Native American History Cross Links & Related Resources
Focus Question: "Why haven't we heard of these settlements before?"
Cahokia
Link here for an Overview of Cahokia
Cahokia, located in present-day Illinois, was the center of what anthropologists call "Mississippian culture," agricultural communities throughout the Midwestern and southeastern United States between 1000 and 1400.
Cahokia is now the largest archaeological site in the United States.
Timeline of the Cahokia Mounds beginning in 700 AD through 1600 AD.
Teaching Cahokia
Vocabulary of the Site
archeology artifact bastion borrow pit ceremonies charnel house conical cultivation |
equinox flintknapping granary house Mississippians mound pottery solstice stockade |
Teaching Materials
- Journey to Cahokia (children's book on Cahokia)
- City of the Sun (book on Cahokia for a general audience)
- Cahokia Mounds - Ancient Metropolis (documentary on Cahokia)
- Interactive Map of Cahokia Mounds
Multimedia Sources on Cahokia
A Video from WTVP/PBS on Cahokia Mounds
Back to the City of the Sun: An Augmented Reality Project
What is an Augmented Reality?
Augmented Reality is technology created to help show something enhanced by technology in the real world. In this instance, visitors to the Cahokia site can use their phone cameras at specific locations and the program will show them what the Cahokia looked like in the spot they are currently standing.
A video from the Cahokia Mounds Museum Society that explores the daily lives of the people of the Cahokia sight.
Watch and/or listen to this reading of the picture book Journey to Cahokia: A Boy's Visit to the Great Mound City
For a perspective on Native American history in the Americas prior to European encounters, see Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi, Timothy R. Pauketat, Viking, 2009.
See also, The Mississippians of Cahokia, John Hendrix, New York Times, February 28, 2016
Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site
The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site has been designated a world heritage site.
Reconstructed Palisade at Cahokia |
Satellite view of the Cahokia mounds
More on Cahokia
New Insights into the Curious Disappearance of the Cahokia Mounds Builders, St. Louis Public Radio
Mississippian Culture and Aztalan, Turning Points in Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society
Diagram shows solstice and equinox sunset and sunrise positions at the Mound 72 Woodhenge
Women in Cahokia
Did you know that women made up a vast majority of Cahokia farmers?
To learn more about women's roles as farmers in Cahokia, click here!
This article discusses the discovery of women in burial mounds that were thought to only hold men.
Girlhood and the Downfall of Cahokia
This article discusses the role of women and girls in Cahokian society along with mythology and social orders of the civilization.
This clay statue discovered near Cahokia Mounds depicts what some scholars refer to as a "corn goddess" sitting on a row of cobs of corn.
Etzanoa
Dubbed "the Great Settlement" by Spanish invaders who visited the city in its prime, Etzanoa may surpass Cahokia as the largest Native American settlement in the United States.
Etzanoa was once settled by an estimated 20,000 Wichita people and was located in present-day Arkansas City, Kansas, near the Arkansas River. It flourished between 1450 AD and 1700 AD.
Teaching Etzanoa
- Overview of the Inhabitants of Etzanoa
Short overview of the unearthing of the settlement (2021)
Etzanoa: The Great Settlement (article from the Wichita State University Alumni Magazine)
More on Etzanoa
Kansas Archaeologist Rediscovers Lost Native American City (NPR, May 10, 2017)
Archaeological Digs Reveal More About Lost City of Etzanoa
The sketch above depicts a 19th-century Wichita Indian village.
This is not Etzanoa, but it does give us a glimpse of the house stylings
of the Wichita people and the configuration of their settlement
Equestrian statue of Juan de Oñate, Alcalde, New Mexico
Note: This statue was ultimately removed in June 2020 during the BLM protests, as it was
seen as a symbol of violent colonialism and a warped celebration of the Acoma Massacre.
Native Americans and Disease
The Story of . . . Smallpox—And Other Eurasian Germs, from Guns, Germs and Steel website, PBS (2005)
CROSS-LINK: Lord Jeffrey Amherst and the Smallpox Blankets