OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Rick West, R-Heavener, met recently with the executive director of the Oklahoma Historical Society, Trait Thompson, and several from his team at the Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center near Spiro, to discuss the center’s needs.
“This is the crown jewel of our area,” West said, “And the history at this site needs to be preserved. This is not just about bringing tourism to our area but about teaching people about the first people known to inhabit this area of our state.”
The Spiro Mounds Archaeological Center preserves about 150 acres along the Arkansas Rivers, offering interpretive exhibits and trails and a slide show detailing the area’s early inhabitants and history. An archaeologist is on staff to answer questions and lead tours. Schools and other groups as well as just interested individuals can tour the site on their own or can schedule tours.
West said funding for repairs to the center is needed.
The mounds site, which is seven miles northeast of Spiro, is the only prehistoric American Indian archaeological site in Oklahoma open to the public. The mounds are said to be one of the most important American Indian sites in the nation.
According to information on the archaeological center’s website, the prehistoric Spiro people created a sophisticated culture that influenced the entire Southeast. Artifacts indicate an extensive trade network, a highly developed religious center and a political system that controlled the entire region.
The Spiro Mounds site contains 12 mounds, a village area and part of an early city, with some artifacts dating back 8,000 years. From AD 800 to 1450, the Spiro leaders developed political, religious and economic ties with people from the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Mexico and from the coast of Virginia to the Great Lakes. They shared horticulture, elaborate ceremonies, mound building and an iconographic writing system with more than 60 different tribes. People at the Spiro Mounds are believed to have been Caddoan speakers like the modern Wichita, Caddo, Pawnee and Arikara.
Looting of the site led to new laws, making Oklahoma one of the first states to preserve and scientifically research archeological sites, according to the website. The current center opened to the public in May 1978 and is owned and operated by the Oklahoma Historical Society.
- Rick West represents District 3 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives. His district includes part of LeFlore County.
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