DeSoto's Midwestern Trail
by Donald E. SheppardThe late Dr. Glenn A. Black, a famous Indiana archaeologist, speculated in Angel Site: An Archaeological, Historical and Ethnological Study that Hernando de Soto's people described Angel Mounds Site perfectly. He wrote (on page 549, volume 2), "It would appear on the basis of archaeological evidence that this site could well have been the "principal town" of almost any one of the "provinces" through which De Soto passed." Dr. Black preceded that statement with 50 pages of comparisons of artifacts found at Angel Mounds with artifacts AND topography described by De Soto's people at Aquixo (Angle Mounds), Pacaha (Terre Haute), and Casqui (Vincennes), all in Indiana.
Unfortunately, Indiana has been deprived of knowledge of its "Contact Period" native culture by the dated argument that DeSoto's people traveled only through the Southeastern United States. Historians, for the most part, have surrendered to them, but anyone reading the DeSoto Chronicles today, with knowledge of America's topography, would conclude that all of them, save Dr. Black, missed the mark completely with DeSoto.