Mississippian Culture Trades Routes by Cecil Abbott

Over the past twenty years, I have been avidly involved in the study of Cherokee stories, culture practices and Spiritual ceremonies. This does not mean I am an expert on Cherokee History.

In 1986, I took my first of several. trips to Mexico to study the Archaeological sites in Mesoamerica. During these trips I noticed many similarities to Cherokee symbols and culture. I had not yet made the trade route connection between the Toltec of southern Mexico and the Mississippian mound builder culture of Georgia.

Then, in 1995, while on vacation in the smoky mountains, I made a monumental discovery. On. the map in northern Georgia was a place called the Etowah Mounds. The word Etowah is a Cherokee word meaning high towers, which refers to the Smoky Mountains.

I spent a whole day at the Etowah Mounds site going through the museum. The Etowah Mounds date from 950 AD to 1500 AD. I found many artifacts in the Etowah museum that were either identical or very similar to ancient Cherokee and Toltec artifacts. Several of these artifacts were made of malleable copper, which is only found in the Great Lakes area located at the northern reaches of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Other artifacts were made of Catlinite (red pipestone), which only comes from Pipestone, Minnesota, located at the headwaters of the Mississippi River.

These malleable copper and catlinite artifacts are found both in the Toltec museums in Mexico and in ancient Cherokee museums here in the states. These artifacts prove there was a trade route that existed between the Great Lakes area and the Toltec cultural area of southern Mexico.

There is also the ancient Cherokee pendant made from a flat seashell which has the likeness of their spiritual leader inscribed on it. This same exact pendant is found in the Etowah Mounds Museum and in the Toltec Museum at Mexico City.

There are other similarities; such as the Toltec chac-mool found at Tula, Hidalgo and the Mayan chac-mool found at Chichen Itza, Yucatan. The chac-mool is an effigy of a man lying on his back with his stomach area dished out for use as a special altar for burnt offerings. Similar effigies were found in the Hope Well mounds of Ohio and among the Makaw tribe of Washington State.

Two years ago, there was a paleontologist report on public television that offered the results of a comparison between an ancient Cherokee scull and a Toltec scull. The report found the two sculls to be nearly identical. The report further stated that there was little or no comparison found between these two sculls and the Mayan or Aztec sculls. This tells me that the Toltec and Cherokee people are related; they come from the same ancestry.

Then there is the ancient Cherokee story about the Ulamac, which were the priestly families of the Niwas, who were also known as the Taltec-a. This remnant tribe came up out of Mexico and joined with the Cherokee around 1500 AD.

The archaeologists and anthropologists that work with the mound builder system state that there were thousands and thousands of these mound builders that simply disappeared around 1500 AD. The archaeologists and anthropologists that work with the ancient Cherokee culture state that all of a sudden, around 1500 AD, thousands and thousands of these Cherokee simply appeared. It is hard for me to understand how these two groups of highly intelligent experts can't seem to add 2 and 2 and come up with 4.

As a bit of confirming information, I would submit for your study the Book of Mormon reference, Alma 30:1-13. Thousands and thousands of the Nephites migrated northward. Alma 30:5 states there were 5,400 men plus their wives and children in just this one migration which could amount to as many as 20,000 or 25,000 people. We need to remember there were several of these migrations.

Then in Moroni 1: 14, Moroni states that the Lamanites were killing everyone who would not deny the Christ and that he (Moroni) fled for his life because he would not deny the Christ. If the Lamanites were killing everyone who would not deny the Christ, then it goes without saying that the Lamanites would not have allowed the stories about Christ to be retold.

As proof you will find that the tribes in Mexico do not retell the stories about the Christ, even though there is evidence in their past that indicate that the stories did exist. Yet, if you research the tribes in the United States, you will find that many of the tribes that came out of the Mississippian culture still to this day tell the stories of a divine visitor. A divine visitor that was born of a virgin mother and that was killed and hung on a tree. Other stories talk of two great eagles flying in the sky, one of which flew to earth and gave his life for the people.

How is it that Moroni wound up in New York in the same area of the Mohawk, who have the story about Deganawidah who was born of a virgin mother. I submit to you that Moroni fled from the Lamanites and fled to the Nephites who had migrated to the north.