On July 26, the United Nations acknowledged a place in northeastern Louisiana as a World Heritage Site. It is also a Louisiana State Park and a National Monument. Poverty Point has come to the center stage of historical importance.

Long before Columbus arrived in the New World – or even before the Vikings set foot in North America – there was civilization on this continent, and some of it was found in North Louisiana. For those of us who grew up with Western movies, it’s important to remember not all native American culture was headquartered in the West. It was found throughout the continent, some of it in the Red River region. Near the Northeast Louisiana town of Epps, a short distance from Monroe, is a prehistoric Indian site of international significance. Still steeped in mystery and grand in scale, it is the home of the Poverty Point people. Winston Churchill once referred to the Soviets as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” The Poverty Point people are this type of mystery.

In the deep delta of North Louisiana in flat land on Bayou Macon lies an ancient complex with ceremonial mounds and concentric octagonal rings of piled earth. The origin of the Poverty Point people is still debated. No one is certain who they were, where they came from, what happened to them or where they went. These Indians simply left the area, leaving no evidence of why they departed. The Poverty Point site shows no hint of destruction from war, no mass burials due to disease and no massive monuments. The site shows nothing of a cataclysmic flood or any other tremendous natural disaster. 

After well over a millennium of occupation, the site seems simply to have been abandoned, leaving scholars to debate why.

We know these Native Americans were an advanced people who established trade with others throughout the central part of North America. Their trading goods – now artifacts – are found in numerous locations outside North Louisiana. Thanks to these artifacts, we know they were active over thousands of miles of rivers and had a very healthy, robust economy. Keep in mind this is the same time when warriors of Britain were still painting themselves blue and either running from or chasing Romans. We know so little, and that is why we have so many questions. Why would a civilization this advanced choose Northeast Louisiana as a hub? 

Why after hundreds of years of occupation and development of a successful and vast economy would they simply choose to leave? We may never know for sure. 

One intriguing theory is that the Poverty Point culture was closely linked to Meso-America. Perhaps they were Toltecs from the same area as the Aztecs and the Mayas. The Toltecs, traders over vast areas, were usurped by the Aztecs, so it is possible that there was really no reason for their far-flung commercial ventures to exist. If the Poverty Point people were part of that trading empire, its reason for existing ended when the Aztecs gained dominance. Perhaps those Meso-Americans simply decided to return home. 

It’s interesting to note there are many other sites we know are related to these same people, often referred to as Mississippian Mound Builders. Other of their grand constructions can be found in our region as well in places like Marksville and Natchez, Miss. 

In Arkansas, similar mounds lie between Little Rock and Memphis near the Mississippi River, near West Memphis, Ark. If you want to see how an ancient civilization lived and thrived, Poverty Point is a wonderful place to begin your journey.