Mound City: The Place of the Indigenous Past and Present in St. Louis

Native Americans built a satellite suburb of Cahokia on the site that later became St. Louis, with up to 30,000 people living there. The mounds held an important place in St. Louis history, earning it the nickname "Mound City." However, white Americans claimed the mounds were natural features and cheered their leveling, ignoring Indigenous peoples' connections to the mounds. Patricia Cleary's book Mound City explores the layers of Indigenous history in St. Louis, including the life, death, and afterlife of the mounds, the evolution of its landscape, and the episodes and monuments that shaped its civic culture.

Format: Hardback
Length: 462 pages
Publication date: 30 June 2024
Publisher: University of Missouri Press

Native Americans constructed a satellite suburb of Cahokia, an ancient metropolis in the Americas, on the site that later became St. Louis approximately one thousand years ago. During its peak, as many as 30,000 individuals resided in and around Cahokia. While the eastern mounds of Cahokia remain today, designated as a state historic site and a UNESCO world heritage site, the monumental earthworks on the western shore of the Mississippi were demolished by railroad workers in the 1800s. However, prior to and following their destruction, the mounds held a significant place in St. Louis history, earning it the nickname "Mound City." For many decades, the city was known for its Indigenous heritage, attracting tourists who came to marvel at the mounds and witness tribal delegations visiting for trade and diplomacy. As the city expanded, residents repurposed the mounds for various purposes, including a reservoir, a restaurant, and a railroad landfill, resulting in the destruction of cultural artifacts and sacred burials. Despite evidence to the contrary, some white Americans claimed that the mounds were natural features rather than built structures and celebrated their leveling. Others proposed far-fetched theories about a lost race of Mound Builders who were killed by the ancestors of contemporary Indigenous peoples. Ignoring the Indigenous peoples' connections to the mounds, white Americans positioned themselves as the inheritors of ancient traditions and asserted that modern Native peoples were destined to disappear. These views served as justification for national policies that resulted in Indian Removal and, to a large extent, the exclusion of Indigenous people from politics and society. Claiming Indigenous history as their own, white St. Louisans would later play the roles of Mound Builders in a city-sponsored history pageant, while a women's heritage group commemorated the mounds as local landmarks.

Weight: 988g
Dimension: 163 x 237 x 31 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780826223043