During the 1980s American scholars suddenly became interested in Spain’s efforts to colonize the North America. For 200 years American history books had generally ignored the Spanish and French presence in North America prior to the English colonies winning their independence. Generations of students here were under the impression that no white man had set foot on the continent until brave Englishmen founded a short-lived colony on Roanoke Island, NC in 1585. Well, while all the history books were being printed in Boston, probably most students had the impression that the first colony was founded by the Pilgrims in 1621 on Massachusetts Bay! The earlier colonies at Roanoke Island and Jamestown, VA were painted as a typically inept effort by lazy Southern aristocrats, who would later start a Civil War.
First, the victorious British, and then, the propagandists of the new American republic wanted erase all memories of non-English speaking peoples ever having a legitimate claim to the lands they conquered. The Natives, of course, were barbaric savages thinly scattered across the landscape, who selfishly wanted to keep their lands for themselves. The Spanish and French were painted as lazy aristocrats, who briefly passed through the countryside, treated the Indians with extreme cruelty, and then were too incompetent to found permanent settlements.
The facts were something very different. The first attempt to found a colony in North America was by the Spanish at Sapelo Island, GA in 1526. By the end of that century, there were twice as many Spanish missions and mission Indians on the 90 mile long coast of Georgia, as there ever were on the 800 mile coastline of California. The Spanish established gold mining colonies in the Georgia Mountains 200 years before the nation’s first gold rush in that region. The French had established many towns and forts in the Gulf Coast region and Mississippi River Basin. In general, the French treated Native Americans with far more respect than did the other two colonial powers.
In 2003 archaeologists from Appalachian State University excavated the Biltmore Mound site. It wasn’t much . . . an 18 inches high – 50 feet diameter bump in the hayfields of the Biltmore Estate. The professor-student team was initially excited about finding architectural proof of the Cherokee’s ancient civilization. What the found instead was that the mound was not even a mound. It was the ruins of a building. The organic residue from the structure was analyzed by equipment that measures the deterioration of Carbon 14 radioisotope absorbed by formerly living matter.
A large round structure had first been built there around 200 AD. Approximately every 50 years until around 450 AD. Each time the structure was rebuilt, a brightly colored clay cap was applied to the remains of the previous structure. After five reconstructions the combined clay caps probably reached the grand height of three feet. Artifacts found in and around the round structure were typical of those produced in the Middle Woodland Period (0-600 AD.) Some were similar to those found at Hopewell Culture sites in Ohio. (See articles on the Hopewell Ceremonial Complexes and the Seip Ceremonial Earthworks.) There was nothing unearthed, such as skeletons, which could possibly ascribe any ethnic identity to the builders of this round structure.
More at
http://www.examiner.com/x-40598-Architecture--Design-Examiner~y2010m3d15-Americas-architectural-heritage-the-Biltmore-Mound-Asheville-North-Carolina
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