10 Prologue Beginnings
A sedentary lifestyle promoted population growth
in other ways. Infants and toddlers were a nuisance on
the trail; some hunting and foraging Indians practiced
abortion or even infanticide to ensure mobility and
reduce the number of mouths to feed. But farming
Indians nearly always could make use of additional
hands, even young ones, to help with plowing, hoe-
ing, weeding, and harvesting. Because farmers rarely
moved, they built more permanent homes and more
successfully sheltered infants from inclement weather
and physical dangers.
As in the Southwest, the corn-cultivating peoples
of the Mississippi Valley responded to increasing pop-
ulation by clearing more woodland and planting more
corn. At first, corn cultivators and hunting-foraging
peoples successfully cohabited within the same ecosys-
tem: Hunters traded for corn, essential for survival
during winter, and corn cultivators traded for game, a
source of complex protein. But over time the two
groups often came into conflict, and when they did,
the more numerous corn cultivators prevailed.
The corn-cultivating societies expanded west into
Dakota, east through the Carolinas, south into
Florida, and north into Wisconsin. Their villages con-
sisted of clusters of homes, surrounded by cornfields.
They shared a constellation of beliefs and ritual prac-
tices known as the Mississippian cultural complex.
Like the Hopewell, they built burial mounds, but
those of the corn cultivators were much larger. Some
villages became towns and even small cities. Large
temples and granaries and the homes of the govern-
ing elite were located on top of the mounds.
The most important and populous of these com-
munities was located in the vicinity of St. Louis.
Archaeologists call it Cahokia.
Pre-Columbian Societies of the Americasat
myhistorylab.comCahokia: The Hub of Mississippian Culture
By AD 1000, Cahokia was a major center of trade,
shops and crafts, and religious and political activities.
It was the first true urban center in what is now the
United States. By 1150, at the height of its develop-
ment, it covered six square miles and had more than
15,000 inhabitants.
The earthworks at Cahokia included some twenty
huge mounds around a downtown plaza, with
another 100 large mounds in the outlying areas. The
largest mound was 110 feet high, covered fourteen
acres, and contained 20 million cubic yards of earth.
It was probably the largest earthen structure in the
Americas. Atop the mound was a fifty-foot-high
wood-framed temple.
Cahokian society was characterized by sharp class
divisions. The elite lived in larger homes and con-
sumed a better and more varied diet (their garbage
pits included bones from the best cuts of meat). The
corpse of one chieftain was buried upon a bed of
20,000 beaded shells; nearby was a long piece of
shaped copper from Lake Superior, several bushels
of bird and animal sculptures made of mica, and over
1,000 arrows, many with beautiful quartz or obsidian
points. Near the chieftain’s bones were the skeletons
of fifty women ranging from eighteen to twenty-three
years old, likely sacrifices to the gods. Their bones
were genetically different from the Cahokian skele-
tons, suggesting that the young women were captives
in war or tribute sent by vassal states.
That the Cahokia had enemies is confirmed by
the existence of a three-mile-long wooden palisade
surrounding the central core of the city. It consisted
of 20,000 enormous tree trunks, pounded deep into
the ground, interspersed with several dozen watch-
towers from which defenders could unloose arrows
upon besiegers.
In the central plaza of Cahokia, skilled workers
carved religious figurines from quartz, mica, and
galena. Others painted similar symbols on pottery or
etched them in copper goods. Lesser chieftains brought
corn and other foodstuffs into Cahokia, perhaps as trib-
ute, while the Cahokia rulers reciprocated with gifts ofSeetheMapCeramic vessels were a sign of progress: They enabled peoples to store
water and foods. By 550 CE, the Anasazi painted ceramics, usually with
geometrical designs. This pitcher is about ten inches high.