Nayarit Woman

There may something to the Lake Superior notion. We tend to think of the various tribes in isolation, and sometimes trading or fighting with their neighbors.

John T. Davis, in what I consider an important work, showed how immense the network of trading routes were in California. Especially important is the trade map at the back. Link, here -

While some assert no contact existed between the Nahua/Mexica and the Mississipian, some experts think there was a growing trend toward adopting the skeletal imagery favored by the mesoamerican peoples. I think, based on Davis' work, and that of others, that the normal academic tendency to caution is more about preservation of doctoral dissertations than acknowledgment of growing evidence that trade happened and on a much larger scale than originally believed. Some debate here:

I think the more stylistic and perhaps advanced artwork and tools of more urbanized tribes/nations would have had great trade appeal. Sometimes the trade is in ideas and art styles.