One of my only memories of my paternal grandmother was the day my dad took us to Chucalissa Native American village in Memphis on the bluffs of the Mississippi. This resurfaced a few months ago when I visited Cahokia Mounds here in Illinois and across that mighty river from St. Louis.
Both Chucalissa and Cahokia are pre-historic archeological sites known for their earthen mounds. Covering 2,200 acres today and nearly twice that originally, Cahokia is the largest of these sites on the American continent north of Mexico. At its peak some 900 years ago, as many as 20,000 people may have lived there. That was more than the population of London or Paris at the time and anywhere in what’s now the US until the 19th century.
Of the 120 mounds, 80 remain. They were used for civic and ceremonial purposes as well as burials. The inhabitants also erected “Woodhenges,” posts made from red cedar that lined up with the sun at certain times of the year.
I climbed Monks Mound, around 1000 feet and the largest man made mound on our continent. 150 steps up and there it was, the Mississippi River linking us all together - my dad, his mom, her grandmother, and all the way back to those first peoples who built and populated the mound I was standing on.
I’m Paula Garrett and that’s my perspective.
