Cahokia, Part II: The City That Vanished Twice

<p>In Part Two of our look at Cahokia, we turn from the city’s rise to its decline—and to the myths that followed. We examine the major explanations archaeologists have proposed, including flooding, drought, disease, warfare, environmental stress, and political breakdown, while asking why no single cause fully explains what happened. More importantly, we explore how Cahokia’s people adapted, moved, and continued beyond the city’s collapse. Then we trace Cahokia’s second disappearance: the destruction of its mounds and the racist Mound Builder myth that helped erase Indigenous achievement from American history and from the landscape itself for generations that came afterward.</p><p><br></p>