Among the cotton fields of northeast Louisiana, a series of hills rise up from the flat landscape.  Some are small, others are large, and all are a part of a mystery which dates back thousands of years.

“This was the first stirrings of civilization probably in North America,” says David Griffing, the manager of Poverty Point State Park.

What remains of those settlements are ancient Indian mounds, the majority located in the northern half of the state.  One of the largest mounds is at Poverty Point, which has just been placed on a tentative United Nations list as a “world heritage site.”

“It's a big task to keep this site from melting away, from eroding away," said Griffing.

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The largest mound at Poverty Point rises 70 feet into the air and is shaped like a bird.  Archaeologists believe ancient Native Americans built the structure, back in 1500 B.C. by piling on basketfuls of dirt.

"So you can imagine the organization that was required to do it was just outstanding for its time,” said Griffing.

Besides that, not much else is known about these people, or why they built the mounds.  Archaeologists have discovered more than 11,000 spearheads, along with pottery and jewelry at the site, but no human remains.

"It's really a mystery,” said Griffing.  “We're seeing a people that came together, founded large populations and built these massive earthworks like the one we're standing on."

Griffing says most people in Louisiana have no idea the mounds even exist.  He says most of the visitors here come from out of state or out of the country.

On the day Eyewitness News cameras were there, a couple visiting from Australia stopped by.

Over the years, archaeologists have discovered more than 700 Indian mound sites here in Louisiana.  Some are more than 5,000 years old, older than the first pyramids built in Egypt. But out of those 700 sites, only a handful are on public land. The rest are privately owned.

That can be a problem, because there is no specific law protecting these ancient mounds if they are on private land.  Back in the 1920s and 1930s, the state Department of Transportation destroyed several mounds and used the dirt to build roads.

"Even today, we're losing mounds. You know, from cities just expanding, anything from farmers needing more land, cultivatable land,” said Griffing.  “I mean, it's still happening today. If it's on private property, if there's no proof of burial there, it can be gone."

That's where Reca Bamburg Jones comes in.  She helped map out the state's new driving guide of Indian mounds, going mound to mound and door to door of private property owners across the area.   On behalf of the state, she asked the owners’ permission to include them in the guide, and place a permanent marker about the mound, on the nearest road.

"Of course, we wish they were all in pristine condition, but they aren't. But the fact that these mound owners even saved the mounds, is a lot more than some landowners did," said Jones.

Two of the mound owners Jones encountered were Ledell Lynch and Foster Bullock, longtime neighbors who both had Indian mounds on their land.

"I was just always interested in it, you know, cowboys and Indians, just fascinated by the Indians,” Lynch said.

He grew up here and moved back several years ago after his parents passed away.  By then, this Indian mound had become overgrown and could hardly be seen at all.  So Lynch began cleaning it up.

"It was a horrendous effort," he said.

He hoped his neighbor would see his work and move to clean up his Indian mounds too.

"I thought it would get his interest, and it did,” Lynch said, “and so he started cleaning up on the front one of that one over there."

The owner, Foster Bullock, admits "It was pretty rough looking."

Over the years, Bullock's family farmed the land around the mounds.  But he admits not all of them survived.

"We destroyed some ourselves. It was out in the field and it was small, when we leveled the land," he said.

But now he is hoping to make up for that.  Bullock and Lynch have sold their mounds to the state's conservancy project.  That now places them on public land and gives the mounds protection under the law.

"We're going to preserve it for the future. And we don't have to worry about someone tearing it down,” Bullock said.

"I want this to be here,” Lynch added.

“I don't want anything to happen to it.  It's hard to describe, but it's so serene and peaceful-like up there.  People probably won't believe you, but there is just something about being up there on that mound.  It's a good feeling.”