ABSTRACT
The first French explorers who arrived in Cahokia found that the Native Americans who lived nearby did not have the sophistication to build such a city, and that they knew nothing about the people who had built this one. As a result, the settlers speculated that the remains were created by an earlier race of “Mound Builders” that had since disappeared. Modern archeologists have demonstrated
convincingly that Cahokia and other mound complexes were indeed constructed by Native Americans, but what happened to the residents of Cahokia is a mystery. By C.E. 1400 Cahokia was deserted and the people gone.
