The Mississippian Indians rose to power between 800-1600 AD in what is now Georgia and developed large villages around temple mounds. They grew crops like maize, beans, squash and used increasingly complex stone and bone tools. Their civilization declined due to diseases introduced by European explorers which devastated populations, and the desire for European goods caused social disruption and the breakup of chiefdoms.

1. Mississippian Period
800 AD – 1600 AD

2. The Mississippian Indians
• The Mississippian Indians rose to
power around 800 A.D and around
1600 A.D and it was thought that
they mysteriously disappeared.
• During this time they became the
highest prehistoric civilization in GA.

3. The Mississippian Indians
• Settlements:
– They began living in villages with as many as
several thousand families living in one village.
– The villages were built around a temple mound,
which the priest/chief would call home.
– The Mississippian Indians were very religious.

4. Look at the houses that are built on top of
the mounds.

6. Ocmulgee Mounds in Macon

7. With each group, the number of people living
together increased up to this point during the
Mississippian period.

8. Mississippian Tribes in the
Southeast.

9. The Mississippian Indians
• They were able to grow most of the food that
they ate.
– They grew maize, beans, pumpkins, and squash.
• The tools that they used became more
complex:
– They now used tools made out of both
stone and bone.

10. Notice the orderly fields and the variety of
plants being grown.

12. What happened to the
Mississippian Indians?
• The Mississippian Period in Georgia was brought to an end by
the increasing European presence in the Southeast. European
diseases introduced by early explorers and colonists
devastated native populations in some areas, and the desire
for European goods and the trade in native slaves and, later,
deerskins caused whole social groups to relocate closer to or
farther from European settlements. The result was the
collapse of native chiefdoms as their populations were
reduced, their authority structures were destroyed
by European trade, and their people scattered across the
region. Many remnant populations came together to form
historically known native groups such as
the Creeks,Cherokees, and Seminoles.