Trade supplemented local production with materials and goods that the American Bottom itself did not produce.

The trade networks of Cahokia were among the most extensive in pre-contact North America, connecting the city to sources of raw materials and finished goods across an enormous geographic area.

Marine shell from the Gulf of Mexico — used for ornaments, ceremonial objects, and as a medium for the distinctive Mississippian artistic tradition of engraving — arrived at Cahokia from hundreds of miles to the south.

Copper from the Lake Superior region — also used for ornaments and ceremonial objects, beaten into distinctive shapes that appear in burials across the Mississippian world — arrived from the north.