During the years 1987-1989 I was a member of the Arkansas
Archaeological Society. One of the branches of Native Americans that
I learned about was the Plum Bayou culture. This name is used as a
matter of convenience, since we do not know what those people called
themselves. They had an advanced culture in east-central Arkansas
that flourished from 700-950 A.D. The main site of them is at a park
called Toltec Mounds. It is about 18 miles souteast of North Little
Rock.
The name Toltec Mounds is actually a misnomer. It got that name
because Gilber Knapp, who owned the land from 1857-1900, thought that
the people who built those mounds were a branch of the Toltecs.
However, in 1883, research by the Smithsonian Institution proved that
the builders of the mounds were not Toltecs, but a separate tribe of
North Americans.
The site has 18 mounds which are surrounded by an earthen
embankment on three sides. The fourth side borders an oxbow-shaped
lake. The Plum Bayou people made a large amount of pottery. Most of
it was undecorated, but some was painted red, both inside and out.
Arrowheads were made of chert and novaculite (a type of stone similar
to flint).
The Plum Bayou people had a permanent settlement and practiced
systematic agriculture. They raised corn, squash, beans, and barley.
The construction of those mounds and the embankment is a marvelous
feat of engineering.
When the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto came through the area in
1541, he found the area deserted. Where the Plum Bayou people went is
still a mystery.

Neal Robbins