Mound City : The place of the indigenous past and present in St. Louis / Patricia Cleary.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cleary, Patricia, 1962- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America--Missouri--Saint Louis--History.

Indians of North America.

Indigenous people--Missouri--Saint Louis--History.

Mounds--Missouri--Saint Louis--History.

Mounds.

Indians of North America--Missouri--Saint Louis--Antiquities.

Indigenous people--Missouri--Saint Louis--Antiquities.

Saint Louis (Mo.)--History.

Saint Louis (Mo.).

Local Subjects:

Indigenous people--Missouri--Saint Louis--History.

Indigenous people--Missouri--Saint Louis--Antiquities.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (463 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Columbia, Missouri : University of Missouri Press, [2024]

Summary:

"In this first ever book-length treatment of the mounds that defined early St. Louis history and the layers of Indigenous histories that have shaped the so-called "Gateway to the West," Mound City tells a gripping story of pasts and peoples that resonates into the present"-- Provided by publisher.

"Nearly one thousand years ago, Native peoples built a satellite suburb of America's great metropolis on the site that later became St. Louis. At its height, as many as 30,000 people lived in and around present-day Cahokia, Illinois. While the mounds around Cahokia survive today (as part of a state historic site and UNESCO world heritage site), the monumental earthworks that stood on the western shore of the Mississippi were razed in the 1800s. But before and after they fell, the mounds held an important place in St. Louis history, earning it the nickname "Mound City." For decades, the city had an Indigenous reputation. Tourists came to marvel at the mounds and to see tribal delegations in town for trade and diplomacy. As the city grew, St. Louisans repurposed the mounds-for a reservoir, a restaurant, and railroad landfill-in the process destroying cultural artifacts and sacred burial sites. Despite evidence to the contrary, some white Americans declared the mounds natural features, not built ones, and cheered their leveling. Others espoused far-fetched theories about a lost race of Mound Builders killed by the ancestors of contemporary tribes. Ignoring Indigenous people's connections to the mounds, white Americans positioned themselves as the legitimate inheritors of the land and asserted that modern Native peoples were destined to vanish. Such views underpinned coerced treaties and forced removals, and-when Indigenous peoples resisted-military action. The idea of the "Vanishing Indian" also fueled the erasure of Indigenous peoples' histories, a practice that continued in the 1900s in civic celebrations that featured white St. Louisans "playing Indian" and heritage groups claiming the mounds as part of their own history. Yet Native peoples endured and in recent years, have successfully begun to reclaim the sole monumental mound remaining within city limits. Drawing on a wide range of sources-including maps, daguerreotypes, real estate deeds, court records, travelers' accounts, scientific treatises, government records, and personal correspondence-Patricia Cleary explores the layers of the Indigenous history of St. Louis. Along with the first in-depth overview of the life, death, and afterlife of the mounds, Mound City offers a gripping account of how layers of Indigenous history have shaped the city's growth, landscape, and civic culture. "-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Chapter One. Metropolis on the Mississippi

Chapter Two. Indigenous Migration and Early Europeans

Chapter Three. War and the Missouria Foundation of St. Louis

Chapter Four. The Indigenous World of Colonial St. Louis

Chapter Five. Claiming the Mounds for the Nation

Chapter Six. The Indigenous Reputation of "Red-Head's Town"

Chapter Seven. Repurposing the Mounds for Urban Development

Chapter Eight. "Little Hope of Its Standing Fast". The Big Mound in the 1850s

Chapter Nine. The Destruction of the Big Mound

Chapter Ten. Writing the Afterlife of the Mounds

Chapter Eleven. The Indigenous Past and Present as Local History

Chapter Twelve. Celebrating Mounds and their Builders in the Pageant and Masque

Chapter Thirteen. Commemoration and Preservation

Chapter Fourteen. Layers of Indigenous Histories.

Notes:

Title from eBook information screen..

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780826274991

0826274994

OCLC:

1430662485