List of pre-Columbian cultures

In North America, indigenous cultures in the Lower Mississippi Valley during the Middle Archaic period built complexes of multiple mounds, with several in Louisiana dated to 5600–5000 BP (3700 BC–3100 BC).

[1] The Mississippi Valley mound-building tradition extended into the Late Archaic period, longer than what later southeastern mound building dependent on sedentary, agricultural societies.

(Russo, 1996:285)[1] Some of these civilizations had long ceased to function by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th – early 16th centuries), and are known only through archaeological investigations or oral history from nations today.

Only a few documents were hidden and thus remain today, leaving modern historians with glimpses of ancient culture and knowledge.

Where they persist, the societies and cultures which gave rise to these civilizations continue to adapt and evolve; they also uphold various traditions and practices which relate back to these earlier times, even if combined with those more recently adopted.