Cahokia Research Paper

Envision a large Native American settlement with one hundred foot tall mounds, solar observatories, fertile farming grounds, religious practices, and even human sacrifices. In this city lies tens of thousands of people, over 120 earthen mounds, and farms as far as the eye can see (Seppa). These weren’t the Maya or Aztecs of Mexico. We are in the city of Cahokia. Cahokia was for its time the largest Native American settlement north of Mexico. It holds great significance to the understanding of early Native Americans and has and continues to change and give great insight on what Indian life was like on this continent before Europeans arrived.
North Plaza
Mound 72
Borrow Pit
Stockade
Cahokia Creek
Woodhengee
"Cahokia: America's First City."…show more content…
They commonly thought that the mounds in the city must have been the work of a foreign civilization such as the Phoenicians, Vikings or Carthaginians; some even speculated the lost tribe of Israel. Even now it is hard to believe such an amazing feat. One man by the name of Henry Brackenridge, a lawyer and amateur historian came upon the mounds while exploring the surrounding prairie in 1811 (Hodges 135). When he saw the massive central mound he wrote this to Thomas Jefferson in a letter, “I was struck with a degree of astonishment, not unlike that which is experienced in contemplating the Egyptian pyramids. What a stupendous pile of earth. To heap up such a mass must have required years, and the labors of thousands” (Young, and Fowler 5). Many Americans did not want to believe that a “bunch of savages” had built such a grand city as Cahokia (Seppa). Within time America began to see the true ingenuity of the Indians and recognized their innate gift of…show more content…
"America's Lost City." National Geographic. Jan. 2011: 126-44. Print.
Keller, Ken, Eric Young, Gary Kronk, Brian McKinney, and Ken Williams. "Welcome to Cahokia Mounds." Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, 2008. Web. 12 Oct. 2011. Kelly, John. Introductory. The Cahokia Mounds. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: U of Alabama P, 2000. Print. Moorehead, Warren. The Cahokia Mounds. Urbana, Illinois: U of Illinois, 1922. eBook. Seppa, Nathan. "Ancient Cahokia." Washing Post. N.p., 12 Mar. 1997. Web. 8 Oct. 2011. Young, Biloine, and Melvin Fowler. Cahokia, The Great Native American Metropolis. Chicago: Board of Trustees of the U of Illinois, 2000.