Overview

Nearly one thousand years ago, Native Americans built a satellite suburb of ancient America’s great metropolis, Cahokia, on the site that later became St. Louis. At its height, as many as 30,000 people lived in and around Cahokia. While the eastern mounds of Cahokia survive today (designated as a state historic site and UNESCO world heritage site), the monumental earthworks that stood on the western shore of the Mississippi were razed by railroad workers 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, residents repurposed the mounds—for a reservoir, a restaurant, and railroad landfill—in the process destroying cultural artifacts and sacred burials. 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 Indigenous peoples. Ignoring Indigenous people’s connections to the mounds, white Americans positioned themselves as the inheritors to the ancient traditions and asserted that modern Native peoples were destined to vanish. These are, of course, the same such views that served as justification for national policy that effected Indian Removal and, to a great extent, the exclusion of Indigenous people from politics and society. Claiming Indigenous history as their own, white St. Louisans would go on to play the roles of Mound Builders in a city-sponsored history pageant, while a women’s heritage group commemorated the mounds as local history. 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 readers compelling evidence of the place of Indigenous peoples in the city’s growth, the evolution of its landscape, and the episodes and monuments that shaped its civic culture.

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9780826223043

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Reviews

"""Mound City an enlightening, well-researched history that provides readers with a complete view of the creation, use, loss, and legacy of the mounds, alongside dozens of illustrations and images. Whether you're an avid historian or haven't encountered the story of the mounds since a grade school field trip, you'll find interesting details and illuminating narratives in this exhaustive new work."" --St. Louis Magazine ""Although Patricia Cleary's superb and significant book does not restore the man-made elevations that gave St. Louis its nickname, Mound City allows readers to see what has been cleared from the cityscape: the mounds built by Indians many centuries ago and the more recent history of Indigenous peoples in the creation of the city, their displacement from it, and their continuing struggle against the erasure of their past and presence. Mound City is a major contribution to St. Louis history and a model for how to rewrite urban histories that defy the nineteenth-century myth of 'vanishing Indians.'""--Stephen Aron, President and CEO, Autry Museum of the American West, author of Peace and Friendship: An Alternative History of the American West ""In Mound City, Cleary has written an urban history that every American and Canadian city needs, a history that restores the Indigenous past and continuing presence in the urban landscape. As Cleary reminds us, we were all taught to think and see like settlers. With this dense, beautifully written, and impeccably researched history, Cleary helps us all to take off those blinders. She does so with an unsparingly critical eye without ever losing the familial affection for her home city. We expect there to be the opening chapter about the Indigenous past, but in this book Cleary not only brings the Indigenous history of St. Louis into the twentieth century, she shows us how memory and history have shaped each other throughout the centuries. Even as the mounds of this metropolitan region were destroyed and built over, they were appropriated as part of the city's civic identity. In short, razing and naming have been two sides of the same coin of development. With this book by Cleary and Ned Blackhawk's recent book, we begin the process of rediscovering America and acknowledging--in Cleary's words--""its deep and profound connection to Indigenous peoples, distant, recent, and present.""--Jay Gitlin, Yale University, author of TheBourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion ""This groundbreaking book will surprise readers who believe that Indigenous peoples and cultures had little to do with urban development in the United States. With fresh insight, Cleary shows how the ascendance of St. Louis as a major metropolis proceeded hand in hand with a relentless and only partly successful drive among European colonists and their descendants to expunge Native inhabitants and their material traces from the rapidly growing city. Ultimately, Mound City stands as a testament to the enduring Native American presence in an important American city. Cleary brilliantly recounts the desecration and destruction of Indian mounds, but the book is about much more, underscoring America's failure to come to terms with its Indigenous past. It deserves a place alongside Walter Johnsons' The Broken Heart of America on your bookshelf.""--Andrew Hurley, University of Missouri-St. Louis, author of Beyond Preservation: Using Public History to Revitalize Inner Cities ""A powerfully hard-hitting historical rescue operation.""--Robert Michael Morrissey, University of Illinois, author of People of the Ecotone: Environment and Indigenous Power at the Center of Early America ""Patricia Cleary's artfully crafted account of St. Louis's iconic Indian mounds skillfully redresses the systematic erasure of indigenous people and their stories from historical narratives past and present. The book's superb scholarship and its engaging storyline will make it a must read for academic specialists and history buffs alike and a model for future such studies.""--William E. Foley, author of Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark and The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood"

"""A powerfully hard-hitting historical rescue operation.""--Robert Michael Morrissey, University of Illinois, author of People of the Ecotone: Environment and Indigenous Power at the Center of Early America ""Patricia Cleary's artfully crafted account of St. Louis's iconic Indian mounds skillfully redresses the systematic erasure of indigenous people and their stories from historical narratives past and present. The book's superb scholarship and its engaging storyline will make it a must read for academic specialists and history buffs alike and a model for future such studies.""--William E. Foley, author of Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark and The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood"

"""Although Patricia Cleary's superb and significant book does not restore the man-made elevations that gave St. Louis its nickname, Mound City allows readers to see what has been cleared from the cityscape: the mounds built by Indians many centuries ago and the more recent history of Indigenous peoples in the creation of the city, their displacement from it, and their continuing struggle against the erasure of their past and presence. Mound City is a major contribution to St. Louis history and a model for how to rewrite urban histories that defy the nineteenth-century myth of 'vanishing Indians.'""--Stephen Aron, President and CEO, Autry Museum of the American West, author of Peace and Friendship: An Alternative History of the American West ""In Mound City, Cleary has written an urban history that every American and Canadian city needs, a history that restores the Indigenous past and continuing presence in the urban landscape. As Cleary reminds us, we were all taught to think and see like settlers. With this dense, beautifully written, and impeccably researched history, Cleary helps us all to take off those blinders. She does so with an unsparingly critical eye without ever losing the familial affection for her home city. We expect there to be the opening chapter about the Indigenous past, but in this book Cleary not only brings the Indigenous history of St. Louis into the twentieth century, she shows us how memory and history have shaped each other throughout the centuries. Even as the mounds of this metropolitan region were destroyed and built over, they were appropriated as part of the city's civic identity. In short, razing and naming have been two sides of the same coin of development. With this book by Cleary and Ned Blackhawk's recent book, we begin the process of rediscovering America and acknowledging--in Cleary's words--""its deep and profound connection to Indigenous peoples, distant, recent, and present.""--Jay Gitlin, Yale University, author of TheBourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion ""This groundbreaking book will surprise readers who believe that Indigenous peoples and cultures had little to do with urban development in the United States. With fresh insight, Cleary shows how the ascendance of St. Louis as a major metropolis proceeded hand in hand with a relentless and only partly successful drive among European colonists and their descendants to expunge Native inhabitants and their material traces from the rapidly growing city. Ultimately, Mound City stands as a testament to the enduring Native American presence in an important American city. Cleary brilliantly recounts the desecration and destruction of Indian mounds, but the book is about much more, underscoring America's failure to come to terms with its Indigenous past. It deserves a place alongside Walter Johnsons' The Broken Heart of America on your bookshelf.""--Andrew Hurley, University of Missouri-St. Louis, author of Beyond Preservation: Using Public History to Revitalize Inner Cities ""A powerfully hard-hitting historical rescue operation.""--Robert Michael Morrissey, University of Illinois, author of People of the Ecotone: Environment and Indigenous Power at the Center of Early America ""Patricia Cleary's artfully crafted account of St. Louis's iconic Indian mounds skillfully redresses the systematic erasure of indigenous people and their stories from historical narratives past and present. The book's superb scholarship and its engaging storyline will make it a must read for academic specialists and history buffs alike and a model for future such studies.""--William E. Foley, author of Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark and The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood"

"""This groundbreaking book will surprise readers who believe that Indigenous peoples and cultures had little to do with urban development in the United States. With fresh insight, Cleary shows how the ascendance of St. Louis as a major metropolis proceeded hand in hand with a relentless and only partly successful drive among European colonists and their descendants to expunge Native inhabitants and their material traces from the rapidly growing city. Ultimately, Mound City stands as a testament to the enduring Native American presence in an important American city. Cleary brilliantly recounts the desecration and destruction of Indian mounds, but the book is about much more, underscoring America's failure to come to terms with its Indigenous past. It deserves a place alongside Walter Johnsons' The Broken Heart of America on your bookshelf.""--Andrew Hurley, University of Missouri-St. Louis, author of Beyond Preservation: Using Public History to Revitalize Inner Cities ""Although Patricia Cleary's superb and significant book does not restore the manmade elevations that gave St. Louis its nickname, Mound City allows readers to see what has been cleared from the cityscape: the mounds built by Indians many centuries ago and the more recent history of Indigenous peoples in the creation of the city, their displacement from it, and their continuing struggle against the erasure of their past and presence. Mound City is a major contribution to St. Louis history and a model for how to rewrite urban histories that defy the nineteenth-century myth of 'vanishing Indians.'""--Stephen Aron, President and CEO, Autry Museum of the American West, author of Peace and Friendship: An Alternative History of the American West ""In Mound City, Cleary has written an urban history that every American and Canadian city needs, a history that restores the Indigenous past and continuing presence in the urban landscape. As Cleary reminds us, we were all taught to think and see like settlers. With this dense, beautifully written, and impeccably researched history, Cleary helps us all to take off those blinders. She does so with an unsparingly critical eye without ever losing the familial affection for her home city. We expect there to be the opening chapter about the Indigenous past, but in this book Cleary not only brings the Indigenous history of St. Louis into the twentieth century, she shows us how memory and history have shaped each other throughout the centuries. Even as the mounds of this metropolitan region were destroyed and built over, they were appropriated as part of the city's civic identity. In short, razing and naming have been two sides of the same coin of development. With this book by Cleary and Ned Blackhawk's recent book, we begin the process of rediscovering America and acknowledging--in Cleary's words--""its deep and profound connection to Indigenous peoples, distant, recent, and present.""--Jay Gitlin, Yale University, author of TheBourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion ""A powerfully hard-hitting historical rescue operation.""--Robert Michael Morrissey, University of Illinois, author of People of the Ecotone: Environment and Indigenous Power at the Center of Early America ""Patricia Cleary's artfully crafted account of St. Louis's iconic Indian mounds skillfully redresses the systematic erasure of indigenous people and their stories from historical narratives past and present. The book's superb scholarship and its engaging storyline will make it a must read for academic specialists and history buffs alike and a model for future such studies.""--William E. Foley, author of Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark and The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood"

"""Although Patricia Cleary's superb and significant book does not restore the manmade elevations that gave St. Louis its nickname, Mound City allows readers to see what has been cleared from the cityscape: the mounds built by Indians many centuries ago and the more recent history of Indigenous peoples in the creation of the city, their displacement from it, and their continuing struggle against the erasure of their past and presence. Mound City is a major contribution to St. Louis history and a model for how to rewrite urban histories that defy the nineteenth-century myth of 'vanishing Indians.'""--Stephen Aron, President and CEO, Autry Museum of the American West, author of Peace and Friendship: An Alternative History of the American West ""This groundbreaking book will surprise readers who believe that Indigenous peoples and cultures had little to do with urban development in the United States. With fresh insight, Cleary shows how the ascendance of St. Louis as a major metropolis proceeded hand in hand with a relentless and only partly successful drive among European colonists and their descendants to expunge Native inhabitants and their material traces from the rapidly growing city. Ultimately, Mound City stands as a testament to the enduring Native American presence in an important American city. Cleary brilliantly recounts the desecration and destruction of Indian mounds, but the book is about much more, underscoring America's failure to come to terms with its Indigenous past. It deserves a place alongside Walter Johnsons' The Broken Heart of America on your bookshelf.""--Andrew Hurley, University of Missouri-St. Louis, author of Beyond Preservation: Using Public History to Revitalize Inner-Cities ""In Mound City, Cleary has written an urban history that every American and Canadian city needs, a history that restores the Indigenous past and continuing presence in the urban landscape. As Cleary reminds us, we were all taught to think and see like settlers. With this dense, beautifully written, and impeccably researched history, Cleary helps us all to take off those blinders. She does so with an unsparingly critical eye without ever losing the familial affection for her home city. We expect there to be the opening chapter about the Indigenous past, but in this book Cleary not only brings the Indigenous history of St. Louis into the twentieth century, she shows us how memory and history have shaped each other throughout the centuries. Even as the mounds of this metropolitan region were destroyed and built over, they were appropriated as part of the city's civic identity. In short, razing and naming have been two sides of the same coin of development. With this book by Cleary and Ned Blackhawk's recent book, we begin the process of rediscovering America and acknowledging--in Cleary's words--""its deep and profound connection to Indigenous peoples, distant, recent, and present.""--Jay Gitlin, Yale University, author of TheBourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion ""A powerfully hard-hitting historical rescue operation.""--Robert Michael Morrissey, University of Illinois, author of People of the Ecotone: Environment and Indigenous Power at the Center of Early America ""Patricia Cleary's artfully crafted account of St. Louis's iconic Indian mounds skillfully redresses the systematic erasure of indigenous people and their stories from historical narratives past and present. The book's superb scholarship and its engaging storyline will make it a must read for academic specialists and history buffs alike and a model for future such studies.""--William E. Foley, author of Wilderness Journey: The Life of William Clark and The Genesis of Missouri: From Wilderness Outpost to Statehood"

Author Information

Patricia Cleary is Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach, where she researches early American history and the intersections of gender and commerce in British North America. She is the author of two books, including The World, the Flesh, and the Devil: A History of Colonial St. Louis.

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