The Winterville Mounds Association (WMA) is having its fourth annual meeting at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Winterville Mounds Museum.
Principal Chief Hutke Fields of the Notchie (Natchez) Nation will be the featured speaker.
Native American foods will be served, and annual dues and donations will be collected at the meeting.
The public is invited and encouraged to attend the meeting, especially members and nonmembers who would be interested in joining as association members and volunteering at the mounds.
Association president Lynn Cox and vice president Paul Hamel have both been invested and instrumental in the advancement of the mounds. Hamel will assume the role of WMA president at Sunday’s annual meeting.
“Paul and I met up about four years ago and we said ‘Let’s start an association’ because we wanted the community to know more about it and we’ve just helped to make a lot of improvements out here,” Cox said. “Every time you come out here you learn something new and we just want everybody else to know it too.”
The Winterville Mounds Association’s mission is to promote, develop and advance the Winterville Mounds, located in Washington County and any museums or other facilities operated by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in connection or conjunction therewith.
Upcoming events
For several years, the Winterville Mounds has hosted a series of events during the fall season for people of all ages to enjoy and learn from.
One popular event in particular is Native American Days, which this year will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Oct. 9 to 11. An event designed especially for school groups, visitors are welcome and volunteers are always needed.
“It’s just a really good, fun day and it shows the children that this really was a city,” Cox said.
On Oct. 10, Night at the Mounds is another festive event that’s set to start at 6 p.m. in the Mounds Park Area, where the Muscogree Creek Nation will tell stories and dance around the great fire.
Cox has lived in Greenville since 1974 and Hamel has lived in Washington County since 1993, they both share a deep appreciation for the history of Winterville Mounds and its historical and cultural contribution to Mississippi.
Cox said her connection to the mounds was made by way of her being a member of the Greenville Garden Club.
“In 1939, the Garden Club actually led a campaign and bought this property because it was being destroyed by farming and the highway,” she explained. “People didn’t really appreciate its value, but the garden club ladies did. So when I got in the Garden Club in the year 2000, I was put on this committee and I’ve been volunteering out here for 20 years almost.”
For additional information about Sunday’s event, call Cox at 662-390-3974.
The visitors center is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. The grounds of the site are open to the public daily from dawn until dusk. Admission is free.
About Winterville Mounds
Winterville Mounds is a 42-acre site near Greenville, featuring 12 prehistoric Native American mounds, two large plazas, and a museum. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History today operates the site.
Named for a nearby community, Winterville Mounds is the site of a prehistoric ceremonial center built by a Native American civilization that thrived from about A.D. 1000 to 1450. The people responsible for these great earthworks were the ancestors of the Chickasaws, Choctaws and other American Indian tribes we know today.
Most members of the society lived away from the mound center on family farms throughout the Yazoo-Mississippi River Delta basin. Only a few of the highest-ranking tribal officials lived at the mound center, which was the site of sacred structures and ceremonies.
In 1939, the Greenville Garden Club led a community effort to purchase the site and convey the property to the City of Greenville. Supported by the Winterville Mounds Association, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (formerly the Mississippi Park Commission) operated Winterville as a state park from 1960 until 2000, when the property was conveyed to MDAH. In 1993, Winterville Mounds was designated a National Historic Landmark.
For more information, call 662-334-4684 or email info@wintervillemounds.com..
