Cahokia and its Erasure A paper for my history class!

Cahokia and its Erasure





Topic: Cahokia and its Erasure


Author(s): Austin M Staton


Target audience: The target audience of this paper is to inform and challenge the system and promote critical thinking in the minds of young adult students ranging from high school through college. Furthermore, it is our goal to give voice to the truths of many indigenous peoples, to show that their histories are complete and well-documented, and that they deserve to be shown not only in good faith but as well-documented.


Description: The purpose of this paper is to examine the ancient city of Cahokia and its erasure from many minds of modern history. As part of the World History course, it addresses both the historic timeline it takes place in (800 - 1500 CE) and the converse argument of what a civilization versus a society is and how these terms can be twisted to fit a bias narrative.


Annotated bibliography:






Bey, L. (2016, August 17). Lost cities #8: Mystery of cahokia – why did North America's largest city vanish? The Guardian. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/17/lost-cities-8-mystery-ahokia-illinois-mississippians-native-americans-vanish. [As far as the city of Cahokia being inhabited, this article was very useful for explaining how and why it came to be abandoned. Several speculations are made in this article. It also sheds some light on some of the American cinema and backward thinking regarding indigenous cultures in general.]






Young, B. W. (2000). Cahokia, the Great Native American Metropolis. University of Illinois Press. [With this book, I was able to provide insight into (as well as re-affirm) the belief that early nineteenth-century observers had that the mounds in the area where Cahokia is were too advanced for Native American cultures to have built themselves. Many of these toxic ideas were developed and drawn up to be the work of perhaps survivors of lost European cultures.]





Alt, S. M. (2018). Cahokia's complexities: Ceremonies and politics of the first Mississippian farmers. The University of Alabama Press. [Archaeological discoveries and archaeological findings in this book provided new insights into the culture and society of the early Mississippians. Contributing general facts and overviews to the paper, such as dates, etc.]





Hodges, G. (2021, May 4). Why was the ancient city of Cahokia abandoned? new clues rule out one theory. Environment. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/why-was-ancient-city-of-cahokia-abandoned-new-clues-rule-out-one-theory#:~:text=In%20a%20matter%20of%20decades,by%201400%20it%20was%20deserted. [Specifically, this article addresses Cahokia's abandonment and what can be ruled out based on newly discovered clues, and Cahokia's decline is not confined only to its environmental narratives. I used it to show that our Western view of their agricultural system ignores their indigenous ways of thinking and practices. Again, showing bias throughout the years on how we look at history.]






Funk, A. (2020, January 31). Native Americans abandoned Cahokia's massive mounds - but the story doesn't end there. Discover Magazine. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/native-americans-abandoned-cahokias-massive-mounds-but-the-story-doesnt-end. [This article also showed how the city might have been abandoned. It also talked about how some of the names were given based on assumptions and how they stuck. The main topic I pulled from was that of During the early 1700s, French missionaries arrived in the area where they encountered a subgroup of the larger Illinois Confederation. This was the Cahokia tribe. In spite of the name Cahokia Mounds remaining as the name for the archaeological site, it can be slightly misleading since these are not to be known as the people that built the mounds and were there back some 1000 years beforehand.]



Legends of America. (n.d.). Native America Homes & Lifestyles. Legends of America. Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://www.legendsofamerica.com/il-cahokia/. [The website contains a historical source and provides a general overview and some more insight into the history of the mounds today.]





Back to the city of the sun. Cahokia Mounds. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://cahokiamounds.org/augmented-reality-project/. [This is a really cool source that is trying to rebuild what the city would have been like back in its heyday. Reconstructing the mounds using drones and virtual reality. This website covered more facts and helped paint a picture of the place and what it might have looked like. I do hope to visit it to show my respect sometime in the future.]






Emerson, T. E. (2002). AN INTRODUCTION TO CAHOKIA 2002: DIVERSITY, COMPLEXITY, AND HISTORY. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 27(2), 127–148. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20708175 [Sources like this one add to the archaeology that has been done in the geographical area where the minds exist. Making it easier for me to condense what I needed to say for this paper.]





Roth, B. J., & Adams, E. C. (2021). Agent of change: The deposition and manipulation of ash in the past. Berghahn Books. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS1TD6WFNeQ [This video gives a brief history and rundown of everything that we know about the rise and fall of the city of Cahokia. A brief overview and comparison of how it compared to other cities during that time and why it deserves a bit more study and study. I was able to pull many facts out of the video as well and educate myself on the subject too.]






Cahokia mounds once one of the greatest cities ... - youtube. HEC Happening Now . (n.d.). Retrieved November 12, 2021, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXQfxIZUtWY. [This video demonstrates how the archeology of Cahokia reveals the life and achievements of the Mississippian people, who resided here. The video also gave a quick view of the exhibits at the Interpretive Center and on the mounds continue to educate and entertain visitors throughout the year.]








Intro


This paper will look to discuss the ancient city of Cahokia and its erasure from many minds of history. Known as the largest and most cosmopolitan town north of Mexico, Cahokia was established long before Columbus so-called discovered the Americas. Demonstrating how Native Americans had cities and societies that were rivaling those of London and Rome.


It showed how history can be found all around us but is sadly almost always written with a form of bias and by the winners (the ones at the top). Cahokia mounds were deemed by early nineteenth-century observers (as well as certain modern scientists) to be too advanced for Native American cultures to have been able to build them themselves. These toxic ideas were often put forward to inspire the belief that perhaps survivors of lost European cultures had built these instead. This is only one aspect of the erasure that has been felt. That is why we need to challenge our own biases when studying history.









The Erasure



Cahokia's history has largely been ignored by most Americans and Illinoisans in favor of the shopworn narrative forged by literature, America Nationalism, and the fallouts of Manifest Destiny. At one time, Cahokia was one of the most sophisticated and cosmopolitan cities in the world. Moreover, the blatant devaluing of first nations is evident with only poor treatment of Native Americans being presented as backward and primitive.






“A lot of the world is still relating in terms of cowboys and Indians, and feathers and tee-pees,” says Thomas Emerson, professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois. In 1000 CE, [a city] is laid out according to a plan from the start. Planning does not happen automatically over time per say, it starts with a plan. And they created the most massive earthen mound in North America. Where does that come from?” (Bey L, 2016)






In the current State Historic Site known as the “Cahokia Mounds” there are still visible remnants of the most sophisticated native culture north of Mexico. An archaeological site on a 2200-acre plot known as Cahokia lies a few miles west of Collinsville, Illinois, which contains the remains of the ancient center of the ancient settlement.






The foundations and a brief history






Cahokia was inhabited from roughly the 700 CE to the 1400 CE. Known as a Mound-Building culture, these ancient structures were built over time.


Also known as “City of the Sun,” Cahokia covered nearly 6 square miles. The metropolis consisted of a town center with plazas and communal structures, which attracted migrants and a trade market from all directions.


In addition to being known as "the city of the sun", Cahokia is just the name ascribed to this area as we don’t have the true names of the people that lived there which is why most refer to them as the Mississippian culture or the mound builders.





Missionaries from France arrived in the area in the early 1700s and encountered the Cahokia tribe, a subgroup of the larger Illinois Confederation living it this area. Cahokia Mounds has stuck as a name for the archaeological site, but the name can be a bit misleading. (Funk A, 2020)








It is imperative for us when looking at native cultures to look at the oral histories and understand the ways they lived and passed down tribal knowledge. This is because so much was oral history. That which was not passed down would be lost and then we must rely almost solely on archaeological evidence.





Moreover, it should be noted that many of the names we have (if not directly from those tribes) are just placeholders. What it meant by this is that quite a few names or references indicate various places or things. However, these names are given by the people who have discovered these things, so they must be taken with a grain of salt.





A vast complex of earthen mounds, plazas, and pole-and-thatch buildings, Cahokia covered more than 12 km2 in the American Bottom region of southwestern Illinois. Recent research has documented other "precincts" and "shrine complexes" at and around this ancient core" (Alt 2012; Alt and Pauketat 2017; Pauketat and Alt 2015; Pauketat et al. 2015). Yet despite the rich archaeological record at and around Cahokia, it defies simple explanation, possibly because our explanatory con-structs have remained oversimplistic. Single causal factors are still too often sought rather than complex histories. (Alt 2010) (MLA 8th Edition (Modern Language Assoc.) (Susan M. Alt. Cahokia’s Complexities: Ceremonies and Politics of the First Mississippian Farmers. University of Alabama Press, 2018.)






The city had a population of nearly 100,000 residents and covered an area of nearly 6 square miles at its peak in 1100 CE. Rows of houses surrounded open plazas. The city was surrounded by agricultural fields and supplied by a number of small villages.





It is estimated that at least 120 earthen mounds exist within the city's borders, of which 109 have been documented, of which 68 have been preserved. (Legends of America, 2021)


But sadly, many of the settlers that came to America altered or destroyed many of the mounds. Others of the mounds rose up to 100 feet into the sky, while the others are no more than gentle rises in the ground. In any case, the time taken for this kind of construction and planning is incredible. In order to build these earthen structures, people carried the soil on their backs in jars or baskets. Construction phases are often evident at these sites. Showing these kinds of stages of development is key when trying to convey the level of time and expertise that took place. The Mounds were then overall constructed using more than 50 million cubic feet of earth. The area still has large depressions left by this, which are called borrow pits.


Monks Mound, the site's largest mound, is situated in the center. The earthen mound measures 100 feet tall, making it the tallest in North America. Four terraces, each added at a different time, make up the mound, which is 1,000 feet long and 800 feet wide.


It is estimated that around 22 million cubic feet of earth were used to build this mound. The site was most likely the site where the city's rulers lived, had ceremonies, and governed at the times and height of the city. Though much of this is open to interpretation.


In the early 1800s, French monks lived in the area, which contributed to the name of the mound as we refer to it today. Though the Mound's original size is uncertain due to significant eroding and both human and natural damage over the centuries. Again, this shows how vast this society was.







The mound builders and parallels






Cahokia's decline is not confined to one-sided environmental narratives. Since the 1950s, it has become increasingly common to argue that societies fail due to resource depletion and environmental degradation-often referred to as ecocide. Which is a fair assumption or educated guess. As it is quite clear why: We have seen that in past societies, and we fear that it's happening in our own. We might be inclined to see environmental crises in the past regardless of whether they existed or not, due to our own current environmental crisis.


Before the Europeans arrived in North America, people did not graze animals or intensively plow the land. Our Western view of their agricultural system ignores their indigenous views and practices, which need to be considered.





Throughout the American Southeast between the times of 800 and 1500 CE, Cahokians formed part of an agricultural diaspora known as Mississippian culture. Their agriculture included corn, other crops, earthen mounds, and at one point, they gathered into a dense urban population at Cahokia. However, it is unclear whether this was for political, religious, or economic reasons. However, it is unlikely that they regarded natural resources as commodities to be extracted for private profit. (Hodges G, 2021)


This contrasts with how most of our current societies use and view land as only a means for profit or control of resources.








Conclusion





I learned nothing about Cahokia or the natives' trade systems, nor was I exposed to the scale of city space and or inhabitants of the Mississippian cultures until very recently. It’s not something talked about through grade school and even more saddening sometimes even glazed over in collages. Even knowing this is a part of the country I grew up in. It is because First Nations people's rights and representation in more Eurocentric societies have diminished. We have been taught a false narrative about natives and we see only one side of them. However, in every other Eurocentric society, we are taught to marvel at their achievements.





Even today, those who share ancestry with Mississippian cultures know little about their history. And those that do are usually dismissed as oral history is looked down on. It's only been in the last few decades that history has attempted to correct itself and question things from a less biased perspective. When I first learned about Cahokia, I was left stunned and upset, because how could such an incredibly significant part of US history be hidden and neglected? The textbooks are famous for misrepresenting Native American contributions to these lands, and they are ready to erase them. The only hope I have is for people to continue learning about the past and how powerful groups treated others. Considering things from a scientific point of view and cataloging the oral and physical histories that we have. Being able to minimize your own bias and not make assumptions.








References





Bey, L. (2016, August 17). Lost cities #8: Mystery of cahokia – why did North America's largest city vanish? The Guardian. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/17/lost-cities-8-mystery-ahokia-illinois-mississippians-native-americans-vanish.






Young, B. W. (2000). Cahokia, the Great Native American Metropolis. University of Illinois Press.



Alt, S. M. (2018). Cahokia's complexities: Ceremonies and politics of the first Mississippian farmers. The University of Alabama Press.





Hodges, G. (2021, May 4). Why was the ancient city of Cahokia abandoned? new clues rule out one theory. Environment. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/article/why-was-ancient-city-of-cahokia-abandoned-new-clues-rule-out-one-theory#:~:text=In%20a%20matter%20of%20decades,by%201400%20it%20was%20deserted.






Funk, A. (2020, January 31). Native Americans abandoned Cahokia's massive mounds - but the story doesn't end there. Discover Magazine. Retrieved October 24, 2021, from https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/native-americans-abandoned-cahokias-massive-mounds-but-the-story-doesnt-end.





Legends of America. (n.d.). Native America Homes & Lifestyles. Legends of America. Retrieved October 25, 2021, from https://www.legendsofamerica.com/il-cahokia/.






Back to the city of the sun. Cahokia Mounds. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://cahokiamounds.org/augmented-reality-project/.






Emerson, T. E. (2002). AN INTRODUCTION TO CAHOKIA 2002: DIVERSITY, COMPLEXITY, AND HISTORY. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 27(2), 127–148. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20708175






Roth, B. J., & Adams, E. C. (2021). Agent of change: The deposition and manipulation of ash in the past. Berghahn Books.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS1TD6WFNeQ



Holley, G., Dalan, R., & Smith, P. (1993). Investigations in the Cahokia Site Grand Plaza. American Antiquity, 58(2), 306-319. doi:10.2307/281972