EARLY
EXPLORERS >>

A DAWNING
CURIOSITY >>

NATIVE
VIEWS >>

TODAY'S
PERSPECTIVE >>

“We explain to the kids why, from the beginning of our time, in our homeland, why we had the mounds. You can feel it in the classroom. There's a sense of dignity and a sense of loss." Glenda Galvan, Chickasaw Nation

“It is said that in the beginning there were two great alligators, one red, one blue. They moved aside and allowed the Tunica to pass through into this world. There is red mud here and a blue mud, so who knows? In every myth there is an ounce of truth." Bill Day, Tunica-Biloxi

“It's starting to come back, the prayers, the tobacco ceremony . . . It's acknowledging the ancestors. When we visit the mounds we make sure we do that . . . We'll go on public land. We don't ask anybody. We just do it." Native American, Louisiana

Left: A member of the modern-day Tunica-Biloxi with a piece of ancient pottery.