Mound Builder

1. Any of various distinct Native American cultures flourishing from around the 5th century bc to the 16th century ad especially in the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys, practicing settled agriculture and known for their often large burial, temple, or effigy mounds.

2. A member of a people associated with any of these cultures.

mound builder

See megapode.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Mound Builder

1. (Archaeology) a member of a group of prehistoric inhabitants of the Mississippi region who built altar-mounds, tumuli, etc

2. (Peoples) a member of a group of prehistoric inhabitants of the Mississippi region who built altar-mounds, tumuli, etc

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	Mound Builder - prehistoric Amerindians who built altar mounds primitive, primitive person - a person who belongs to an early stage of civilization
	2.	mound builder - large-footed short-winged birds of Australasia; build mounds of decaying vegetation to incubate eggs megapode, mound bird, mound-bird, scrub fowl gallinacean, gallinaceous bird - heavy-bodied largely ground-feeding domestic or game birds family Megapodiidae, Megapodiidae - megapodes leipoa, Leipoa ocellata, lowan, mallee fowl - Australian mound bird; incubates eggs naturally in sandy mounds Alectura lathami, brush turkey - black megapode of wooded regions of Australia and New Guinea Macrocephalon maleo, maleo - Celebes megapode that lays eggs in holes in sandy beaches

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References in periodicals archive

With territorial dispossession of Indian lands a priority, people did not want to believe that contemporary Native Americans had a capacity for great works, because it was a lot easier to take land from "savages who could never use it 'properly' than from people who were capable of the level of culture implied by the great mounds and earthworks." (26) A myth that began developing in the waning years of the eighteenth century suggested in fact that these mounds were actually constructed by a white race destroyed by the modern Indians, the "Mound Builder" race, a myth that would greatly amplify such land grab justifications.

"The question which has puzzled, and still puzzles": how American Indian authors challenged dominant discourse about Native American origins in the nineteenth century

They discuss who built the mounds; their excavation, chronology, and research on their meanings; Wisconsin before the mound builders; early burial mound builders in the Woodland period and middle and late Woodland stages; the effigy mound ceremonial complex; platform mound builders of the Mississippian culture; burial mound construction and use in later times by the Oneota and others; and Indian mounds in the modern world, including legislation to preserve them, Native and scientific perspectives on them, and their legacy.

Indian Mounds of Wisconsin, 2nd Edition

Beginning 7,500 years ago with the mound builders and ending with New Orleans's continuing efforts to recover from Hurricane Katrina, Morris presents a sweeping interpretation of the lower valley's transformation from mainly wet to mainly dry.

The Big Muddy: An Environmental History of the Mississippi and Its Peoples from Hernando De Soto to Hurricane Katrina

A 22-foot high, 3D projection of the reconstructed Emeryville Shellmound- an original burial ground of the native Muwekema Ohlone Tribe- and artifacts recovered from the mound, interpreted by living descendants of the mound builders.

Oakland Museum opens major exhibition on life around San Francisco Bay

LeAnne Howe sang a warrior's song and pointed out that Choctaws were mound builders in the not too distant past.

Bundling the day and unraveling the night

The sight of this mammoth pile of earth, accommodating two smaller mounds, was constructed by people whom archeologists can only label as "mound builders," and this sight never fails to awe.

Iconic Mississippi: Mississippi is home to a bounty of historical sights, but five landmarks reign supreme

Mound builders and monument makers of the northern Great Lakes, 1200-1600.

Mound builders and monument makers of the northern Great Lakes, 1200-1600

The superb title poem, which concludes the volume, combines a visit to a Native American ceremony observed from a nearby hill (a scenario well described in an essay from Magpie Rising) with reminiscences of a past lover, mysterious visitations of maidens bearing honey and cream, fireflies, mound builders, and tanager tongues.

Merrill Gilfillan

filled with detailed drawings and illustrations partially supplemented or completed by Aubrey Wells after the death of the original author/illustrator, "The Story of the American Indian" presents background information on Mayans, Pueblos and cliff-dwellers, Mound Builders, Iroquois, Lakota and other Plains Indian nations, Cherokee, Paiute and other Seed-Gatherers, Northwest Fishermen nations including Haida, Eskimos, Navajo, and other Indian American nations and tribes.

The Story of the American Indian

3-4 Descendants of the Mound Builders Native Gathering.

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