Donald R. Johnson Scenes From Spiro Life

Shortly before the Arkansas River leaves Le Flore County, Oklahoma, bound for the Mississippi, it meanders through a fertile valley wedged between the Ouachita Mountains to the south and the Ozark foothills to the north. Arkansas’ forests give way to Oklahoma’s tall grass prairies here, and a profusion of plant and animal life results from the meeting. Hundreds of years ago, these abundant natural resources attracted Native Americans to an area of uplands and terraces near a gentle r1ver bend. Now known as the Spiro Mounds site, it 1S one of the most important archeological discoveries 1n North America.