Collinsville, Illinois
Journal Entry
Spring 2008
I first became aware of Cahokia as the only undergraduate student enrolled in a graduate course at my university. Everyone in the course had to choose an early “civilization” on which to write a research paper, and part of the requirement was to present a coherent, thirty-minute lecture on the ancient culture we had selected for our term paper. Most students took the obvious route, choosing Egypt of the pharaohs, Mesopotamia, the Aztecs, etc. In what I thought was a rather clever move, I went a different way, choosing a less-obvious culture, intentionally one the professor admitted he knew very little about: the mound builders of North America. Of course I knew nothing about them either and was pretty stressed when it came time for the oral presentation.
Ironically, perhaps precisely because I was a nervous but motivated undergrad in a grad course, I was more than prepared with my now too cute seeming 3 x 5 note cards. It all was a fabulous success—well, I passed the course—and inspired a lifelong fascination with the most spectacular of the mound builder sites, Cahokia.
That is why as soon as I got the chance to visit St. Louis in the mid-1970s, I immediately asked the hotel clerk how to get to Cahokia. He didn’t have a clue what I was talking about, so I attempted to clarify: “You know,” I explained, “the big Indian site.” At this the clerk leaned in to whisper to me, a person he must have assumed was a completely deluded Easterner, “No, no. There haven’t been any Indians around here for many years.”
Cahokia has been one of the best-kept secrets in American history; even locals can be uncertain of its existence. Let’s put an end to that uncertainty here and now. I’ve been to Cahokia several times. Now it’s your turn.
What You Will See
Leave behind any stereotypes you may harbor of “primitive” tepee-dwelling, buffalo-hunting Native American nomads living a hand-to-mouth existence and in a perpetual state of war.
The temple mound societies of the American Midwest and Southeast were nothing like that. The fully agricultural people of the American Indian temple mound building culture built enormous monuments of earth. They were ruled by great leaders who were buried in sumptuous splendor; in a few cases they lived in large, dense, urban-like settlements. Mound builder society had more in common with Egypt of the Pharaohs than Hollywood stereotypes of the nomadic Indian. The temple mound builders were a Native American civilization. Cahokia is the most impressive of the mound builder sites on our archaeological odyssey.
If any ancient Native American site can be called a “city” it would be Cahokia (I.4). Even conservative estimates gauge its population between AD 1050 and AD 1200 to have been several thousand, and 10,000 or even 20,000 are not unreasonable estimates. Cahokia was effectively the capital of a geographically extensive American Indian empire whose reach was felt hundreds of miles away. Raw materials from across the American Midwest made their way to Cahokia, and works produced by Cahokia’s artisans in stone, clay, shell, and copper are found hundreds of miles from the site. Cahokia is a terrific place and should be high on everyone’s list of sites to visit.
Cahokia is a truly remarkable place. Plan to spend several hours there. There are about seventy surviving mounds, including Monks Mound, the largest monument built by Native Americans north of Mexico (Figure 29, I.5). Monks Mound is a flat-topped pyramid built in at least three levels. Its base covers about 14 acres, and 21 million cubic feet of dirt make up its mass. That immense volume makes Monks Mound the fifth-largest pyramid in the world; the only bigger pyramids are in Egypt and Central America. A stairway leads to the top, where you will stand about 100 feet above the plaza below. The climb will get your heart pumping, but it is well worth it. From the summit of Monks Mound you will be able to look down on a plaza surrounded by a few smaller, though still impressive, mounds. You’ll also be able to see St. Louis, framed by its Gateway Arch.
Off to the side of Monks Mound there’s a reconstructed section of a small part of the palisade that surrounded the central part of the city. An easy hiking trail takes you around the site, and you can walk by many of the larger, more impressive earthworks.
The on-site museum at Cahokia is extraordinarily impressive, with a large 3-D map of the site, huge painted murals presenting artistic depictions of the community at its peak, beautiful works of art (Figure 30), and a life-size walk-through diorama showing a residential part of the Cahokia community. You will also see a replica of the burial in Mound 72, where a man, probably an important ruler, was buried in a cape of 20,000 shell beads along with a thousand finely made stone arrow points and dozens of human sacrifices, including more than fifty young women (Figure 31).
Why Is Cahokia Important?
Cahokia was a Native American city occupied between AD 700 and AD 1400 and at its urban-like peak between AD 1050 and AD 1200. It was essentially the capital of an empire, with dozens of smaller ceremonial centers and hundreds upon hundreds of farming villages whose inhabitants owed their social, political, economic, and religious allegiance to the elites who lived at Cahokia itself. An enormous workforce produced monumental earthworks in this capital city; as many as 120 mounds were built at Cahokia. A palisade containing 20,000 logs enclosed the 200 acres that represented the heart of the community. The rich bottomland of the Mississippi River Valley provided the fertile soil in which Cahokia’s farmers grew corn, squash, and other seed-bearing crops. Raw materials including pure copper, seashells, mica, and flint from sources across the entire extent of the American Midwest and Southeast poured into Cahokia, where its artisans manufactured fine works of art, some of which ended up in the graves of Cahokia’s leaders. Some of those finely crafted works were traded to smaller communities located across the Midwest.
Cahokia is an important place to visit, and an especially important place to take your kids. Even in the twenty-first century, too many of us harbor Hollywood clichés of Native Americans. Wholly unlike Hollywood stereotypes, the people of Cahokia were participants in an urban Native American civilization called Mississippian.
Cahokia has been designated a National Historic Landmark and is one of only eight cultural sites in the United States that have been designated World Heritage Sites by the United Nations. That puts Cahokia in the company of sites like the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge, and the Roman Colosseum.
Site Type: Platform Mound (village, but really a city)
Wow Factor: ***** The site is astonishing. There are lots of mounds, and many are truly monumental. Monks Mound is especially “wow”-worthy. Cahokia is an amazing place.
Museum: ***** The museum at Cahokia sets the standard for archaeology museums. It’s fantastic and enormously informative, with a very impressive village reconstruction.
Ease of Road Access: *****
Ease of Hike: **** Cahokia is huge, and you’ll walk a lot to see the site in its entirety. The stair climb to the top of Monks Mound will get your heart pumping, but the amazing view is more than worth the effort.
Natural Beauty of Surroundings: ****
Kid Friendly: ***** Between the vast area for kids to run around and explore and the museum with lots of kid-oriented exhibits, even little ones should have a blast.
Food: Vending machines in the museum offer snacks and drinks.
How to Get There: Cahokia is located on Collinsville Road in Collinsville, Illinois, close to the Missouri border and a less than 20-minute drive from much of downtown St. Louis. The site is readily accessible from I-55/70 and I-255 in western Illinois.
Hours of Operation: The grounds are open daily from dawn until dusk. The museum is open Wednesday through Sunday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. That may change, so check the website for current hours.
Cost: Free, but donations are recommended (see website). Shell out a few bucks. It’s worth it!
Best Season to Visit: Any time
Website: http://cahokiamounds.org
Designation: State Historic Site; National Historic Landmark; World Heritage Site