Southeastern Mound Builder Culture from Spiro Mounds to Contemporary Art

By Kristin Gentry

Connecting the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s Spiro and the Art of the Mississippian World exhibition and the Chickasaw Nation’s Exhibit C Gallery’s Music for the Great Sun exhibition

Human Face Effigy with Deer Antlers, AD 1200–1450, wood, Le Flore County, Oklahoma, Spiro site, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Photo Credit: Kristin Gentry Marcus Amerman (Chahta) & Preston Singletary (Tlingit), One Star, blown and sand carved glass, 8” x 7.5” x 7.5”, Copyright Preston Singletary. All Rights Reserved.

Margaret Roach Wheeler (Chikashsha (Chickasaw)/ Chahta), Minko Regalia, mixed media with handwoven and loomed textiles, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Photo Credit: Kristin Gentry

Both exhibitions held the concept that the descendants of the Mound Building peoples are a living culture here in the present day through language, customs, traditions, art, and more. The Spiro exhibition at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum displayed the actual historical objects from the Spiro Mound site (Le Flore County, OK); whereas the art pieces at Exhibit C Gallery showed the contemporary work based on the objects important to Marcus Amerman’s Chahta (Choctaw) culture found at the Spiro Mound site. Viewing both exhibitions we see the direct interpretation of the historical objects on Amerman’s work. Some of the Mississippian and or Caddoan peoples in the contemporary parts of the exhibitions were from tribes removed to present day Oklahoma during Indian Removal from the southeastern part of the United States. Spiro and the Art of the Mississippian World and Music for the Great Sun art exhibitions both display the Southeastern, Mound Building culture of the Mississippian peoples from historical and contemporary lenses.

The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum’s curator, Dr. Eric Singleton, worked closely with the Caddo Nation, Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, and countless other Nations. It was important for him to let the tribes dictate the direction. From the museum’s website, “The Spiro people, and their Mississippian peers, are nearly forgotten in the pages of North American history, yet they created one of the most exceptional societies in all of the Americas. What makes Spiro truly unique, however, is that it contained the largest assemblage of engraved, embossed, and carved objects of any presently known Mississippian site.” The exhibition was displayed chronologically starting with the historical found objects, and progressed in time as viewers moved through the space into the art created today by the same Mississippian descendants in the section entitled, Cultural Continuation.

In his interview for Art Focus Oklahoma, Dr. Singleton expressed he wanted both the art and the artists to speak for themselves at the museum. Through ethnology, he wanted the study of comparative cultures to be used for viewers to understand some of the meanings and motifs found on the historical

and contemporary objects. The Museum held several events collaborating with artists within the Cultural Continuation section of the exhibition from different Indigenous nations. Contemporary Oklahoma artists like weaver Margaret Roach Wheeler, Chikashsha (Chickasaw)/Chahta, textile and clay artist Anita Fields, Wazhazhe (Osage), multidisciplinary artist Matt Anderson, (Cherokee), and others held artists talks and demonstrations live at the museum. The Seminole Nation held a stomp dance at the museum the day the exhibition closed.

Music for the Great Sun showed Marcus Amerman, Chahta, and Preston Singletary’s, Tlingit, collaborations created based off of Marcus’ Chahta culture with the imagery through blown glass work reflective of the objects found at the Spiro Mound site. From the exhibition statement, “Amerman’s ancestors saw The Great Sun as the political and religious leader of the ancient, classstratified society. Many of the pieces Amerman and Singletary are using for inspiration were originally made by imperial craftsmen for the demands of the ruling class and The Great Sun.” The word “music” was used in the title as the artists working together performatively are creating music for the Great Sun.

Their work has put the Mississippian people into modern conversations. In his artist talk hosted by Tom Farris, Otoe-Missouria/ , Amerman, said he wanted to create this body of work as “culture adapting to new medium, to keep the stories and the symbolism alive.” Their renditions through large, colorful, and graphic sand carved glass pieces were in such contrast to the small and delicate naturally colored mound objects. They took the carefully relief-carved iconography of the Mississippian people and transformed them into bold graphics with the same care for precision. For Singletary, this was his inaugural exhibition in Oklahoma. From Singletary’s website, “My work with glass transforms the notion that Native artists are only best when traditional materials are used. It has helped advocate on the behalf of all indigenous people—affirming that we are still here—that we are declaring who we are through our art in connection to our culture.” Amerman is well known for his beadwork, so to collaborate with Singletary he pushed his work in a new direction. The objects of all the people from the Spiro Mounds to their descendants as artists of today continue to live with the cultural knowledge they have preserved despite everything that has tried to take that away from them.

The next featured exhibition at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum is Tattoos: Religion, Reality and Regret, and will be on display August 27th through May 8th. n

Top left: Marcus Amerman (Chahta) & Preston Singletary (Tlingit), Buffalo Man, blown and sand carved glass, 18.5” x 11.25” x 13”, Photo Credit: Copyright © Preston Singletary. Top right: Erin Shaw (Chickasaw), 2013, mixed media, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Photo Credit: Kristin Gentry Bottom right: Engraved Shell Cup with Human Face on the Shell of Turtles, AD 900–1450, marine shell, Le Flore County, Oklahoma, Spiro site. Craig Mound, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Photo Credit: Kristin Gentry