Let's imagine Alabama as it was before European settlers moved in. In prehistoric times, you might have made your home in a natural shelter like Russell Cave. You might rely on hunting and gathering. And if you lived a thousand years ago, your home might be in a village where the chief's house towered above yours atop a mound.
As she learns Alabama history, fourth-grade student Ali Callahan imagines herself in the state's past. She's homeschooled, and so it's not hard for her to envision a non-traditional education. The recent Native American Festival at Moundville Archeological Park included artisans, demonstrations and vendors a plenty, which offered Ali and hundreds of other school children a chance to learn outside of a classroom setting.
These sorts of hands-on learning opportunities made for a special experience at Moundville, but there's plenty to take in regardless of when you visit. The site, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1965, includes a series of dioramas and a museum that depict Mississippian culture.
The tribes who lived here are labeled "Mississippian" because the first artifacts from this culture were discovered in the Mississippi River Valley. An amateur archeologist found Moundville in 1905, and the former village is now a University of Alabama archeological site.
The Mississippian tribes shared a number of symbols and other cultural characteristics. Moundville is an example; its residents lived atop and between mounds, and a fortified wall surrounded the village, which is tucked into a crook of the Black Warrior River. The Jones Archeological Museum, which was renovated and reopened in 2014, depicts how these people lived from 900 to 1600 A.D.
"I totally want to go in this. I love museums," Ali's 5-year-old brother Noah shouted as the Callahans approached the threshold.
The first display shows a young elite woman carried by four warriors and surrounded by wedding gifts: animal hides, maize, squash and pottery among them.
"She didn't even have to register," mom Rachel said.
Read Rachel's perspective on this and other Native American trips on her blog, Grasping for Objectivity. I'll write about those subsequent trips in coming weeks.
As Ali explored the museum and took in its informational movie, she questioned her mom about differences between Native American culture and her own. Legends help people connect their stories to the past. Attire is influenced by both necessity and cultural norms. When she examined a diorama about burials, Ali learned some people were buried with food for the journey to the afterlife.
"It's pretty cool how they had their whole culture and they could make everything," Rachel said as they examined a diorama that depicts how the area's tribes lived. "Now we go to the store."
"I bet school was learning how to make baskets," Ali said.
Visiting during the annual Native American Festival offered Ali and Noah opportunity to see people share their heritage. Artisans displayed and demonstrated their traditional crafts, including basketmaking (Ali was onto something!), dressmaking and more.
Cat Sloan, whose heritage is Cherokee, demonstrated a number of spinning and weaving methods. In the early 1800s, the government gave Cherokee women spinning wheels and looms as part of a civilization experiment, Sloan explained. The Cherokees had long used other methods, and so it didn't take them long to figure out this new equipment. The women earned two or three more times the money they had previously, which led to a shift in their culture. Because the textile trade was so profitable, women left farming to the men. As a result, the government took over the Cherokee hunting land, she said.
Billy Whitefox of Panama City, Florida, performed "Amazing Grace" at the festival's stage. He said his great-grandmother would sing it in Muskogee while others in her church would sing along, presumably in English. By joining a church, his great granny could be sure no one could move her.
"What does it mean that the government couldn't move you?" Ali asked. Rachel reminded her daughter of their lesson at home the previous day. That sort of government takeover is a recurring theme in the Alabama territory and the state's early days.
After they explored all they could find, the Callahan kids purchased souvenirs to take their lessons home. Noah directed us to a weapons range he spotted from atop the site's highest mound. As he learned how to shoot his newly purchased bow and arrow, Ali sat by the festival's ancient weapons booth and practiced playing her cane flute. After he told Ali about the flute's role in society--courting rituals--Bill Skinner, of Thomaston, invited her to try some of the weapons he had on display. The pair walked to the range, where Skinner taught Ali how to use an ancient device to throw seven-foot-long darts.
"I think you're nearly ready to kill a wooly mammoth for dinner," Rachel said as her daughter launched the weapon toward the the target.
The secret to throwing darts nearly twice her size? The atlatl, a wooden device that functions like a lever. Ali knew exactly what she was looking at, which took Rachel by surprise. But Ali read about it when she visited Russell Cave on an earlier Alabama history field trip.
As Ali makes connections across her trips and reading, she demonstrates what may become a life-long love of learning. After all, education never ends.
IF YOU GO
Moundville Archeological Park
634 Mound State Parkway, Moundville, AL 35474
205-371-8732
Hours: Grounds 9 a.m.-dusk daily; museum 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Daily; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day and Easter
Admission: $8 adults, $7 seniors, $6 students and children, 5 and younger free; guided tours available for a small fee with advance notice and reservations.
Learn Alabama history with these 64 children's books
RELATED READING
"Alabama" by Barbara A Somervill introduces young readers to the state's history, geography, notable people and more.
"A Day in the Life of Alabama Vol. 1: Life on the Frontier" by Clarke Stallworth is a collection of the late Birmingham News journalist's stories about Alabama history.
"100 Things You Need to Know About Alabama" by Horace Randall Williams introduces a number of topics Ali is learning during her year of Alabama history. The new book reaches from prehistoric times to modern days in anticipation of the state's bicentennial in 2019.
"Tuskalusa: The Black Warrior" by Tom Bailey will teach young readers about the namesake of Tuscaloosa and the Black Warrior River. Tuskalusa was a Mississippian chief in what is now Alabama.
Updated at 10:54 p.m. Nov. 18 to add a map of Moundville.