Around the year 800 AD strangers arrived on the banks of the Mississippi River opposite the modern location of Saint Louis. They established a village or possibly took control of an existing village near the river landing. The region was already occupied by indigenous peoples, who mixed hunting, fishing, gathering of wild foods and gardening in order to feed themselves. Apparently, the newcomers were skilled farmers, who were accustomed to planting large fields of Mexican crops such as corn and beans.
There new homeland was a landscape of deep, black soil and riverine wetlands, regularly fertilized by the spring floods of the river. Not too far to the south lay the confluence of the Ohio with the Mississippi River. Also nearby was the confluence of the Missouri River with the Mississippi. So the chosen site for the village was not only was incredibly rich with the natural resources for a Neolithic people to prosper, but also at a strategic location for a community to be involved with regional trade.
Cahokia Mounds National Landmark received its name from the nearby town of Cahokia, which itself was named after a tribe, who lived in the area during the Colonial Era, but definitely did not build the great mounds. The real name of Cahokia or the identity of the ethnic group(s) that built the city is unknown. Unlike the situation in the lower Southeast, the region was virtually abandoned about two centuries before French explorers first canoed past the mounds. Most of the large towns with mounds were still occupied when the de Soto passed through Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Alabama. All of the Native American words recorded by the chroniclers of the de Soto in that region, except northeast of Tampa Bay are Muskogean and can be easily translated by contemporary Muskogee (Creek), Miccosukee, Alabama, Koasati or Chickasaw dictionaries.
What we do know about these early settlers at Cahokia is that they did not build large mounds, and built very few mounds, period. Mound-building had a very long history in the Southeast, beginning at least by 3500 BC. Only three major ethnic groups in the Southeast were known not to be associated with construction of large mounds; the Chickasaw, Yuchi and Arawaks. The Arawaks were relatively recent invaders of Florida, and the farthest distance from Cahokia. The Chickasaw originally occupied most of modern state of Tennessee north of the Tennessee River. They traditionally live in small, dispersed villages.
The Yuchi probably had lived in the Southeast for much longer than the Southern Siouans and Muskogeans. They grew crops on a large scale. When first contacted by European explorers, the Yuchi lived in round houses in round villages with round plazas. One of their original names was “the Round Town People.”
On the other hand, the Chickasaw built rectangular houses that faced rectangular plazas. Chickasaw villages in the Colonial Era had rectangular plazas like the earliest town on the site of Cahokia. Thus, an ethnic group related to the Chickasaw is a likely candidate for the founders of Cahokia. However, the founders may of come from another ethic group or even an ethinic groups not even know today.
It is not know how many people originally settle Cahokia. Thus, the original founders of the city may have been few in number, but married indigenous peoples in order to increase the town’s size.
The original town of Cahokia grew steadily from 800 AD to 1050 AD. The artistic skills of its people became increasingly sophisticated. Eventually, the population of the newcomer grew to about 1000 people and their cultural traits grew increasingly like that of the future large towns of the Southeast, except for the construction of large mounds. These cultural traits are called the Mississippian Culture, because archaeologists once believed that all advanced Native American culture originated on the Mississippi River around Cahokia.
Around 1050 AD there was a sudden cultural change in Cahokia, which may reflect the arrival of yet another party of newcomers. Suddenly, the artisans were creating art similar to that produced the previous 150 years at a great town on the Ocmulgee River in central Georgia., plus developing their own distinct artistic traditions. The elite of Cahokia also began building pre-fabricated post ditch houses like what was introduced a 150 years earlier at Ocmulgee. However, at present no evidence has been identified by archaeologists working at Cahokia, which would suggest that colonists from Ocmulgee took control of Cahokia in 1050 AD.
Around 1050 AD, much of the original town of Cahokia was razed. An enormous new plaza was begun next to the original town site. Construction began on the large mound, which would later be known as Monks Mound. Most of the indigenous people’s villages in the Cahokia region were also abandoned about this time. New villages with cultural traits similar to the indigenous peoples were developed much closer to the burgeoning acropolis at Cahokia. Archaeologists think that the elite of Cahokia forced the “locals” to move closer to their capital in order to control them more completely and utilize their labor.
As described in an earlier article, during the period immediately prior to the razing of Old Cahokia, large scale human sacrifices were made. This would be a new cultural trait for the Mississippi Basin, and may reflect the arrival of a Mesoamerican, Polynesian or Arawak elite in Cahokia. All three of these ethnic groups had a long tradition of human sacrifice, whereas the indigenous peoples of the Southeast usually did not.
Much archeological work remains before Cahokia can be fully understood. At the present time, the period of the town’s life least understood is from 800 AD through 100 AD, when Cahokia was a steadily growing town, but seems to have lacked the regional political power that it obtained after 1050 AD. In the next article on Cahokia, we will examine some of the major structures begun in the period immediately following 1050 AD.
Source: Examiner
