
Chiefdom of the Coosa: Abihka Curse
After his encounter with the Cherokee, De Soto travelled south into present-day Georgia where he found the “Chiefdom of Coosa”. At that point, according to De Soto’s chroniclers, the Coosa Chiefdom consisted of a “series of communities and fertile gardens containing much food.” Inca Garcilasso de la Vega wrote, “[Hernando De Soto] reached [Coosa] on Friday, July 16th [1540]. The [Chief] came out to welcome him two crossbow flights from the town in a carrying chair borne on t

Remembering the Opposition to Relocation
By the turn of the nineteenth century, the Native American tribes known as the Five Civilized Tribes were living peacefully on their native lands. The process of acculturation proposed by George Washington and his administration was well underway especially among the Cherokee and Choctaw. The Cherokee had established schools and, thanks to the syllabary developed by Sequoyah, were teaching their children in both Cherokee and English. They had a written a constitution simil

Great Sites: Cahokia: New Findings
Although, there are many who doubt that the Medicine Wheel in Bighorn Mountain, Wyoming is an astronomical calendar, 1200 miles east in the ancient metropolis of Cahokia, the “Woodhenge” structures are generally accepted as astronomical calendars. The structures are simple, a center post surrounded by differing numbers of posts in wide circles. The number of posts in the circumference seemed to grow in number with each rebuilding of the structures. Here is a quote by Will

Great Sites: Medicine Wheel–What Does it Mean?
In previous articles [Medicine Wheels of the Plains Indians and Sacred Geology], I have talked about some of the more popular theories for the Medicine Wheel atop the Bighorn Mountain in northern Wyoming. But there are many other explanations and the following is based on discussions with the local Rangers and other articles on the subject. The official explanation from the Forest Service is that we know very little for sure about the site. We do know that it has “an undefi