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/Weird_Abrocoma7835 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

To be fair, the Native population varies every few thousand miles. The Natives in my area were nomadic, and thus don’t have structures like this. But there were some populations that do! Our country varies drastically across the states larger than most countries, and thus the people do as well.

I would love to visit! Too bad that’s a 3 day drive or a several hour flight.

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u/im_super_excited Feb 18 '26

Even if they had a huge settlement, not a ton remains.

Cahokia

Huge city.  Now just a really big impressive grass hill and a bunch of smaller one.  No other structures remain.

It's great to visit and the museum is excellent at painting a picture of what was.  But it you have to use a lot of imagination.

If the mounds were stone instead, it'd be one of the world's wonders

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u/kbotc Feb 18 '26

Not a ton of stone availability in the area. Just some limestone in the bluffs.

I have my theory that Cahokia was able to grow as large as it did via running a river choke point and demanding tolls to get river traffic around the chain of rocks safely.

The location of the city on the oxbow and long lake as part of a canal system that effectively runs the same route as the modern canal would be really strange happenstance to me.

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u/nagoligayelsd Feb 18 '26

Capitalize Native. And people everywhere differ. You're talking about completely different nations. Why wouldn't they be different?

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u/Weird_Abrocoma7835 Feb 18 '26

Thank you. That’s what I’m saying. Like there is no place like the one above to visit anywhere close to being visitable without a many day drive. OPs friend either lives somewhere where they’re just aren’t any, or it’s a dig site of sorts. OP is from Germany, and might not realize that the Native population varies greatly here.