TENNESSEE HISTORY

1,200 years ago

Made by an artistic American Indian native woman of the Mississippian Mound builders of Tennessee .

This clay pipe is from the same settlement site near Lebanon Tennessee that the famous large sand stone statue" Sandy ," the official State OfTennesse Artifact, is from . A branch of my family owned the land there along time ago and it came down from them to me . It's well documented and lots of people for a long time have seen it .

The Eastern Woodland culture and the Mississippian culture over lapped and began about 300ad which is about the time Constantine the Roman Emperor founded Christianity and 800ad to 1400ad before fading into oblivion shortly !!! BEFORE !!!!!!!! Columbus discovered the Western Hemisphere . By that time many American Native tribes were extinct or in serious decline BEFORE Columbus stepped foot in the new world . The real story of Columbus is histerical . I'll write about it if you want ...

That is what happens when a population can't sustain itself ...

But out west The Dakota Sioux were healthy and strong .

So about 12oo years ago our fellow American used a hand full sized ball of her Tennessee claysoil and her tool kit of wooden and stone tools to create this cute singing woman with a basket and baby pipe .

This settlement is where the Sandy Sculpture was made and she may have seen it with her own eyes . It depends if she was born before or after the statue . If she was born after the statue was made , she saw it ... If she was born before it she couldn't have seen it....The pipe shows skill and experience by the way she pinched the damp clay to make the face and nose , creating a worthy face that looks Indian .

She put a baby bundle on her back and where the baby's face would be is the tokeing hole . In her lap is a large basket and it serves as the pipes bowl . The photo shows it in the area near where it came from and the maker and model ( her mom ? friend ? )would recognize this spot .

Her village has a small

Ceremonial Mound on the edge of the village's north side . Cornfield and garden patches dotted the best open areas . The main part is a horseshoe shaped pasture rimmed with a creek , like a moat . The enire area was small and cozy with a few houses made from Cedar sticks and mud , and the creek babbled loudly as it went along it's way . Cedar wood lasts decades even when damp , just add new mud and smooth it out from time to time . In the house's floors they would bury their foodgrain and seedgrain in pots , to make sure it was safe . They farmed and next year's seed was the most valuable thing in the village and they would have fought and died for it .The ground inside the horshoe had a few houses and a few more were scattered around it . At night just like now , besides the water murmuring she would hear the coyote packs on the other side of the small creek and just past it over a small bluff . Whippoorwills frogs and crickets were common and would all chime in and sing to their lovers till late into the night . Cedar , hickory and many other types of trees surrounded this area of extremely diversity that even today has many rare types , like wild leopard lillys , blue colored purple passion flower vines , and too many others to name .

The State has Sandy the statue

now but Locals and relatives say what happened was a college archeology teacher got permission to check out the Mound as a courtesy from the owner and the teacher snuck a backhoe in and ripped the Mound open from top to bottom and dragged the content out ... when they saw the statue they loaded up and left quickly taking it to Nashville before anyone knew what they had done . Everyone locally knew it was a Mound and that it had artifacts in it but they had always left it alone .

Its a park now you can visit and see where this woman most likely had a peaceful and fulfilling life in paradise.