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| Kincaid Mounds (Oil Painting by Herb Roe) |
The agency then theorized that “the culprits were probably searching for ‘grave goods’ that Native Americans buried with their dead.” Director Amy Martin declared: “The
criminal disturbance of these human burials in Kincaid Mounds is unconscionable.” This type of crime can legally result in misdemeanor or felony charges (with up to three years imprisonment and up to $25,000 in fines).
Kincaidmounds.com explains that Native Americans of the Mississippian culture lived in what is now Massac County, Illinois. They
occupied the Kincaid Mounds site from approximately 1050 CE to 1400 CE. Their chief most likely claimed his power from the sun. The mounds themselves were “raised platforms” from which the chief and other elite leaders could literally oversee the settlement. Ceremonial
buildings and temples were also built upon these mounds.
It was the intensive cultivation of corn that enabled the Mississippians to build this permanent a settlement. The founding of Kincaid occurred during the Medieval Warm Period in which temperatures were approximately five degrees warmer there than they are today. Their farms were located in the floodplain of the Ohio River, whereas their “ceremonial and administrative center” was located at a higher elevation about a mile north of the present-day river.
Information about the beliefs and societal norms of these Mississippians has come from accounts of the 1539 to 1543 De Soto expedition, as well as from “French descriptions of the Natchez Indians near early New Orleans.” Archaeological research has also yielded much information.
We know that the Chief Priests (Shamans) were male. Pots and tools within burial sites indicate a belief in the
afterlife. Female figurines indicate a possible fertility cult. Temples stood upon pyramids. There was
an annual “green corn” ceremony of renewal, and also a late-summer corn-ripening ritual.
Resources
http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20120528/news/705289900/
http://www.kincaidmounds.com/history.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kincaid_Mounds_State_Historic_Site
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