The Mississippian culture flourished in eastern North America during the 12th century, with major centers like Cahokia supporting complex societies with elaborate ceremonial practices. Though lacking writing systems, these cultures maintained rich oral traditions including creation myths, heroic narratives, and ritual poetry performed in ceremonial contexts.

Mississippian oral traditions, though not recorded until much later by European observers, likely influenced southeastern Native American literary cultures that preserved creation stories and heroic cycles. The culture's mound-building ceremonies probably involved ritual chanting and poetic invocation, integrating literary performance with religious practice. Archaeological evidence of ceremonial objects suggests sophisticated symbolic systems that would have been explained and transmitted through oral narrative and poetry.