In a moving foreword to Jay Miller’s book Ancestral Voices, the late Alfred Berryhill, past second chief of the Creek Nation, writes about the Creeks’ ongoing tradition of mound building. He shares his hope that all Creeks might someday “come together to build a modern great mound,” which would express “shared effort, community wellness, and beloved heritage” (ix). For Miller, this is proof that “glimpses of their Mississippian past survive among modern Creeks, despite their great traumas and dislocations” (115), and this is a principal theme of Ancestral Voices.
Miller outlines his argument in the preface, providing a refrain repeated throughout the book: “In all, mounds mimic the Earth, as a microcosm built and maintained by human hands, tools, sweat, and prayers, paced by rituals, songs, and dances. Built of earth, strengthened with internal architectural ingenuity, and ritually consecrated by men and women who are atoning, praying, singing,...
