The North American Eastern Woodlands society is one of many cultural combinations and adaptations. Over many thousands of years, a dissemination of cultures, social structures ceremonies, and art occurred between the North American indigenous nations. Dissemination of cultures over these thousands of years can be investigated using a careful analysis of art, history, anthropology, ethnolinguistics, and archaeology. This project will do an analysis of the available information to draw conclusions in relation to the origins of the art and culture relative to the Eastern Woodlands nations leading to the creation of the Mississippian ceremonial complex

It is important explore the oral history of the indigenous nations, and this oral history should be compiled to use in comparison with written historical records. The information about the society, and culture is passed from one generation to another by the use of oral tradition. These oral histories hold special insights for reconstructing the culture, and the iconography. The largest group of descendants of the Mississippian ceremonial complex are comprised of the Cherokee (Tsalagi), Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Delaware, and Yuchi. All these descendent nations have like oral histories concerning the pre-contact and post-contact periods. These oral histories draw a map outlining the different cultures involved with the settlement of Eastern Woodland Nations.

The first oral history is a story told by my grandmother.

She told many different stories during my youth about our traditions, and origins of the people of the Five-Civilized Tribes. This traditional training as a child was her way of insuring the continuance of the tradition over the next seven generations. It is because of the Oral tradition that the culture and religion are intact after five hundred years of occupation, and subjugation. Often during the evenings in winter she would sit down in her old wooden rocker and tell me stories about the Cherokee. These stories were about the customs, ceremony, and origin. When she told the stories I would sit beside her. She would then start telling the stories, and one of her favorite stories concerned how we came to live in the North "The Children of the Sun left our lands first, and they went North out of Mexico, across to the land from where the sun rises. This first group went up the Ohio Valley looking for people with our way and these people was known as the Yuchi. The second group of our people to leave where the Chickasaw, Choctaw, and they were located just north of Florida along the coastal marshes. These were the people of swamps, and nobody ever bothered them. Then the third group to leave was the Creek. The Creek were different than the first, because they was not afraid of fighting, and the Yuchi adopted them as an ally against enemies near by. The fourth move north was our people and we joined with those who went first, but there was no room for us so we took up living in the hills just north of the valley people.

We were known as the people of the hills and the people over the hills. The hills ranged from the Delaware in the East to almost into what is called Arkansas. We fought with the Iroquois when we stretched our boundaries north. The Iroquois and our people made peace, We settled just south of their boundaries. At this time there were sixteen clans. We are related to the Deer, Turtle, Wolf, and Heron clans. The Turtle and the Heron clans are ruling clans, and we are not allowed to marry within our clans."

Yuchian Top Doctor's story of the migration.

His oral history is detailed, and he always took the time to enlighten me regarding our oral history, he would say " Our people lived In Central America along the Yucatan Peninsula, and there were five migrations to the North. Two of these migrations were to the eastern side of what is now known as Florida. We did not land on the southern end of Florida, because the people were cannibals. One of the two groups went up to what is now known as the Ohio Valley, and the others went up the East Coast of North American. We were looking for those who believed the same way we did. The people to the East were good people, and were like us. The people in the most northern reach of the Ohio Valley were warlike so we came back down into the Ohio Valley.

There we became middlemen for trade, and commerce. The Third group went up the West Side of Florida settling along what is know today as the Gulf Coast. The fourth group traveled to the north up the Mississippi, and settled from there through the interior mountains of North America to the Delaware Nation, and north to the Iroquois The fifth group went up along the Pacific Coast and settled in what is now known as Washington, Oregon, and California."

Emmet Starr, writes the third oral history in 1921 in the book History of the Cherokee Indians. Emmet Star begins his history with the explanation of how the Tsalagi came to be in North America "as is evidenced by mounds in Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Virginia, and Tennessee that have been explored and showed artifactuary and ethnic composition almost identical with As the people became more numerous the commenced to migrate. The Cherokees, with the soft accents of the underhills, which was obviously the mother dialect, were evidently from the southern country, for the pleasant fluent languages always come from a southern people in contradiction from the harsher tones of the north. This tribe moved gradually to the north and the east peculiar to known early Cherokee customs and handicraft ... In the center of a mound at Etowah, Georgia and on the surface of the ground were found two copper plates.

This territory was known to have been inhabited by the Cherokee since 1540. The only known similar designs to these are those of Central America, Yucatan and the Levant ... The Cherokee most probably proceeded by several hundred years the Muskogees in their exodus from Mexico and swung in a wider circle, crossing the Mississippi River many miles north of the mouth of the Missouri River as indicated by the mounds. All of the northern mounds are so built that the structure indicates they were built by other poplee." (Starr, p. 22). Emmet goes on to make a detailed explanation of the migrations offering truths that were not apparent to the people in 1921.

The Yuchi people chronicled the arrival of the Creek, and the Cherokee in their oral history as retold in the book Yuchi Tales by Gunter Wagner. The story about the Yuchi, Chickasaw, and the Shawnee talking about who was first to come to North America. The Yuchi tell of the drums who came after them in the story of the "The Separation of the Two Main Yuchi Bands" in the book the Yuchi Tales " Then the Shawnee shot at the sun, and the earth was covered all over with black blood, and the fierce monsters in the mountains made a loud noise. It sounded like drums and then the Creeks came out of the ground to the surface of the earth; Their drums were buffalo-horns; shouting everywhere; now to many were coming out of the ground and they doctored the sun; She brightened again and people ceased coming forth from the ground."(Wagner, p. 168).

Louis LeClerc de Milford in his Memoir tells the Creek verbal history as it was told by Creek elders " Creeks, which were then know as Muskogees ... Montezuma then reigned in Mexico, ... he summoned to his aid the tribes contiguous to his dominions. ... Creeks, which formed a separate republic in the northwestern part of Mexico ... Montezuma, who lost his life, and his empire, which was almost totally depopulated." (Milford, p.161). Mr. Milford points out after this battle the remaining Muskogees migrated north and finally came to settle in the area near Tallassie on the Tallapoosa River. This confirms the Yuchi story told by Gunter Wagner. This also confirms the routes explained by Emmet Starr in regard to the overland migrations taking place from Mexico, and Central America.

It is clear trade, and alliances existed between cultures within the geographic core area in an effort to keep the nations secure from outside interference. The fact that the Muskogees resided in the in South Eastern North American and in the Mexican state of Guerrero during the same time period confirms direct contact with the major culture societies of Mesoamerica. This also confirms migration of the populations and contact over time.

James Wilson in the book The Earth Shall Weep uses the old Cherokee story of the Ea Lo Hi when he describes the movement of the Cherokee to the North " When We lived beyond the great waters there were twelve clans belonging to the Cherokee tribe ... They journeyed for many days and years and finally came to a country that had a good climate and [was] suitable for raising corn and other plenty ... Other red tribes or clans to the Cherokee tribe began to come also from the old country... clans was cut by the submergence of a portion of the land into the deep sea."(Wilson, p. 132).

1. Red lines represent A Yuchian Top Doctor's oral history of the migrations of the Native American Tribes to North America from Mesoamerica creating the Woodlands culture, and Mississippian Culture. Yuchian people were one of the first recorded contacts with the Europeans. They fought the Spanish, and this is recorded in the records in Havana, and Spain. The Creek Nation later adopted Yuchi, after the Yuchi population declined due war and epidemics.
2. Green lines represent My Grand Mother's oral history of the migrations of the Native American tribes to North America from Mesoamerica creating the Woodlands, and Mississippian Culture.
3. Blue lines represent Emmet Starr's written oral history of the migrations of the Native American Tribes to North America from Mexico creating the Woodlands, and Mississippian Culture. Emmet Starr is a renowned Tsalagi historian.

4. Violet lines document the written oral history recorded in the book Yuchi Tales of the Creek, and Cherokee arrival in the Yuchi held lands. Gunter Wagner is adopted Yuchi, and spent his youth with the Yuchi.

5. The Gold line represents the Oral History of Ea Lo Hi written by Mr. Wilson in the book The Earth Shall Weep.

The movement north by the cherokee is verbally illustrated in the oral history passed down. These people who conducted the first colonization of North American from Mesoamerica include the Yuchi, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw. This convergence is also further verified by the common use ceremonies including Pipe Ceremony, Green Corn Ceremony, Ripe Corn Ceremony, Moon Ceremonies, Stomp Dance Ceremony, Black Drink, and Ball Playing, which are all principal components of the Eastern Woodlands Ceremonial Complex. The overall homogeneity of the society and ceremonial complex manifest a common origin, and ancestry. Diffusion of ceremony, and culture over time could not facilitate such a complete interdependence. If the cultures were not part of the mainstream community there would be an indicator, or variant trait that would remain aloof from the assimilating society acting as a marker that would indicate change through contact.

A diffusion of art and culture did take place, but the extent of the diffusion may never be known. The oral history of the Cherokee and the Yuchi tell a story of how they were not from the north, and that their cultures, and art are in fact from the south. This can only be taken as an assumption as there is only comparative evidence to collaborate the many facets of like art resident in existing artifacts and culture of the Eastern Woodland nations. Multiple comparisons of art iconography do show a common origin, but the use of comparison can become degraded in content even with the finest extraction. This would Render the tier of fact ineffective in regards to the relevant information needed to formulate a conclusion based on objective data. It is important to make sure the comparative data is diverse enough to render relevant evidence.

The Art Historian Miguel Covarrubias confirms the oral histories when he refers to the cultures of the Americas noticing the diffusion of art, and culture within a localized geographical core area. Covarrubias illustrates his theory in Figure 127b.

Covarrubias, contemplates the similarities of art and culture and the effects of the mainstream community on the sub community within the geographical core area. He also faces the same problem many historians face while exploring historical events without core evidence or witnesses. The best he can propose is the cultures within a reasonable geographical core area do have contact over time.

Cultural patterns, and social patterns of the subcommunity develop parallel to the mainstream community, but are independent relating to the social structure of the sub community. It is also clear that people outside of the influence of the mainstream community would not exhibit art and cultural similarities because of their geographic locality that would normally be on the outer most reach of the geographic core area, or outside of the geographic core area. This communities culture and art would develope in a different pattern and content due to their isolation. He goes into great detail when he explores the possibility of cross cultural development " I attempt to show the relative position of the principal art culture ... generally have personalities of their own ... though their link with senior culture is often evident."(Covarrubias, p. 69). In this case, Covarrubias has hit the mark concerning the distribution of cultures in the area of the Gulf of Mexico. These nations are within a relative short distance of each other, and there are many comparisons that can be drawn within the geographical core area. The transference of artistic concepts could only be facilitated by the induction of cultural traits by a dominant culture. This transference points to a possible migration of a superior culture, into an area dominated by primitive cultures. As the fundamental traits of the art is Mesoamerican in origin, and this art style replaces the occurrence of primitive art in the geographic core area. It soon becomes clear that the local communities were affected by a culture with a superior technology. Migration of people from their own indigenous area could only be caused by a major cataclysm, or negative force driving the people into migration. .

During the Middle, and Late Archaic era the glacial period began to retreat causing major changes in the geographical landscape which could be considered catastrophic due to extreme flooding, ocean levels rising. During this time period where once lush vegetation existed the new ecological system created new deserts also causing the people to move in search of sustinace. In the scope of human history, this has happened many different times world wide.

Concerning the maps of the oral histories they relate closely to the map Covarrubias uses to explain his theory concerning the likeness of art relative to the cultures of the Gulf of Mexico core area. The maps of the archaeological sites, and the trails outlined by the early explorers comprised of the ancient routes used by the mound building cultures also confirms the map Covarrubias proposes in his research.

The relative distance concerned with the travel around and across the Gulf of Mexico including the Caribbean route is small considering the geographic core area. The Caribbean route starts in the Yucatan and extends 100 hundred miles to Cuba, then extends 150 crossing Cuba, and the final distance covers 100 miles to North America from Cuba. The total trip north would comprise a distance of 350 miles easily covered over a period of weeks by dugout or canoe staying within sight of land the whole journey. Even the currents in the Gulf of Mexico flow in a contributory manor concerning journeys north from the Yucatan peninsula, These travelers could easily cover the distance for trading purposes. Figure A16, In the art appendix is a fragment of shell art illustrative of travel by water confirming Mesoamerican people, and Eastern Woodlands people did have the technology to make the journey to North America.

The second choice of possible routes would be overland. This route would have a relative distance of about 1500 miles. This journey would not be difficult to travel in several months following the Gulf of Mexico's coastline. Diffusion of culture did occur over thousands of years, but the question of who, where, and why may never be known.

Ethnolinguistics, and Ethnology

The linguistics and the ceremonial structure would also be affected if the culture coming into contact would benefit the primary culture either economically, or culturally. Benefit factors would hasten the linguistic convergence process. Linguistically speaking the Cherokee are just one of the many Eastern Woodland nations who interacted through trade, and this trade became the enticement causing their language to change through adaptation. The Cherokee inherited a linguistically mixed language that includes Muskegon, Iroquoian, and Siouan. The language of Cherokee also shows the separation of about 400 years from the Yuchian language that is considered part of the Muskegon language. I use the code switch language for Be Strong, which is a greeting, and a good bye basically in both languages. In the Yuchian language, it is E Yuk Stea Yuh, in the Cherokee language this same statement is Ea Yuch Steaa Yuh. Please note the addition of vowels and consonants. In Ethnolinguistics, it takes about 100 years per vowel or consonant for a separation of language to take place. This would align with Mississippian movements after the Late Woodlands Era. Changes in cultural traits would also show in this time period, but we see no cultural deviance toward the Iroquoian ceremonial complex. Instead, we see the opposite cultural activity. The Cherokee retained the ceremonies found in the Muskegon and Algonquian ceremonial complex. It is important to understand the two languages are different and are not part of the same linguistic family. In modern linguistics, the Cherokee language is considered a part of the Iroquoian language. There are primary differences affirm the Cherokee are the primary culture, and the Iroquois are a primitive culture affected by the Cherokee due to their location being on the outer fringe of the Cherokee geographic core area of influence. This is confirmed by the adoption of cultural traits and songs by the Iroquois from their neighbors over time. William C. Sturtevant in "Comment on Gertrude P. Kurath's "Effects of Environment on Cherokee-Iroquois Ceremonialism, Music, and Dance" points out the cause and affect of the transference of Cherokee ceremonial complex to the Iroquois " A real difficulty with all this is the absence of record for the groups intervening between the Iroquois and the Cherokee … This is good evidence that the Seneca term was borrowed from the Cherokee. … Cutin collected a Seneca story (in Mooney, 1900, pp.365-367) according to which the rite was introduced by escaped Seneca captives of the Cherokee."(Fenton, p. 200). Fenton expands his research concerning the history of the Cherokee, and Iroquois in his paper "Iroquoian Culture History: A General Evaluation", and describes that the Iroquois history explaining that the Cherokee have a longer contiguous history, and ceremonial commonality than the Iroquois " They have Their protohistoric period is longer, extending from initial contact with DeSoto in 1540, well past the middle of the 17th century. … Tracing these parallels was a simple and pleasant game so long as one ignored history and quite different character of the two cultures" ( Fenton, p. 259). The archaeological record, and art iconography confirms the premise that Fenton uses by pointing out the primitive pipe forms used by the Iroquois in illustrations in Figure 21 compared with Cherokee pipes found in Figure EMC1 from Etowah Mound Complex, in Georgia. The Trumpet pipes of the Iroquois are archaic when compared to the artistic technology used by the Cherokee. This confirms the theory proposed by Miguel Covarrubias concerning the effects on primitive cultures residing on the fringe of a primary cultural geographical core area.

Louis LeClerc de Milford in his Memoir also confirms the common cultures and alliances held between the mainstream societies found in Southeastern North American. He describes the different nations, which formed the confederated nations. The Cherokee were part of the confederation formed by the Creek for the protection of their land and their people. No where in this Memoir is there any mention of a connection between the Cherokee, and the Iroquois. This further reinforces the fact that the Cherokee are of Muskogee stock rather that Northern Iroquois.

Please sample the examples of Cherokee traditional song and music compared to Iroquoian.

Cherokee Song

Iroquoian Song

Differences of this type establish the Cherokee as an Iroquoian trade partner only. These differences also verify that the Cherokee are religious and cultural relatives of the Muskegon and Algonquian. This agrees with all Oral histories and confirms the theory proposed by Miguel Covarrubias.

Ethnographic and Ethnolinguistic reconstruction of the Eastern Woodland culture, and Iconography must also be analyzed using archaeological method. This facilitates the extraction of the environmental and behavioral elements of the primary binding cultural concepts, commonality in art iconography, and related mound building cultures found in the geographic core area.

The first method of archaeology used would be environmental. The model concerning the geographical core area in a time line starts at 20,000 CE, and would extend into the Middle Archaic era.

During the past year, new information has been discovered at the Allendale Paleo-Indian Expedition site in South Carolina. This site borders the Toppers Mound site protraying a picture of the settlement patterns for pre-Clovis people dating back to the beginning of the last glacial age. These cultures were locked into the geographic core area of the Gulf of Mexico. The land base during this glacial period extends down into the Gulf of Mexico caused by ocean levels dropping from 300 to 500 feet.

This is confirmed by environmental science research relating the glacial period done by Professor Timothy R. Patterson, Ph.D., At Carlton University. He states in his course offered via the internet "The buildup of icecaps removes a great deal of water from the ocean. During the last glacial maximum this caused sea level to fall by about 120 m, exposing the continental shelves and in many places greatly altering the geography of the world." (Patterson,p.31). Robert W. Christopherson makes the same observation in the book Geosystems where he explains " Sea levels at that time were approximately 100 m (330ft) lower than today. "(Christopherson, p. 533). The Rand McNally Goode's World Atlas Edited by Edward B. Espenshade Jr. illustrates the current depths of the Gulf of Mexico in the map of "Ocean Depths in Profile" (Espenshade, p. 4). This created what could only be called a sub-continent attaching North, Central, and South American together.

This landmass would continue 10 to 13 thousand years allowing free movement between the peoples in the Gulf of Mexico geographical core area before the glacial period slowly receded, and the Gulf of Mexico slowly refilled covering the sub-continent once again. Science can only estimate the amount of time it would take to refill the area of the Gulf of Mexico.

This map outlines the depths in the area of Gulf of Mexico that are less than 500 feet in depth. The areas that have a depth of greater than 500 feet would have created land locked inland seas during the last glacial period.

This would also coincide with the Oral histories especially the oral history of Ea Lo Hi, and would explain the start of mound building at the end of Middle to Late Archaic periods.

The first archaeological model will be Inevitable Variation. This model deals with the sequencing and growth of cultural identification, diffusion of common traits, and the termination of the mainstream communities. The appearance of termination causing what marks a loss of a cultural commonality replaced by a like community emerging with the needed cultural attributes to justify itself.

The second archaeological model will be Revitalization; this model deals with cultures living side by side in the same geographic core area. Cultures are assimilated facilitated by acculturation over long periods of time. These cultures diversify splitting, and extending the sphere of influence creating the cultural commonality.

The mound building cultures of the Eastern Woodlands appear to grow until reaching a certain point, and then terminate. After termination a new society appears with a like cultural identity. This culture appears to obtain its maximum growth only to terminate again. It becomes hard to say which culture should be considered the primary causation for the apparent commonality in the societies in question. The above description follows the Inevitable Variation model, which is considered New Archaeology.

We must look to the dating of the sites to see which is the oldest continually inhabited site with influence in the geographic core area. The culture resident in the oldest site would have affected all other societies in the geographic core area.

In this study we do have approximate dating that helps to identify the oldest site. The Hollywood Mound site in South Carolina and the connecting Stalling's Island site could be the oldest site concerning mound builders in the Eastern Woodland culture. The Stalling's site is dated to 12,000 BCE, and this site's time line extends into the Hollywood Mound complex dating from 4500 BCE, where mound building becomes apparent in the geographic core area.

Mr. Waring stresses the importance of the Hollywood Mound complex. He details his justification by outlining the mound and its contents " The Hollywood Mound has a unique importance since it is the only reported site in the Southeast in which ceremonial material belonging to the Southern Cult ... archaeological evidence, notable the use of shell-tempering, red painted ware, shell gorgets, pipes, tobacco and stone graves."(Waring, p. 293). This site would be the site to examine for artifacts to compare with other sites in the geographic core area. Comparisons are needed in this case with other sites in the area, because C14 results regarding the geographical core area could be flawed.

The pipe artifacts shown in Figure 23 Through Figure 28 illustrate styles starting from primitive rough designs extending to fine ornate effigy pipes. This gradual difference in pipe design, and manufacture demonstrates the changing technology in the cultural and ceremonial patterns over time. Other sites in the region have tendencies toward pipe manufacturing include Poverty Point, Emerald Mound Complex, and mound sites around the Natchez area. The similarity in the pipe form can be seen in Figures 11, 14, 18, 19, 20. The Poverty Point Mound complex and the Emerald Mound complex and mound sites around the Natchez area have different dating from the Hollywood site. This difference and the simularity of the pipe designs suggest inaccuracy in C14 Dating. This different dating when compared with the relevant technology displays the apparent inaccuracy of the C14 dating in the geographic core area. C14 tests have proven relevant to once living material in controlled testing, and can not be used on inorganic materials. The C14 tests have also proven to be very inaccurate depending on the material, and the decomposition rates found surrounding the mound builder areas. It is also possible that the sites being defiled in the 1800s disturbed the organic material in the sites, nullifying the C14 testing. There are also records of mound builders opening the mound and using the contents for ceremony. These types of contamination could cause definite problems with C14 dating. If the sites are contaminated the archaeologist must rely on comparison with known sites considered to have reliable dating within a reasonable geographic core area. If the pipes render the same design, and manufacture techniques, this would substantiate the theory that the artifacts are from a similar society. There is little difference in the pipes found concerning this geographical core area.

I will use for comparison of the pipes from Hollywood Mound complex found in Figure 27 and the pipes found at Adams Co. Mississippi, Poverty Point, and Winona, Mississippi illustrated in Figures 11, 20, and 30. These pipes are primitive examples, manufactured of sandstone, and clay. All the pipes are of L shaped in design with a square edge. The openings using conical holes in the stem of the pipe and the bowl. This conical opening allows the drill to be inserted into the pipe. This conical opening was piloted with an obsidian blade. The clay version of this pipe was formed with twig or reed inserted into the clay and then the pipe was molded and dried. The twig was removed after drying, and stem hole, and bowl holes were carved out in a conical manner. The pipes mentioned above and the straight pipe in Figure 19, found in Jaketown, Mississippi could be considered among the oldest in North America. This would indicate early introduction, and use of tobacco in the ceremonial complex. This use of tobacco would suggest that those using the pipe were sedentary enough to grow the tobacco for ceremony. The growing and curing cycle concerning Nicotiana Rustica is about seven months.

The Tobacco needs constant care. The Cherokee and Creek Nations created clans to cultivate tobacco for ceremony. The similarity concerning the pipe manufacture and the culture found at the sites mentioned would give evidence that the culture did not reach termination but advanced as technology advanced. The desertion of certain mound sites could have been promoted by hostilities with neighboring nations, lack of food production, drastic events, or a changing the ecology around the mound community. As the same base cultural habits, and agricultural crops are found at the different sites in the geographical core area, assimilation of the communities dispersing into a sister communities rather than termination becomes apparent. This would confirm the revitalization model, which is considered Old World Archaeology. As both models apply then further information will be needed to obtain a valid correlation

Agriculture

Antonio Waring, discusses Maize and its introduction into the culture of the Eastern Woodlands. He sets this date around the time when mound building started and the people became sedentary agriculturists. Maize with an origin in Mesoamerica confirms that contact did happen between Mesoamerica and the people of the Eastern Woodlands. This concept of cross-cultural contact has been hotly debated for 200 years. Waring speaks of the people of the Eastern Woodlands being released from their bondage to hunting, and gathering " The Archaic was terminated - not by a catastrophe - but by a blessing. The introduction of maize agriculture ... ceremonial enclosures and elaborate burial mounds appeared."(Waring, p. 245). The introduction of Maize into the geographic core area, and the elaborate ceremonies developing after the maize Introduction confirms the similarity between the Gulf of Mexico geographic core area societies. The second agricultural product to be shared in the ceremonial complex is tobacco. The traditions of the Eastern Woodlands require the use of tobacco, primarily Nicotiana Rustica. This tobacco is a plant domesticated in South America. Lynda Shaffer offers this information in her book Native Americans Before 1492 " Tobacco (Nicotiana Rustica) was one of the several plants smoked." (Shaffer, p. 35). Tobacco is a native plant to the Central and South America, and Nicotiana Rustica is a relative of the Poke plant in North America. Jerald T. Milanich edited the book Famous Florida Sites and he writes about the introduction of tobacco, and corn " Through the Introduction of tobacco." (Milanich, p. 221). Harry Harrison Kroll uses the chronology of the colonization of the Americas to illustrate the love for tobacco the mound builders, and their cousins raising tobacco in the Yucatan, where this plant originates. He talks about Columbus finding San Salvador, and the Native Americans smoking at first contact. He also mentions the combining of Sumac leaves with the tobacco to blend. The Sumac for the Cherokee and Creek is one of the plants also used in the Black Drink. It is clear that this combination was used both for pleasure and for ceremony in North, and Central America. He does his best to show how tobacco was dispersed and he even reveals how the Native American people viewed tobacco "But the Indians said it was in the world from the beginning ... used till the end of time." (Kroll, p. 248). It is clear that tobacco was used in the North and the South in the Americas. We now have confirmation of two more common cultural traits found in the Gulf of Mexico geographical core area. The cultural groups within the Gulf of Mexico share like ceremonial, and cultural traits. These common cultures and the common ceremonial complex will form the foundation for the pipe and gorget art patterning. These cultural similarities can not be ignored

. Hunting and gathering communities before the advent of agriculture were small community units. These units or tribal entities were different from one geographic location to another geographic location. I will use the Wintu of California who were a Hunter, gatherer community bordering on agriculture well studied in the 20th century. This community today still exhibit traits found in a community boarding on agriculturalism. There are four separate bands of the Wintu, and the location and the medicine person of that locality dictate the ceremonial complex for each. This separation is due to the movements of the tribal bases to obtain food, which does not allow the different tribal faction to be sedentary enough to form a commonality in ceremonial tradition. The language group is the same, but the primary living elder dictates the ceremonial tradition.

This not the case for the tribal nations located in the Gulf of Mexico core area. There is a solid contiguous culture, and ceremonial complex rather than an individual dictating the religious practice. In the Gulf of Mexico core area there is a cultural stratification controlling the infrastructure of the peoples and towns. This is apparent from the commonalties found in the manufacture of pipes for ceremony, and the traditions found in the geographic core area.