Effigy Mounds Could be a Link to the Afterlife

The effigy mounds found in and around Wisconsin were seen by the Native Americans that built them to be the system of symbols in a religion. The mounds brought together many different people through the burials that took place in them. The Native Americans built the mounds in shapes that reflected the different levels of Earth. This is highly symbolic and could be contributed to an idea of religion. The fact that some of the Lower Earth mounds were first carved a few feet into the ground is an interesting fact to me.

The few feet dug first into the earth makes me believe the Native Americans had a belief in an underworld. They may have believed that being buried in a mound helped the soul to move into the afterlife. If the Native Americans did indeed believe this, it would have been a unifying force among the people of the tribe. They would have been drawn together due to their common belief. The mounds took on the task of being a symbol of the afterlife that could be seen regularly. They were reminders of what would become of your soul once you died.

The shape of the mounds could also be a symbol of a religion. The animal shapes of effigy mounds serve as a great connection to nature. Using the soil to build the mounds into shapes of creatures found in nature could be seen as a spiritual ritual. Building the mounds could have been the important piece to the “religion” of the Native Americans.