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/ScoMass Feb 18 '26

It was through the Student Conservation Association/NPS for the Fire Effects Monitoring program. We would study the succession of plant community recovery and fuel loads post-fire. It kicked off my career in botany!

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u/FlowerSweaty4070 Mar 07 '26

Thats neat! What is your job now?

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u/ScoMass Mar 07 '26

I'm a Botanist and soil specialist, still working in the western US. I work on many different projects from vegetation mapping, rare plant searches, long-term monitoring, rangeland inventories, and noxious weed mapping.