Moundbuilder

Member of any of the various American Indian peoples of the Midwest and the South who built earth mounds, from about 1000 BC to AD 1560. They include the Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian, and Natchez. Moundbuilder culture began in northeast Louisiana and spread inland along the Mississippi–Missouri–Ohio river system. Some mounds were linear effigy forms, such as the Great Serpent Mound in Ohio, with flat-topped pyramids and cones for the platforms of chiefs' houses and temples.

The Moundbuilders carried out group labour projects under the rule of an elite. The largest site was Monk's Mound at Cahokia, Illinois, built from about AD 950 and reconstructed on a number of occasions over the following 300 years. The four-terraced mound, with a ramp leading to the first level, rises to 30 m/100 ft and covers an area of 5.6 ha/14 acres, making it the largest artificial mound in North America. The Moundbuilders were in decline by the time the Spanish arrived in the 17th century, but traces of their culture live on in the folklore of the Choctaw and Cherokee.