Foundational Black Americans (Webinar - Special Edition)

Cahokia, Monk’s Mound

America’s Big River

• One of the biggest and longest rivers in the United States starts as a tiny stream of water in northern Minnesota.
• The Mississippi river begins in Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota.  It is so small at this point that you could almost jump across it!
• The stream swells and grows into a mighty river.
• As it moves south it collects water from other rivers that flow into it.
• Finally, it empties into the Gulf of Mexico, 2,340 miles from where it began.

Taken from, Down the Mighty Mississippi. Howard Gutner. Celebration Press: NJ, 2004

Monk’s Mound

• The largest mound, and incidentally the largest earthen mound in North America, lies in the north central portion of the group.  It is known as the Cahokia or Monk’s Mound.
• The name “Cahokia” may have been taken from a small creek by the same name that ran through the group, in as much as there is no evidence that the historic tribe of Cahokias had anything to do with the building of the mounds.
• The name “Monk’s Mound” is derived from a group of Trappists “Monks,” (from France) who lived on or near the mound from 1810 to 1813.