Photo: Kiva at Pueblo Bonito at the Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico. Source: Shutterstock
When most people think of ancient ruins and other structures, they think of Stonehenge, the Pyramids at Giza, the Great Wall of China, Angkor Wat, or Machu Picchu. You didn’t think of Chaco Canyon, Poverty Point, or Cahokia, did you?
That’s because North America “doesn’t have” sites like that.
But Chaco Canyon, Poverty Point, and Cahokia are all found in the United States, and are the remnants of once-great Native American cities. They aren’t well known because of the racist history of the United States, where Native Americans have been treated as doomed savages, simple people who never built anything lasting, or simply are ignored.
“Cahokia doesn’t mesh with the narrative of what the U.S. was like [before the arrival of European colonists],” says Dr. Adrienne Keene, a Native scholar and activist. “We are taught that nothing was here, so Native people deserved to have their land taken away. There would be less excitement about making Cahokia a national monument: that’s how white supremacy and colonialism work.”
But Cahokia and other Native American sites are here, and they’re pretty amazing. They’re also not well funded or terribly popular, but that’s because most people don’t know about them.
We can change that, though! Tourism requires tourists, so if people pay more attention to sites like Cahokia near St. Louis, Poverty Point in Louisiana, or Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, they’ll get more fame and more funding, and more people will go to see them.
You can help with the process. The next time you’re planning a trip, think about ancient cultural sites in North America. Look these places up online, look for similar places, and plan a trip. If you’re already planning to go somewhere in the U.S., look for national parks that have sites you can visit.
If you spend your vacation money visiting ancient ruins in North America, you’ll definitely have a more interesting story to tell at parties than “I was yet another person who saw the Eiffel Tower.”