Cahokia (Ka-ho-Kia)

(The Mississippian Culture)

The Mississippian Culture lasted from about 700 until 1700's, after the arrival of European settlers. It developed primarily in what became the southeastern United States and in the Mississippi Valley Area. The Mississippian people raised livestock and grew crops. They built some of the earliest cities in North America.

The largest Mississippian city was Cahokia, in present-day Illinois. It had a population of nearly 40,000 and probably had a complex form of government. Monk's Mound, the largest mound in Cahokia, is bigger at the base than the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

"Monks Mound" rises about 100 feet(30 meters) and covers about 16 acres (6 hectares). Cahokia had more than 100 other mounds. Many were burial mounds, and others served as foundations for temples or for the houses of city officials.

The Mississippian people adopted many customs from the Indians of what is now Mexico, with whom they may have traded. Like the Mexican Indians, the Mississippian group built large, flat-topped temple mounds in the center of their cities. At the top of each mound stood one or more temples, where religious ceremonies were held. Temple mounds still stand in many cities, including Moundville, Alabama; Macon, Georgia; and Winterville,Mississippi.

Many southern Mississippian peoples practiced a religion that anthropologists call the Southern Cult. This cult borrowed many customs and symbols from Mexican Indian religions. For example, much Southern Cult artwork includes a flying human figure with wing-like tattoos around the eyes. Artists also decorated many articles with spiders and woodpeckers, which they believed had special powers. The Indians probably practiced human sacrifice as part of the religion.

The Mississippian civilization continued to grow until the 1500's, when diseases brought by the European explorers killed many of the people. Only one Mississippian group, the Natchez Indians, survived long enough to be fully described by the Europeans.