Cahokia Mounds

Roger Wyoming · PostApr 04, 2011#762011-04-04T19:29+00:00

Alex Ihnen wrote:^ I guess it would a dedicated citizen group, and a few decades, to take up the cause of making it a National Park?

I dunno. I suppose that if the State of Illinois were interested in handing the park over to the feds it wouldn't have to take that long. But I'm not sure they want to do that.

Also and additional remark on the East Saint Louis Mounds, there is a push for the feds to buy some important sites and create an "archeological preserve" as there are some development pressures and these may be lost for good if that comes. But it is a long shot under current circumstances.

Alex Ihnen · PostApr 04, 2011#772011-04-04T20:21+00:00

^ Really? I'd bet that Illinois would gladly turn over any and all parks/land/etc. to the Feds to pay for. A year or two ago, Illinois closed a number of state parks for lack of funding.

Roger Wyoming · PostApr 04, 2011#782011-04-04T20:31+00:00

Alex Ihnen wrote:^ Really? I'd bet that Illinois would gladly turn over any and all parks/land/etc. to the Feds to pay for. A year or two ago, Illinois closed a number of state parks for lack of funding.

well, if they do want to hand it over then I think an organized effort would have a realistic shot; its much more worthy than the Grant's Farm push. I'll try to find out what I can.

PostJun 04, 2011#792011-06-04T17:22+00:00

Cahokia Mounds is in the running to receive $25,000 TO BUY MORE ADJACENT LAND. They are a finalist in the This Place Matters competition from The Trust for Historic Preservation. You need to register to vote, but its worth it!

http://www.preservationnation.org/take- ... ounds.html

It could buy about three more parcels. P-D write up here:
http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journa ... 94801.html

the central scrutinizer · PostJun 04, 2011#802011-06-04T17:27+00:00

gary kreie · PostFeb 13, 2012#812012-02-13T02:09+00:00

I feel that I have a connection with the ancients who constructed Stonehenge and Woodhenge. GarageHenge. I made this video this morning.

http://youtu.be/cqVqb7v1b6U

roger wyoming II · PostJan 23, 2013#822013-01-23T22:50+00:00

Tomorrow evening (Jan 24th) a public meeting will be held at Cahokia Mounds as part of a feasibility study to determine the appropriate national designation for Cahokia Mounds and surrounding sites. The goal is to elevating the status of these treasures. A regional meeting will also be held at Forest Park on Feb 19th. More information can be found at www.heartlandsconservancy.org

rbeedee · PostMay 19, 2016#832016-05-19T00:46+00:00

What would a National Park Service designation mean for Cahokia Mounds?

Now, the site is inching closer to a what could be a monumental distinction: becoming a unit of the National Park Service.

Though preservationists have talked about it for years, the effort to bring Cahokia Mounds into the National Park Service picked up steam in 2014. That’s when a study by the nonprofit HeartLands Conservancy concluded that a partnership between the National Park Service and the state of Illinois would be both beneficial and feasible. The report is aptly titled “The Mounds – America’s First Cities,” and you can read it here.

The group has letters of support from local elected officials and civic groups endorsing the notion of making Cahokia Mounds some type of national park unit, said Laura Lyon, who leads the mounds project for the conservancy group. Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has endorsed the plan. So has the St. Louis Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America.

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., recently stirred the pot again by sending a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to use his powers under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to declare Cahokia Mounds a unit of the National Park System. Durbin cited the HeartLands study as evidence of the “overwhelming support” for a collaborative partnership between the state of Illinois and the NPS.

In addition to his letter to Obama requesting national monument status, Durbin had previously asked the National Park Service to conduct its own study of Cahokia Mounds.

That NPS study is currently in progress and should be completed by the end of the year, said Tim Good, superintendent of the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, who is working on the report.

The next step in the NPS process would be another study. Called a special resource study, it would be more detailed and comprehensive. And it would require Congressional legislation, according to Good.

A national monument designation by Obama would expedite the process.

shimmy · PostMay 20, 2016#842016-05-20T15:01+00:00

The fact that Cahokia Mounds isn't already a national park is a national disgrace.

Sent from my HTC Desire 610 using Tapatalk

shadrach · PostMay 20, 2016#852016-05-20T15:24+00:00

Rally!! Now is the time for Missouri lawmakers and senators to step up and block the NPS designation!!!

xing · PostJun 11, 2016#862016-06-11T03:26+00:00

Dick Durbin would be the senator to pressure for this.

If you know the history, Thomas Jefferson was president when the mounds were first discovered by Europeans. He was at war with the natives at the time, and didn't want to portray them as civilized, which this would have done. At this point , that argument has no purpose.

whitherSTL · PostAug 18, 2016#872016-08-18T02:31+00:00

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016 ... ans-vanish

shimmy · PostAug 22, 2016#882016-08-22T01:05+00:00

^A very good article. Thank you for sharing.

I've recently done some minor research on the Native Americans and even just that little bit of effort made such a huge impact on my perception of history. Today's Americans seem to group all Native Americans together and picture them all the same, whether they're doing so out of a "noble savage" mindset or with an "evil white man" narrative, and ironically that's the same mistake that past western governments made when dealing with various tribes. The reality is that the Iroquois and the Comanches, for example, were as different in language, warfare, culture, and political structure as the Romans were from the Germanic Barbarians. But, nuance is tricky thing to teach, especially nowadays.

stlwahoo · PostDec 14, 2016#892016-12-14T01:26+00:00

http://arstechnica.com/features/2016/12 ... s-suburbs/

framer · PostJul 16, 2019#902019-07-16T18:35+00:00

Momentum is growing to get Cahokia Mounds named a National Park:

https://www.constructforstl.org/support ... rk-status/

sc4mayor · PostApr 25, 2021#912021-04-25T20:18+00:00

From the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/scie ... loods.html

RockChalkSTL · PostMay 13, 2021#922021-05-13T15:58+00:00

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/governm ... ional-park

The quest to make Cahokia Mounds a national park is continuing.

I hope the mounds are able to win the designation. It'd be super exciting to say that there are two national parks within 15 minutes of downtown St. Louis.

It'd also be really neat to see that site get the love and care it deserves.

Could spur a smidge more tourism, too.

symphonicpoet · PostMay 14, 2021#932021-05-14T05:40+00:00

^A friend from New York is apparently reading a book about them at present. Trying to ask her what book but I haven't gotten a reply yet. That said . . . for once it wasn't me as told someone about them.

Had a fun conversation outside Nottingham a couple of years ago about them with a British fellow who had some familiarity.

framer · PostMay 14, 2021#942021-05-14T11:57+00:00

Years ago, there was an episode of the TV version of Highlander which featured a character originally born in Cahokia in 1150. I thought that was pretty cool.

https://highlander.fandom.com/wiki/Coltec

symphonicpoet · PostMay 15, 2021#952021-05-15T05:23+00:00

^Neat! Even a particularly cool character.

RockChalkSTL · PostNov 26, 2021#962021-11-26T17:16+00:00

Cahokia Mounds wouldn't be the prettiest national park, by far, but I think it has a ton of potential and its historical significance warrants more attention than the site presently garners.

How many national parks or forests actually honor Native Americans for their society and innovation as a primary focus? I can't imagine it is many, if any at all.

In this day and age when Columbus Day and Thanksgiving and other holidays are under some fire for their historical baggage, for how Americans are essentially celebrating on the graves of our indigenous peoples, you would think something like Cahokia Mounds becoming a national park could gain some traction.

symphonicpoet · PostNov 26, 2021#972021-11-26T20:05+00:00

KansasCitian wrote: ↑
Nov 26, 2021
Cahokia Mounds wouldn't be the prettiest national park, by far, but I think it has a ton of potential and its historical significance warrants more attention than the site presently garners.

How many national parks or forests actually honor Native Americans for their society and innovation as a primary focus? I can't imagine it is many, if any at all.

In this day and age when Columbus Day and Thanksgiving and other holidays are under some fire for their historical baggage, for how Americans are essentially celebrating on the graves of our indigenous peoples, you would think something like Cahokia Mounds becoming a national park could gain some traction.

There's a few. Mesa Verde is probably the most famous, and it might be the only one that's a full blown park. But there are several other NPS administered cultural sites in the area. Canyon de Chelly and Montezuma's Castle, Newspaper Rock . . . The ancestral puebloans and related/entangled cultures in the four corners area probably get the lions share of NPS sited dedicated to Native Americans. There's also a few NPS administered battlefields, the Little Bighorn probably most prominent among them. The various mound building cultures are probably as important to Native American history as the Puebloan cultures, really. They covered an even wider geographic area and had larger cities and settlements. They have descendants who are still with us today. But the midwest is less "scenic" and there are more people here, so interpretation is more complicated. The NPS is pretty much run by scouts as far as I can tell, and we do like our hiking and camping, so less populous and more topographically dramatic sites will probably always win. Even if the less dramatic sites are equally or even more historically significant.

RockChalkSTL · PostNov 26, 2021#982021-11-26T20:26+00:00

I do know that there are people who are actively trying to have Cahokia Mounds become a national park, but I don't know if they have any momentum at all. It wouldn't surprise me if they don't have any, for the reasons you provided.

symphonicpoet · PostNov 26, 2021#992021-11-26T20:29+00:00

^I have mixed emotions about moving it to the NPS anyway. I'm not convinced they're the best possible stewards and they tend to drive a lot of traffic and make doing anything interesting more . . . complicated.

UrbanPlanner2022 · PostDec 01, 2021#1002021-12-01T05:41+00:00

Timely discussion.

Illinois senators want Cahokia Mounds added as a 'unit' of National Park Service

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/local ... 2605884a3e

Cahokia Mounds

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