Introduction Mississippian Period • Telephone to the Great Spirit • Mississippian triangulars • Cahokia The Woodland Period • Late to middle Woodland • Late to middle Woodland ceramics Archaic Period • Nebo Hill - Our areas indiginous culture The Mercer Site • A multli-occupational site and map. Remnants • Fishing River's disappearing past Contact Me Home Introduction ... Mans prescence along the Fishing River stretches much further than its documented past. In the following pages you will see some evidence of this areas prehistoric occupation for the last 7,000 years. Fishing River divides Clay and Ray counties in northwest Missouri. It was covered with small villages and encampments of the ancient american people. They hunted the whitetail deer, turkey, and many other species that are still here today. The plush flora added a multitude of foods. This stable environment had been home to man since at least 5,000 BC. By the time the settlers arrived the populations were low . This had already been the case for nearly 500 years. Many incorrect assumptions were made about the evidence of earlier peoples as farming began and pieces of the past were brought to the surface. Burial mounds were quickly plowed down and those remaining in higher places were looted and destroyed. Within a few generations the visable remains of the native americans prescence had been ransacked and obscured. In spite of the ignorance that led to this some very good research has been accomplished in classifying the cultures that existed in Missouri. This site will provide you with a glimpse of them as they were represented along the Fishing River. Each of the major periods has its own section listed in the task bar to your left. For the convenience of the reader and to allow you to absorb as much or as little as you like, the first page of information will be brief . Additional information can be found on subsequent pages in each section. We will begin just before the historic period (1500 AD) and proceed through each time period to the earliest dates.