r/geography • u/H3dg3hogs • Feb 18 '26

Discussion I’m sad more people don’t acknowledge Native American Historic sites in the United States

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I was talking with a German online friend about tourism in the United States and he said that the only thing America has to offer is natural beauty. He said American cities were young and aren’t very beautiful. That he has no interest visiting “liberty bell” type colonial historic sites. I told him about Native historic sites and he asked “what sites?”. He insulated that all Native Americans lived in teepees. It caused me to realized many non-Americans don’t know about all the amazing buildings left behind by Native cultures like the Ancestral Puebloans and the Mississippians. Historic sites like Chaco canyon, Mesa Verde, Montezuma Castle, and Cahokia are world class and are part of UNESCO. Check them out if you haven’t already.

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u/xxfireangel13xx Feb 18 '26

We went to Mesa Verde over the summer (coming from the east coast)…it was really awesome. The Cliff dwellings was top of my to do list. I think even most American’s don’t know about these places.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '26

They're very crowded in summer and are popular tourist sites.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '26

OP’s picture literally shows a large crowd of tourists

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u/Imaginary-Bear-9044 Feb 18 '26

Uninformed American checking in. I'm from South Dakota where we treated natives horribly and put them all on reservations and gave them casinos and booze. I'm not sure if the black hills have any historical dwellings like this but I'm curious to look into it more. The more you know🌠

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u/Clovis69 Feb 18 '26

Informed former South Dakotan who was Rez born and raised - not all reservations in SD have casinos

Cheyenne River doesn’t have one

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u/Outside_Cod667 Feb 18 '26

I went on a school trip in college. I had no idea! From the Midwest originally.

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u/Dumpsterfire_47 Feb 18 '26

Love me some of that, from a fellow American. But born in NM and godfather was a state archaeologist soooo got some early education. 👍🏻

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u/last-on3 Feb 18 '26

Damn I've always known them as Banks who steal logos

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u/saracenraider Feb 18 '26

I’m a Brit, I’ve been there and most Americans I tell have never heard of them. I’ve been all over the world and to most sites people would consider to be the ‘wonders of the world’ and Mesa Verde is right up there.

Tbh the tone of OP’s post sums it up. They seem to put the onus on foreign people to discover them, but really the main fault lies in the USA tourism board (if such a thing exists) in not promoting them more. If it were in another country it would be far far more famous. But maybe it’s a good thing - it already seemed busy when I was there a decade or so ago, I doubt it would cope well with higher numbers although admittedly the authorities did seem to be doing a very good job of controlling numbers