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You are here: Home / History / When did the Mound Builders come into contact with European settlers?

When did the Mound Builders come into contact with European settlers?

March 10, 2020 by Karen Hill

The Mound Builders didn’t come into contact with European settlers.

By the eighteenth century, when whites began crossing the Appalachians into the Mississippians’ lands, their villages were gone. We can only guess at the Mound Builders’ fate.

Their great settlements may have been laid low by widespread disease or by other Native American invaders. Changes in climate may have caused droughts or flooding that destroyed their crops. Or maybe their villages were just too successful, with populations growing so large that they could not be sustained by the resources around them.

Their mounds, however, remained intact. White settlers were amazed by these great earthworks. Some, rightly, recognized that these monuments were made by earlier Native American peoples.

Certain whites wrongly assumed that the mounds were built by either Aztec Indians from present-day Mexico or by the lost tribes of Israel told of in the Bible.

These folks were so convinced of their superiority over the Native Americans around them that they could not believe their ancestors could have created these fantastic structures.

Related Facts

  • Who were the Mound Builders and Where did the Mound Builders come from?
  • How did the Mound Builders live and Who were the first and last Mound Builders in North America?
  • Who Were the Mound Builders Who Once Lived In the Ohio River Valley?
  • Why did the Mound Builders build mounds and what was the purpose of mounds built by the Mississippians?
  • What was the Great Serpent Mound and Where is the Great Serpent Mound located?
  • What Is the Mystery of the Great Serpent Mound In Hillsboro Ohio?

Filed Under: History

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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