THE PENGUIN LIBRARY OF AMERICAN INDIAN HISTORY CAHOKIA Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi ‘®, PAUKETAT Qovleetat, Tints @. Calm Anite Americas Great Ca Missi New York® Vileing, ri Chepler 3* “Walling info Caloleia” (One's encounter with New Cabo athe height of is grandeur nine centuries ago would have been considerably dient fn Brackenridge’ and even moreso fe the experience td ei poe sible, thought imagine a taseler’ourny into the centrality from 1 ditance of, thiy miles tothe ea, where Caboki's extensive Farming dice began. IF the tracer et off on oot at una it would take the bee part of ewo day to make tite down Ca bok He begiasby walking westward alongone of many well-worn foot highway (mos of which, 28 with Rome, led to Cahokia), the ‘morning sun casting long shadows across patches of pai assea) crocs at their Bae are choked with sk, What forest remains on the steeper sles patchy, with large cee aren, some planted wth crops and eters ying fallow invaded by weeds, brimbles cedars, and persimmon tes, tein the afternoon, group of peo ple tea e ‘uaelereeaces che blu erst. The setting sus ays revala great vist a he stands some hundred fect above the enorme od Blain othe west Flt and open below him, the flonplin exter he way to the distant horizon, wher, on this lear day, he an se the Hf cee the eer side of the Miniter mies away Fr ‘ange poin, che traveler can alto se several large las that il abandoned ancient channels of the ver. i satura o prin great V-shaped flocks of waterfowl conning aod going fn tne Takes—some pec 3 cared fy hunters or fisher 6 the skis, Beyond them, the hazy hint of a plati-sized thatched ceitce are visible atop distant principal yea Teis here a¢the buf escarpment edge, tha the well-ordered space ofthe district of Cahokia sould filly engulf ons sense. Toki lef and ight slong the re the tale eal tothe {sstanding in the madd of blog moresay zone. Te hilt titer side are studded with Tow eaten burial mounds thatched roof temples oe chat houses, marker pst, ane norteary seal folds thc offer the adie of the dead skyward. few vukurt nd «dozen crows moun the salfolds lapping thie wings and pick ing ac the emis lid tere, The traveler then searches ora path by which he ean wend his way down and around the sao, sounds and buildings As the sun ashe ents the Hoodplan, Mies away be cn x the dim cuties uf grouped houses and pyramids onthe western Ioizon, acklcas the day grows ld bythe fis few of athousand istane dinner fires. [is lat, and the traveler needs to spend the hight somewhere, perhaps none ofthe smal epg hits oF tol Sheds at the hase ofthe any the next morning, rosing int the Rt, wide oop hbbed bythe French inate colonial times the American Bottom, the traveler passes through serra mies of At and sometimes soggy tver-botom Farland, including great fields eared of tuees ad cropped in corm, squish, an sunflowers, These are CCaboki' fells worked by meters of Fai farms cipered long, the suble natural sidgetop, one or wo evry fe handeed yar So. Farms that ar one to groiene fas have a asker pst a nt yard 4 web thatched. cof house, 2 cite seat Ins none ating ‘But everywhere, interspersed among the fields and homes akazz with morning ttivity. are amelly backwater lakes, marshes, st The traveler was through the dack tweedy waterereny and cattails inthe slloest mares, crosses ‘often, small wooden bridge, all he ‘while detauring sound one paricslary large od oabow ake as ‘wide asthe Missi sl Ie acky eran wil fe ple the tracer across inhi dagout, led with his erty mor ing catch «few ch flopping on a steinger and @ turtle oF ew struggling in vain vo cscape a tangle of Fishnets the side ofthe boats rounded boston The travelers crmting ofthe fo more ime than he might have expected the previous evening beaver dams and every plain staking considerably standing stp the us he has fe couple of les behind Bypassing at east one town, another hunted Bowes and cen- tual pyramid and plaza, he euts across more coraields and hops mote drainage ditches ntl he approaches what cems solid wall ‘of rooftops and shadowy pyramids People ere, moat of them farmers, ae merous, Some move long pths aloe orn small graups, ters in processions hit o1y peopl tong. Carrying wrapped packages stacked pot and bulging tacks on thei backs, they walk along well-marked dit tremict skiing suburbs of srt. Dead abead looms Cabocia Where Black packed-earth pyramids, thatched roof houses, and ven plazas eeplace is. The pyramids have sharply angled co ter tcp inclined faces, and Bt ssfaces topped by one, 6, oF three imposing biking golden-oofed temples, wel-bul dite Tens stall storage huts or meeting houses oly rctangulr in ton: Grher pyeamids have to, thee, oF more etaces topped by triple pole shatch bdings, with plank steps peoviing 2 ess teach trace smi soa of which re shieled fom iw tyne post-wallplsaesHlexe and there sa circular rotund o seat loge with a thi sis of stoke emanating fom ts of ‘Sweet scat of eat wood and died gas te arid by the breze replacing the odors of the marsh ‘With the un drctlyovertealnothe travelers completely people Inthe sof eat skin disanee, the deep, rhythmic, booming upright marker pot sane a yard in diameter and many yard ih ecjct skyward from the pyramid and fom plazas fi with special rectangular buildings peter alignment othe of downtown Cabokia, sil beat Hal an our ltr, the terraces Caboki' centr, he cusof eve and ceremonial ie Here, between the walls td mands inthe foreground public square L601-pa fein ength and DO pls fern wih, Ao of people gathered nan around this ‘grand precinet are drumming, ming, and singing. This istered Space noe be waves easly and fot tafe directed aro ead drum are audible, overlaid by 3 chocus of singers. Large structed at canal sygles the ceremony taking place. Were de traveler allowed 0 7 he ‘would se this plaza —consircted of weeds, packed ine sanl— ‘ge withthe fines of ulin stride the largest of eaten pyr rides dhe main platform atthe Grand Plazas notern en the awesome Monks Mound, This Mack packed-eanth pyramid of pyamide—the one that een cemurcs Le, Henry Mai Bracken Fidge would calls stopendos ile of eath”—rival he largest in ‘Mexico and Pr rom the plaza the traveler cannot se the great pyramid’ sum nit one of three prccgl eraces, each higher than the next and Crovided witha nue of extandnary pole-and-thach tutus, ‘within walled compound, Some ofthe builing are temples Ot crate council chambers, leeping hoes, ore bus, ard atten Gane quarter, One iv great thatched mecing ball ora plata residence The rot ofthat bilding—the largest of al constructed end ofthe ft summit of Monks Mound—extends the monument’ ttl height further 3 et fo a teal of mote than 130 fet above the plaza. Ea ofthis bldg, sop this pinnacle Cahokia star evel elaborately coved pope (One of tenn ones the edge ofthe pyramid. He ass his sos and in the Grand Plaza below, 2 geet shout erp fom 2 thousand gathered woul Then dhe crowed splits in 100, and within rminaes both halves run aren the plaza, shricking wildly. Han ded of spears Ry through the ir toward what, from his distance, secms like asia calling peck, A mele ensies ane tars regroup and cone. Thong of spectators gather along the sidelines and ‘heer the teams onward in game called chunkes, which as the ‘eat chapter wil shows, has mish to say abou the Cahoklan way oF ie