The effigy mounds of the Upper Midwest and the Ohio Valley long have been regarded as distinct and independent cultural developments. A review of effigy mound iconography in both regions reveals similarities suggesting that they are elements of a shared cultural tradition. Comparisons with rock art imagery from the Upper Midwest and Missouri, the inferred centers of this artistic and ceremonial florescence, reveal co-occurrences of specific motifs and provide additional evidence of cultural connections among the Late Woodland to early Late Precontact societies inhabiting the lower Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio river valleys. Oral traditions of Native American groups with documented connections to these regions allow this rich corpus of imagery to be understood as key episodes in their genesis stories.

上中西部和俄亥俄河谷的雕像丘长期以来被认为是独特而独立的文化发展。对这两个地区的雕像丘肖像进行的审查显示，相似之处表明它们是共同的文化传统的要素。与来自中西部和密苏里州的岩石艺术意象进行比较，这是这种艺术和仪式性花期的推断中心，揭示了特定图案的共现，并提供了晚林地与居住在密苏里州下游的早先接触社会之间的文化联系的额外证据，密西西比州和俄亥俄州的河谷。与这些地区有据可查的联系的美国原住民群体的口头传统使这种丰富的图像集被理解为其起源故事中的关键事件。