Centuries ago, in springtime at Pocahontas, an Indian village stood among clay-walled houses, nearby cornfields, newly sprouted sunflowers, open grassland bright with flowers, oak and hickory groves, and shallow clear creeks that provided fish, turtles, and mussels, while acorns and hickory nuts promised food for winter. Archaeologists recover plant and animal remains left by prehistoric peoples and compare them to modern species, revealing that stream margins here were once forested with oaks, chestnuts, and other hardwoods and that the western fanshell freshwater mussel once lived in streams in the Mississippi Delta and the Jackson Prairie, not only in the Ouachita and Ozark uplands of Arkansas and adjacent states. Its disappearance from these streams early in historic times was probably caused by modern agricultural practices that eroded soil into nearby waters. The remains left behind at Pocahontas reveal both the daily lives of prehistoric American Indians and the local environment before modern impacts, offering knowledge that can help recreate a sustainable balance between humans and nature.