ent controlled the distribution of food,” (Calloway, p.35). There was also evidence of ritualistic sacrifice by the Mississippians. Another important factor of life in Mississippian society is agriculture. The rhythmic cycle between growing corn, beans, and squash reflected the life of the people living in Cahokia and other mound cities. The society was thriving until its eventual collapse due to the arrival of Europeans and the growth of a population who could not be supported by the resources.
2. What is “geomythology,” and how can it be used to learn about the ancient North American past? Answer this question while describing more broadly “how we know what we know” about Native North America prior to European contact.
Geomythology is a term that means the study of legends that strive to explain geological phenomenon such as volcanoes, earthquakes, and the like. These legends allow mythologists and historians to explore the deeper meaning behind Native American stories and to get a first-hand account on how Indians saw the world that they inhabited. Often times historians “do not know quite what to make of stories and consequently dismiss them as myths, not appropriate or useful as historical evidence,” however, “oral transmission of stories is common to all human societies and ‘is probably the oldest form of history making,’” (Calloway, “A Navajo Emergence Story and an Iroquois Creation Story,” p.44). In stories like the Navajo, where the First Man and First Woman emerge from several lower worlds in order to eventually find the present world, or the different Iroquois tribes, which all tell slightly different tales, a historian can learn about how a Native American society viewed life. For example, the Iroquois story conveyed “the importance of women in Iroquois society, the duality of good and evil, and the need for balance,” (Calloway, “A Navajo Emergence Story and an Iroquois Creation Story,” p.48). Geomythology is not only important because it conveys stories from different Indian groups, but it is one of the few remnants to a pre-contact Native America.
Geomythology, being a way to access pre-contact Native American history, is a very important tool for historians. However, it is not the only way historians are able to extrapolate information about this time period in the Americas. Some of the main evidence is physical items or towns from these people. At North American dig sites in Folsom and Clovis, New Mexico archeologists discovered weapon points and flint from over 8,000 years ago, (Calloway, p.17). Another connection to pre-contact societies is the mounds used by the Mississippian societies like the mound city of Cahokia. Physical evidence and geomythology are two of the main ways that historians know about pre-contact Native Ameri
