The Legacy in the Landscape

The influence of Cahokia on the broader landscape of North American history did not end when the city was abandoned.

The city’s decline and dispersal sent people — and with them, elements of the Mississippian cultural tradition — into communities across the eastern and central United States.

The specific cultural forms developed at Cahokia, and the organizational experiences accumulated over centuries of urban life, contributed to the ongoing development of Mississippian societies in other locations.

The great Mississippian centers that continued to flourish after Cahokia’s decline — Moundville in present-day Alabama, Etowah in present-day Georgia, Spiro in present-day Oklahoma, and others — drew on the same cultural tradition that Cahokia exemplified, whether or not they had direct connections to the Cahokia community.