The frog - a diver to the lower world.

While the frequency of these wetland species in Mississippian art may reflect the importance of the animals for some material purpose, their occurrence may also reflect the importance Mississippians placed on the wetland and aquatic environments as a whole. This is particularly significant when one considers that (if other historic Native American myths, icons, symbols are any indication) the Mississippian worldview includes an often water-covered lower world. It is noteworthy that frogs, turtles, snakes, and waterfowl can dive into the water perhaps entering this lower world. It seems possible then, that in these turtle, frog, and serpent icons are expressed both the economic importance of the wetlands and aquatic habitats as well as their religious significance as animal representatives of the physical world with direct connections to the supernatural, lower world (SCTY).

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