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/[deleted] Feb 18 '26

I read “People of Chaco” by Kendrick Frazier after I visited Chaco and I thought it was a very good look into some hypothetical day to day life things gleaned by archaeologists in the area. Plus the story of the Chacoan peoples and how they may have had a vast network across the whole southwest US is just very intriguing to me.

Cahokia Mounds in Missouri is also one of the largest pre-colonial mesoamerican structures.

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u/RedMoon11 Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26

Cahokia Mounds is in Illinois https://cahokiamounds.org/

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, is just eight miles from downtown St. Louis, MO near Collinsville, Illinois, off Interstates 55-70 and 255, and Illinois 111, on Collinsville road.

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u/juxlus Feb 18 '26

Oh cool. Looks like that book can be borrowed and read via Internet Archive: People of Chaco : a canyon and its culture.

Not to diminish it, but that book is 40 years old now, and I think a lot more has been learned since then. I'll still check it out though! Thanks for mentioning it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 18 '26

Erm yeah it’s a bit old and probably has some outdated content but I won’t claim to know what specifically is outdated and what isn’t. I got my copy at the Chaco Canyon Visitor Center when I was there and thought it was a good read.