. In my from Mesoamerica. Maize and tobacco firm links between most Mississippian Binger, Oklahoma.”33 Gary McAdams, Valley Caddoan and Northern pride and a disorienting frustration. A experience, when approaching issues this both traveled northward from precontact period groups and the historic tribes … former Wichita president, believed Caddoan.27 In truth, we don’t know frustration at having been denied this sensitive, with implications for future Mexico, and ceremonies and stories because of the extensive disruptions and “the artefacts were not meant to be in a what most precontact tribes called heritage,” Halfmoon writes. “Patterns and generations and cultural traditions, you might have accompanied these life- reorganizations that took place between museum display but were meant to be themselves. Four contemporary groups symbols perhaps foreign to us now but don’t rush.” changing crops. Anthropologist Robert 1500 and 1700.” Diseases introduced buried away from the sight of individuals Hall (Mohican-Menominee-Odawa) are possible candidates as the descen- from Europe killed a majority of Native who had no right to view them.”34 still sending out their message. I would Elizabeth Horton, a paleoethnobot- reframed the debate: “As impressive dants of Spiro culture: the Caddo, Kitsai, Americans, and warfare and the Indian “Passage of NAGPRA created the dream of these symbols and patterns anist and archaeologist at Toltec Mounds, as the cosmologies of Mesoamerica Wichita, and Tunica. slave trade disrupted and depopulated opportunity for many Native community for years after seeing them. It felt like echoes Halfmoon’s sentiments. “Because were, they nevertheless emerged from Arkansas archaeologist Frank tribes further. Sabo further explains, members to visit the collections where a foreign language that I desperately these collections are considered sacred a background ultimately once shared Schambach suggests the Tunica are “Especially in the Southeast, there was a the cultural objects of our ancestors are wanted to learn and translate, so that I materials by the Caddo Nation and the 28 by all [N]ative Americans of their day, the descendants of Spiro culture, but dramatic transformation of the cultural held,” writes Stacey Halfmoon (Caddo- could understand what was important to Wichita and Affiliated Tribes,” Horton often cross-fertilized as ideas diffused his hypothesis has not gained traction landscape, and during that period, a lot Delaware-Choctaw), who served in my ancestors.” writes, “I have both a professional scien- from area to area.”26 Perhaps the spiritual among his peers.29 Instead, most agree of communities amalgamated. They don’t the Caddo Nation’s NAGPRA office. Halfmoon explains that tribes tific and basic ethical responsibility to get “The experience is hard to define and have to study the academic literature the science right, while at the same time 26. Robert L. Hall, An Archaeology of the Soul: North American Indian Belief and Ritual (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1997), 162. 27. James A. Brown, The Spiro Ceremonial Center, 28. highly personal for each person who and consult their own oral history and being attentive to the needs and wishes of 28. Frank F. Schambach, “Some New Interpretations of Spiroan Culture History,” Archaeology of Eastern : Papers in Honor of Stephen Williams, has had this opportunity. Even when elders. “Do we rebury? What about the the descendant communities.”36 Archaeological Report 25 (1993): 187–230. 29. For a spirited response of Schambach’s Tunica hypothesis, read J. Daniel Rogers, “A Perspective on Arkansas River Basin and Ozark Highland Prehistory,” Caddoan 33. Joe Watkins, “Artefactual Awareness: Spiro Mounds, Grave Goods and Politics,” in The Dead and Their Possessions: Repatriation in Principle, Policy and Practice, Archaeology 2, no. 1 (Spring 1991): 9–13. Cressida Fforde, Jane Hubert, and Paul Turnbull, ed. (New York: Routledge, 2002), 155. 30. Charles L. Rohrbaugh, Spiro and Fort Coffee Phases: Changing Cultural Complexes of the Caddoan Area (doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1982), 238–239. 34. Ibid. 31. Don G. Wyckoff, Caddoan Adaptive Strategies in the Arkansas Basin, Eastern Oklahoma (doctoral dissertation, Washington State University, 1980), 534. 35. All Stacey Halfmoon quotes from email message to author, May 6, 2017. 32. Newkumet and Meredith, Hasinai, 102. 36. Elizabeth Temple Horton, email message to author, May 8, 2017.

22 | WWW.FIRSTAMERICANARTMAGAZINE.COM SUMMER 2017 | 23 The Artwork She writes, “Some of these are almost Tribal Complex to teach a workshop. only from Spiro.…” Patterns were also certainly local to the Spiro area itself.” Fourteen students learned how to weave painted or resist-dyed onto woven cloth. THE ART OBJECTS FROM SPIRO Having studied basket fragments, small mats with a twill design from Fabrics came from plant and animal have incredible research potential. Spiro Horton shared her knowledge of precon- the base of a Spiro tray. Drake taught a sources, such as pawpaw, beargrass, basketry includes a series of double- tact weaving with Rose Drake (Cherokee second, more intensive workshop with perhaps milkweed and false nettle, rabbit, woven, twill-plaited, rivercane baskets. Nation), a basket weaver from , three Wichita students. “They were to bison, and feathers. “Some of the fabrics Complex designs with red and brown who in turn led workshops with Wichita then teach other members of their tribe.” are really complex, and others are very simple. We have fabrics that are woven splints were woven into the lids, unique and Caddo students. Drake’s dream is to Most Spiro basketry is double with feathers in them incorporated inside to each basket. Horton wants to research restore the meticulous basketry traditions woven with a diagonal weave, which the weaving process,” explains Dennis what dyes were used and determine the of Spiro and the Ozark Highlands to the demonstrates the weavers’ sophisticated mathematical knowledge. “The problem Peterson. Hybrid yarns were handspun geographical origin of the rivercane. Her descendants of these cultures. with the Spiro Mounds baskets is that from vegetal fibers and rabbit fur or the target region is “from the western portion Gary McAdams invited Drake and they were woven by master weavers,” soft turkey, swan, or goose. of the Arkansas River Valley east to the her fellow members of the Oklahoma writes Drake. “These baskets were meant Few contemporary artists use Mississippi River Valley and from the Red Native American Basketweavers to hold gifts to the gods.” precontact materials. Margaret Roach River Valley north to the .” Association (ONABA) to the Wichita The bundles and scraps of cloth Wheeler (Chickasaw-Choctaw) has exper- discovered at Spiro may not look impres- imented with bison fur found not only at sive but are likely the most significant Spiro but also throughout the Southeast. finds at Spiro. Cordage and cloth were She taught workshops on twining pouches fundamental to life in precontact times, with bison fur. In 2000, Wheeler studied but so little has survived to the present. textiles in the Smithsonian’s collections, Spiro lace captivated Dennis including Spiro cloth. She had no inten- Peterson as a youth. Etowah Mounds in tion of weaving historical replications but and the Stone site in rather entirely new pieces inspired by the precontact cloth. both have evidence of precontact lace, Wheeler made a man’s kilt inspired but only impressions of it in stone by resist-dyed Spiro fabric in the and pottery remain. Only at Spiro did National Museum of Natural History remnants of the lace—possibly made Museum. “There’s a rock drawing of kilts from milkweed fibers—survive. Through ABOVE: Rose Drake (Cherokee Nation), Spiro-style Basket (detail), 2017, commercial cane. on men, and they’ve got circles all over BELOW: Yonavea Hawkins (Caddo-Delaware), Unending, 2016, commercial cane, 5 × 5 × 3 in. remnants, researchers can learn what them,” says Wheeler. A fragment of Spiro Photo: Yonavea Hawkins. Both images courtesy of the artists. materials were used to make cloth and twined tapestry inspired another piece. what colors they were dyed. “I knew it was going to be a Minco cape, Textiles from the nearby Ozark because I saw so many capes in the illus- Highlands also survived, and Horton trations from Mississippians,” Wheeler has studied and compared those to says. “I fell in love with that fragment the textiles at Spiro. Cloth was used to and imagined it on the back of a cape,” make items such as pouches and storage says Wheeler. She has never collaborated bags, wrapping, shrouds, skirts, shawls with an archaeologist before but would or matchcoats, breechcloths, sashes, relish the opportunity. headbands, fishing nets, and shoes. Of the ceramics at Spiro, most are Margaret Roach Wheeler (Chickasaw-Choctaw), Minco Cape, loomed-woven flax, worn in the play Lowak Shoppalá. Image courtesy of the artist. Slippers and sandals were made from Williams plainware and probably locally Eryngium yuccifolium, commonly known made. More ornate pottery resembled Redcorn took some her of early ceramic artist, his brother, Chad Earles, is as rattlesnake master. Portraits of people that from Toltec Mounds and Red River pottery to the Caddo Conference in a painter and graphic designer, and their and immortals in copper, ceramics, shell, Caddo sites. In the 1930s, the ancient Austin. “The archaeologists were just father, Wayne Earles, is a stone sculptor. stone, and pictographs offer further clues art form of Caddo pottery died out ecstatic that someone Caddo was “They’re pretty amazing,” says Redcorn. of how textiles were used in clothing and completely, not to be revived until Jeri making Caddo pottery.” In 2009, First “My work that I do … is made in adornment. Redcorn (Caddo-Potawatomi) began Lady Michelle Obama displayed one of that ancient way, so I literally go down Penelope B. Drooker, curator of experimenting with clay in the 1990s. She anthropology emerita at the New York saw Caddo pottery for the first time at the Redcorn’s pots at the White House. Today to the Red River and dig the dirt,” says State Museum, writes that “types of pliable Museum of the Red River. “I just couldn’t Jeri Redcorn’s pottery is in the permanent Chase Earles. “I dove headfirst into the fabrics besides those mentioned include believe it,” she said, and immediately collection at Spiro Mounds. complete history of our tribe. I studied very elaborate openwork designs similar thought that it could be revived. After organizing her own ceramics and talked to so many of our elders and to European bobbin lace, made with With no Internet, Redcorn visited classes, she thought, “If any Caddo comes dug up so many of our elders’ records, white or natural plant-fiber yarns.” She libraries and museum collections and to me and asks, I’ll help them along, and learned the songs, learned the dances, and also describes “twined tapestry, in which talked to archaeologists and ceramic then Chase came along, so I was just participated in reviving the language.” different-colored wefts are used to build artists. “It really meant a lot to me that so happy. And then the next year his Research has played a major role in up mosaic-like designs, which is known someone should do this.” father and his brother.” Chase Earles is a Earles’s artistic practice. He learned how

24 | WWW.FIRSTAMERICANARTMAGAZINE.COM SUMMER 2017 | 25 in shell art. Other lithic tools include were once covered in copper, which Cahokia. Some archaeologists working boatstones used as atlatl weights. Stone helped with their preservation. Copper there will hedge that, and for good was carved into fine beads, earspools, was made into wire, pins, rolled into reason,” says Sabo, since conclusions pendants, gorgets, T-shaped tobacco beads, or embossed into repoussé plates. aren’t certain. “But one of the important pipes, and one stone. Most of the copper came from the Great lines of consensus among many archae- Effigy pipes representing female Lakes, but Peterson says some come ologists is that Cahokia does represent and male figures carved from Missouri from Georgia. “They’ve documented a pre-Columbian manifestation that flint clay rank among the most famous what seems to be a copper workshop at was ancestral to later Dhegiha Siouan works from Spiro. “The large ceremonial Cahokia,” says Sabo, and Cahokia may peoples.” These include Omaha, Ponca, pipes were likely not owned by indi- have exported the copper plates early in and Kaw tribes. viduals and might have been used for the Mississippian period. Lightweight Shell engraving is currently hundreds of years,” said Peterson. “These and small, they were excellent ways to undergoing a revival. Emerging shell are not trade items. These are things that transport symbols to distant communities carver Candice Byrd (-Osage- are very specific ceremonial items.” The such as Spiro. pipes have been dated from 1100 to 1200, Spiro Mounds boasts the greatest Cherokee) studies under Knokovtee Scott so would have been antiquities when they concentration of precontact shell (-Cherokee). Byrd says Scott’s were interred. engraving in what is now the United advice has been “never copy another Wayne Tay Sha Earles (Caddo), P’-i-ta-u-ni-wan’-ha (To have power from), monolithic axe. Wayne Tay Sha Earles is a talented States. “The number of distinct engraved artist’s work, no matter how long they’ve Photo: Wayne Tay Sha Earles (Caddo). Image courtesy of the artist. 39 stone carver. He primarily engraves his marine shell cups on record from Spiro’s been dead. Make the designs your own.” graphics come from are ancient. They stonework with Caddo pottery designs central mound feature is more than 100 Conclusion are from a time and a people that are so and also carves boatstones, maces, times the total known from all contempo- Ethics different then now,” says Chase Earles. MORE THAN 100,000 SPIRO and other cultural items. He carefully rary centers,” writes Brown.37 “Things changed so violently, especially OBJECTS have ended up in at least considers the ethical implications of “The Craig material not only has VISITORS TO THE SPIRO MOUNDS 65 different museums. The National working with Spiro forms. “I think that if unique stylistic characteristics, but the Archaeological Center are often disap- in the Southeast, that those lines broke Museum of Natural History, Gilcrease there were present-day Spiro people, they subject matter is very distinctive. There’s pointed that replicas, not originals, are down. We get splinters of knowledge. Museum, and Sam Noble Museum all would probably not want the grave goods imagery on some of the Spiro engraved on display. Several have been stolen from “I personally don’t use symbols TOP: Candice Byrd (Quapaw-Osage- messed with nor any sacred items,” he shell that’s plausibly interpreted as scenes institutions in the past. Original baskets out of these books much anymore,” have major Spiro collections. Cherokee), Gorget, 2015, incised shell. First writes, “but I believe they would want the from the narrative traditions of the time,” and fabrics are usually just scraps, so Earles says. Students worldwide learn “Here at the University of Arkansas, gorget made by artist. we had a visiting archaeologist from BOTTOM: Candice Byrd (Quapaw-Osage- world to see and enjoy their wonderful says Sabo. “Several of us are trying to replicas suggest what pieces looked like by copying earlier masters, but these are Cherokee), Gorget, 2016, incised shell, hide art. So, I do this in my art that is inspired systematically look at the whole corpus of when new. Historical replicas are useful. usually exercises not finished art, in the Germany. When he got here, the first thong. Images courtesy of the artist. from Spiro art, which I have seen in shell art imagery, paying attention to how Incredible potential lies in studying journey to find their own voice. “I did use thing he wanted to do was go visit Spiro,” books and museums.” some of that imagery occurs on other the materials and techniques of art at a lot of the symbols thinking, ‘Oh this is says Sabo. to harvest clay from Caddo homelands, Wooden arrows, atlatls, and kinds of artist media in other genres, like Spiro for Native artists today. There our people …’ Then you learn where it As Spiro’s single employee, Peterson how to hand-process it, and how to fire bows have not survived to present day in rock art, for example.” would be nothing but support for any comes from and [it] might not be yours. creates programming, such as the kite it in pits. The Caddo clay doesn’t accept but played an important role in Spiro Philip Phillips defined two periods artist willing to twine textiles from It might be from a different mound.” festival and solstice tours. “It’s like he colored slips well, so Earles creates lifeways. Jeri Redcorn’s brother Phil Cross of shell engraving: Craig Style, possibly Respect for the sacredness of the symbols does everything he can to keep it going,” designs by incising them into the pot’s pawpaw fibers. (Caddo-Potawatomi) makes Caddo bois local and more numerous, and “the other, gives him pause. “Some of these things says Earles, “because so many people just surface. While the nature of the clay Using the designs from Spiro is d’arc bows. Cross, the Caddo Nation more foundational one, the Braden style are very sacred, some of these things are don’t care about that place.” doesn’t lend itself to the finely polished another consideration. Some designs, tribal historical preservation officer, also … an exotic introduction from Cahokia such as the forked eye motif or the from burials, and some of these things Spiro has always been under- finish, the pottery is astonishingly thin and the Mississippi Valley region.”38 constructs Caddo houses: rectangular, Sun-Circle motif, were used throughout are sensitive. If you’re going to present funded, but the State of Oklahoma faces and lightweight. wattle-and-daub, thatched-roof houses, “Some of the engraved shell that the Eastern Woodlands centuries before yourself as a Native American artist, you increasing budget shortfalls and has sold “People approach me about Spiro. similar to those at Spiro, and circular, we find at Spiro also reflects the classic Spiro and continued into historic times. are representing your tribe. That is your and closed state parks. Anyone interested I know my work is connected to it, but I beehive-shaped grass houses. Braden style,” agrees Sabo. “The material Other specialized designs are not found c u ltu re .” in contributing to the maintenance of also believe strictly in not copying Spiro Cedar was the material of choice was probably made at Cahokia, but the anywhere else other than Spiro.40 While Problems arise when artists claim Spiro Mounds or getting more involved stuff blatantly. I just don’t use anything for woodcarving at Spiro. The National problem that we have is figuring out particular symbols as being from their can join the Oklahoma Historical Society except for the turkeys, the snakes, and the Museum of the American Indian holds exactly where things were made, and, the anyone, Native or non-Native, can or the Spiro Mound Development spirals, because I know what those are. a haunting cedar carving of a human same is true with the Craig style engraved speculate the meaning of the symbolism own tribe when they are not. Tribes, Association, the center’s local friends’ I can use those respectfully, and I know face with shell inlays for eyes and mouth shell at Spiro. It’s a regionally distinctive through the lens of their own cultures, more than any other group, should group. For membership information or what they mean.” and deer antlers emerging from its head. style, so it’s at home in the Spiro area, but as 21st-century people, we do not understand that these images are sacred Even utilitarian lithics at Spiro Wood was also carved into human we haven’t found any workshops where understand what these symbols meant and should be respected. With so much other inquiries, email Dennis Peterson have aesthetic appeal, with their colors figures, effigy bowls, boxes, and earspools. the shell was produced.” to the people who made them. We do misinformation about pre-Columbian at [email protected]. Contributions and graceful shapes. Projectile points A pair of earspools portrays either Cahokia is widely regarded as being know they were profoundly sacred. cultures, Native peoples should hold each can be made to the Oklahoma Historical were chipped from , jasper, quartz canines with exaggerated snouts and long settled by ancestors of Dhegiha Siouan Native artists should strive to show these other up to higher standards of providing Society with a note saying funds should crystal, and novaculite. Elaborate maces, tongues hanging out. Many wooden items people. “The Osages, in particular, and symbols and objects the respect they held accurate information about their past. go toward Spiro Mounds. too fragile to use as weapons and thought were once covered with copper foil. as well, feel very strongly that to the cultures that made them. to be ceremonial, are often portrayed Several items in Craig Mound they can trace their ancestry back to “These shell artifacts that all of the OKHISTORY.ORG/SITES/SPIROMOUNDS

37. Brown, “Spiro Reconsidered,” 117. 39. Candice Byrd, email message to author, May 8, 2017. 38. Brown, The Spiro Ceremonial Center, 20. 40. Brown, The Spiro Ceremonial Center, 20.

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