That matters because the Spanish were not entering a primitive wilderness.

They were entering a mature Indigenous landscape whose complexity was simply unfamiliar to European observers.

THE MISSISSIPPIAN LEGACY

Many of the Native societies encountered by de Soto belonged to cultural traditions that archaeologists connect to the broader Mississippian world.

The term does not describe one tribe or one nation.

It describes a wide cultural pattern that included large settlements, intensive agriculture, earthen mounds, ceremonial plazas, craft production, and hierarchical political organization.

The exact form differed from place to place.