The Similarities Between Mississippi Valley Indians And Native Americans

Though they are frequently heaped together as a one-dimensional, monolithic group, American Indian cultures were and still are far from an extremely homogenous cluster. However, there are similarities between the indigenous tribes and peoples of the Americas. The differences and similarities in these cultures generally stem from sources relating to physical location, and the Pueblo people of the southwest and the tribes of the Mississippi Valley are an example of this duality.

One facet of culture that demonstrates the similarities and difference of the Mississippi Valley Indians and the Pueblo peoples is agriculture. Both groups had similar diets, consuming corn, beans and squash an important trifecta of crops, known as the ‘Three Sisters’

The elite occupied a small percent of the population and received special privileges such as exemption from hard labor. The chiefs were believed to hold supernatural influence, and were involved in or could control vital happenings such as rain. While the Pueblos had chiefs, it would be inaccurate to call them a chiefdom; the chiefs were not considered supernatural and did not hold as much power as those in the Mississippi valley. For the Pueblos there was not such a strong emphasis on status. However, priests and others involved in religious rituals were very important within society, and may have lead pueblos along with a group of

Indigenous people in the Mississippi Valley lived in square dwellings with a triangular roof, made of wood, mud and thatch. Homes for elite members of society or buildings for public use were built on massive mounds with flattened tops, created by moving earth via baskets. The structures on top of the mounds, especially those that the elite resided in, were both more spacious and more ornate than those inhabited by commoners. Pueblo Indians lived in buildings made from a material called adobe; which is bricks of clay and straw left to dry in the sun. These buildings, called pueblos, were often up to six feet high with walls several feet thick, divided in a similar fashion to a modern apartment building. Each family was designated a room within the pueblo. The buildings also had flat roofs, that doubled as a both a place to work and observe for danger. The pueblos were built around a kiva, an underground structure where community and religious activities were held. Unlike the Mississippians, there is no noticeable class distinction among pueblo homes. Though each pueblo was an independent community, led by chiefs and priests, there is no visible change in their personal homes. Variation in climate is the clearest explanation for the diversity in architecture, due to the incredibly hot and dry climate, timber was not widely available; making adobe the