The Mississippians and related cultures/trading partners would later come across with Spanish explorers of the Juan Pardo expedition, who built a base there in 1567 called Fort San Juan. Expedition documentation and archaeological evidence of the fort and Native American culture both exist. The soldiers were at the fort about 18 months (1567--1568) before the natives killed them and destroyed the fort. (They killed soldiers stationed at five other forts as well; only one man of 120 survived.) Sixteenth-century Spanish artifacts have been recovered from the site, marking the first European colonization in the interior of what became the United States. Between the years 1500-1600 most Mississippian societies lived in a type of society called a chiefdom. Chiefdoms are kin-based societies in which people are ranked according to the family they belong to. Some families have higher status than others. In Chiefdoms, the ruler typically comes from a high-status family and has privileges beyond those of ordinary people. Mississippian Paramount Chiefs share some similarities with kings but are not as powerful (they do not collect taxes, for example, or have standing armies). Archaeologists interpret Arkansas Mississippian societies as chiefdoms from descriptions by the De Soto chroniclers in the 1500's and from the archaeological remains of earlier Mississippian societies. A platform mound, for example, provides a prominent, elevated location for the chief's house that is separated from ordinary houses. A platform mound, which requires more labor than that of one family to build, is a sign that a hereditary chief lived in that locale or very nearby. Some Chieftoms the people voted in the leaders and others it was more of a royal blood-line. During the rise of the city of Cahokia, all the area of the Mississippi river Valley was ruled by a King called the 'The Great Sun' who was a inheritor of the previous Hopewell civilization, culture and government, the area was the largest Kingdom designed by Native People north of Mesoamerica. Cahokian Noble Class ruled between 700 AD to 1400 AD. It was a blend of a monarch and democratic State were each city, town and village had their own local government of chiefdoms and tribes, but through economic conquest, cultural influence, treaties and trade agreements they came under regional rule of Cahokia. Around 1400 A.D the City of Cahokia experienced a mini ice age and later by droughts caused large scale crop failer along with political problems led to the collapse of Cahokia and many people moved back to Chiefdoms and Tribes. The Natche Nation would later inherit the Kingdom and began organizing into a state, uniting and building trades, but the Spanish interruption of their warfare, diseases and dismantling of the large scale trade network between the Carribean and Mesoamerican Tribes and Civilizations caused the Natche Kingdom and related cultures to collapse. The survivors spread through out the areas and began to organize into the tribes we are familiar with today. East of Cahokia (along the western part of the Appalachian Mountains) in the late 1400's to early 1500's many of the Chiefdoms organized into Confederacies and were in transition to a more democratic system using diplomacy to unite regions...In Alabama, Chiefdoms such as the Coosa Chiefdom under the Muskogee Creek Confederacy had a huge police force with sophisticated weapons made of hardened copper, wood and stones, that intimidated the small Spanish army. South of the Appalachian mountains were small chiefdoms and were probably the most peaceful people in the world at the time with Most of their leaders were Women...Leaders such as the female chieftess (Cofitachequi), who turned over her tribe's pearls, food and other goods to the Spanish soldiers in hopes of a diplomatic approach to the Spanish. The Spanish enslaved and looted the small chiedoms, raping young women and children. Slaves were used as Translators In the spring of 1541, De Soto demanded 200 men as porters from the Chickasaw. They refused his demand and attacked the Spanish camp during the night. The Spaniards lost about 40 men and the remainder of their limited equipment. According to participating chroniclers, the expedition could have been destroyed at this point, but the Chickasaw let them go. The powerful small kingdom of the Natchez sent over 2,000 warriors armed with stone and copper tomahawks, spears and arrowheads showering the Spanish boats and killing 25% of De Soto's men. the surviving men of the De Soto Expedition were chased back to the gulf. Most of De Soto's men died or killed during the De Soto expedition.

• published: 09 Oct 2011
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