The Ancient Native City Hidden Beneath America – And Why Scientists Think It Was Once One Of The Largest Settlements North Of Mexico

It requires a more fundamental revision of the framework through which American history is understood.

A history that begins with European contact and treats everything before it as prologue is a history organized around European perspectives.

A history that takes seriously the societies that existed in North America before European contact — that recognizes Cahokia as one of the largest cities in the world at its time, that acknowledges the sophistication of Mississippian trade networks, governance, and ceremonial life — is a different kind of history, one organized around the full sweep of human activity on this continent.

That different history is not less American.