🇺🇸 WEEKLY AMERICAN HERITAGE: Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park

(Explore the history and landscape of the United States as we approach the 250th anniversary of American Independence. Get out your atlas and almanac and follow along!)

Georgia is our homeschool state-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today with your students learning about one of Georgia’s most important historical places: Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park, which preserves and interprets the ancient earthworks of the southeastern American Indians.

“Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park has more than 12,000 years of continuous human habitation. Four prehistoric cultures occupied this land for thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers. Ocmulgee is the ancestral homeland of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation who now reside in Oklahoma.”

Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park has an astonishing depth to its history. The land here has been occupied for more than 12,000 years by various cultures. The first people to this area where the Paleo Indians, who were nomads passing through the Macon Plateau as they hunted Ice Age megafauna. As the Ice Age receded and warmer climates penetrated the southeastern portion of North America, Archaic Indians began to utilize the Macon Plateau; hunting deer and fish and gathering nuts, berries, and roots. The Woodland Indians were the first to build semi-permanent villages in this area and grow sunflower seeds.

After 900 CE a new culture arrived: the Mississippians. They were the ones that built the mounds that visitors can still experience to this day. The large village occupying this site eventually waned and the Lamar culture, 2½ miles south, began. The Lamar culture thrived here until Hernando de Soto and other European explorers arrived around 1600. This exposure to foreigners left a legacy of depopulation among native inhabitants. The survivors and their descendants banded together to form groups that historically were known to the early English settlers as the Ochese Creeks and today are known as the Muscogee. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation of today call this land their ancestral homeland. (nps.gov)

You can find a wealth of additional information about the Park’s history, landscape, location(s), and visitor facilities on the webpage for Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park from the National Park Service, and also on the Park’s page on Wikipedia.

Explore America’s National Parks, National Historical Parks, National Historic Sites, National Monuments, and more via Wikipedia and via the U.S. National Park Service’s website today.

What American treasures will you and your students be exploring in your homeschool this Cygnus Term? 🇺🇸

❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool Geography posts featuring important natural and historical sites in the United States. Print your own copy of our River Houses American Heritage Calendar and follow along with us, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌎

❡ We set to-day a votive stone: If you want a great long-term history and geography project for your homeschool, explore the Historical Marker Database online (hmdb.org) and make a plan to find all the markers that are listed in your local area. Add any new ones you know of that are missing, and add new photos or descriptions for the ones already included. Your students will gain a better appreciation for your local community and will learn a wealth of new information about history and geography. 🏛️

❡ Print this little lesson: Down at the bottom of this post you’ll find a special “Print” button that will let you create a neat and easy-to-read copy of this little lesson, and it will even let you edit and delete sections you don’t want or need (such as individual images or footnotes). Give it a try today! 🖨️

❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses atlas and almanac for more information about any of our homeschool states-of-the-week. The almanac has detailed profiles of all the U.S. states and territories, and the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found. 📚

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓️

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