The question of governance at Cahokia is ultimately one that the archaeological evidence can only partially answer.

Political systems are not preserved in the soil in the same way that buildings and pottery are.

What can be inferred from the physical evidence will always be uncertain to some degree, and different archaeologists will make different inferences from the same data.

What is clear is that whatever governance system existed at Cahokia was effective enough to build Monks Mound, create the Grand Plaza, maintain the palisade, and coordinate the labor and resources of tens of thousands of people over a period of centuries.

That effectiveness, whatever its specific organizational form, was a genuine political achievement.