Emerald Mound is an impressive ceremonial center that scholar James Barnett Jr. called the region's "crowning mound-building achievement" of the Mississippian era, 1,150 to 300 years ago, and its scale reflects the work of a complex society able to sustain a massive multigenerational building project. It is not only a remnant of the past, however, because the Natchez people, along with others such as the Choctaw and Chickasaw, still gather at this sacred site in the footsteps of their ancestors and, in a spirit of fellowship, welcome respectful visitors.