<p>Abstract: The early eleventh and twelfth centuries AD mark a period in the midcontinent where Middle Mississippian technological innovations, ideational systems, and new subsistence strategies were transported by migrant populations from the greater Cahokia region, near modern St. Louis, MO, across the Eastern Woodlands. Among the first hinterland regions to negotiate Cahokia’s rapid florescence were the western Great Lakes. In this chapter we provide a comparative review of the regional chronology, material culture indicators, and environmental data for three site-centered locales (Aztalan, Fred Edwards and Trempealeau/Fisher Mounds) harboring Middle Mississippian components in southern Wisconsin and the Upper Mississippi River Valley. We contextualize the archaeological record within fluctuating climatic regimes at the time in order to review such shifts as potential catalysts for the push and pull on migrant communities. Data from the three locales discussed suggests that the particular mix of these factors and the degree to which one or more are paramount varies on a case-by-case basis. These factors reveal a differential negotiation of Middle Mississippian influences into the western Great Lakes.</p>
