Some of the population dispersal from Cahokia may have moved north, into the communities of the upper Great Lakes and the northern Mississippi Valley.

Archaeological evidence for Mississippian-influenced material culture in these northern regions increases in the period of Cahokia’s decline, suggesting that the movement of people from the American Bottom brought Mississippian cultural elements into communities that had previously had only trade contact with the Mississippian world.

Some of the dispersal likely moved south, along the Mississippi River into the communities of the lower valley where Mississippian culture continued to flourish.

The great mound centers of the lower Mississippi Valley — Emerald Mound in Mississippi, Winterville Mounds, Plaquemine culture sites in Louisiana — were all contemporaneous with or postdated Cahokia’s decline, and the cultural connections between these centers and the Cahokia tradition are clear in the archaeological record.