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The Sacrifices They Made

By on 8.24.09 @ 6:05AM

Cahokia Mounds just got a lot more interesting.

Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi
Timothy R. Pauketat
(Viking Adult, 208 pages, $22.95)

I do not know how many times we visited Cahokia Mounds when I was a kid, but it had to be in the dozens. If our grade school missed an annual field trip to the nearby state historic site, then our Cub Scout troop made up for it. For the most part, we looked at dull dioramas of half naked Indians shucking corn and mending blankets. It was not until I reached middle age and picked up Timothy Pauketat’s new book about Cahokia that I came across the good stuff.

Approaching the park from Route 157 we would see burial mounds everywhere. There were mounds in people’s front yards and back yards. One guy even built a swimming pool into a mound. Not too long ago mounds were bulldozed to make way for a motel, a highway, a trailer park. Neighboring St. Louis used to be called Mound City, till the mounds were used for construction fill. (Having lived among St. Louisans my whole life, I did not find this information surprising.) Besides that, most of what we were told was just plain wrong. The mound builders were not the Cahokians, nor were they enlightened tree-huggers. We do not know who mound builders were. The Cahokia tribe did not come to the area until 1600. What’s more, the Cahokia site is located in Collinsville. The present-day village of Cahokia lies some 30 miles to the south.

Still as a boy it was fun to climb up the 100-foot Monks Mound (named after the 18th-century French monks who first documented the find) and its satellite mounds, which we were told contained the bones of ancient Indians, and were sort of like the pyramids in Egypt, only not as cool from an engineering standpoint. In later years representatives of American Indian groups curtailed our youthful exuberance, forcing visitors to stick to certain paths and stairways so as not to desecrate holy ground.

That sacred ground, we now know, was the site of the bloody mass murder of countless young women, bludgeoned or decapitated en masse as they stood on the edge of burial pits, sometimes as many 53 at a time, and not all of them dead when the pits were filled in. The 53 young women found in Mound 72 were killed so that two recently deceased twin brothers — royalty, no doubt — would not have to go to the afterlife unescorted. Fifty-three girls must not have been enough, because a year later another 39 men and women were sacrificed and buried on the spot. In one mound, archeologists uncovered 250 corpses. Now, before you blame the Europeans, Columbus was not born for another three centuries, and Leif Erickson never got farther south than Newfoundland.

AUTHOR TIMOTHY R. PAUKETAT has poured over the archeological evidence at Cahokia and his findings have overturned much of what we thought we knew about pre-Columbian societies. No peace-loving hunter-gatherers here, Pauketat writes. This civilization was “characterized by inequality, power struggles and social complexity.” Here was a caste system made up of an elite ruling class and a working class. If the mortuary rituals were the biggest headline-grabber, we also learn that the 12th-century Cahokians were city dwellers. Cahokia, with its population of 20,000 traders, farmers, priests and astronomers, was the largest city north of the Rio Grande until 18th-century Philadelphia.

Then, around the year 1200, something happened. Like the future lost colony of Roanoke, the tribe simply vanished. Pauketat can only speculate as to what happened. (Even local Illini Indians could only shrug when European explorers asked who built the mounds.) The Cahokians were corn farmers as well as unenlightened lumberjacks, so when deforestation ruined the soil they may have determined to pack up and move west to hunt buffalo, making that rare transition from nomads to city dwellers and back to nomads. Or, it is possible the neighboring tribes downriver who provided so many of the sacrificial virgin slaves, got fed up and banded together put the Cahokians to the sword. (Archeologists have found the remnants of a high two-mile stockade with guard towers built around the city.) Or there may have been a lower-caste rebellion — archeologists have found 50 skeletons unceremoniously dumped in one pit, some with arrowheads in the back, some beheaded. Or maybe they simply did not have satisfactory toilet facilities for 20,000 people.

Personally, I prefer the last theory. Kind of gives Montezuma’s revenge a whole new meaning. Whatever the case, the next time I take my son and his friends to Cahokia Mounds the trip is going to be a whole lot more interesting. I guarantee it.

About the Author

Christopher Orlet writes from St. Louis.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (38) |

Bill Thompson| 8.24.09 @ 7:56AM

Like the author, I have learned a lot about Indian culture after I became an adult. The Indian world was much like societies anywhere else in the world. There was incessant warfare and much cruelty, including gratuitous and ritual cruelty. But for the relativists who are likely to say, "all religions are equal," we can object to human sacrifice as a sacrament, can't we?

Bill Thompson'
Norfolk

Dave Lincoln| 8.24.09 @ 8:38AM

I don't know yet, Bill. Obama's hate-speech feedback committee said they would get back to me (oh and you too) within 3 bidness days. I hope you don't mind that I gave them your name and locale ;-)

BTW, I don't know where Americans get the crazy idea that the Indians were big "greenies", either. You got 5,000,000 people in the whole of North American, you can throw your crap anywhere. By the time the next human gets to that spot 20 years later, the earth has absorbed it. It's a bit different when you have 300,000,000 in the US alone, going on 500,000,000 by mid-century (due to immigration alone, BTW).

I am sure the book is interesting, though I don't want to pay 23 bucks. I wonder why these guys did not like digging holes and spent all that effort to pile things up into 100 ft. mounds. Is there some thick clay layer there? Maybe they just weren't the sharpest natives on the block.

I can see it now:

Indian Overseer to "Cool Hatchet Luke": "Hey, boss Injun says you took his dirt."

Cool Hatchet Luke: "Nah, boss, just doin' as he said. I've been building this mound since sun-up."

Overseer: "Boss man says you put that dirt back in boss man's hole."

Cool Hatchet Luke: "Yessa boss, wipin' it off boss, wipin it off."

Aaron| 8.24.09 @ 9:01AM

Our professor took our class to these mounds and amazingly enough we didn't get the usual "oppressed Indians just trying to sell their hand crafts shtick". While we didn't quite get this story, at least its nice to hear some people out there are still trying to search for truth. Of course he is/was not your typical professor... Would a Marine Vietnam Veteran Gunnery Sgt turned Professor fit in at Berkeley or Harvard? I agree with Bill above, its amazing how people think today is the day of the most fighting. Its always been this way, many times its been much, much worse.

Michael L. Hauschild| 8.24.09 @ 9:04AM

Anyone who had really done some research on the Native American mores and folkways, Ben Franklin was the first ambassador to the northern tribes, realizes that these people were not "green," not peaceful, and had some of the most gruesome rituals of any historical culture.
Off the point but:
What is the deal with the "Sugar Daddy Dating" Ad in the upper right hand corner of the page. The ad for the Pope's book "Charity in Truth" is on the other side of the article. Diversity?

erp| 8.24.09 @ 9:16AM

Good thing the enlightened Europeans came along to teach the indigenous population how to "just get along" and to be kind to animals and trees.

One of the most pernicious myths we teach our school children is that Indians were peaceful and worshiped nature. We have a lot to answer for in how the Indians were treated as we moved west, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't tell the truth about it.

blackelkspeaks| 8.24.09 @ 10:15AM

I, too, visited Cahokia as a child decades ago and was informed, even then, that the Mound Builders throughout America practiced human sacrifice. Fascinated, yet puzzled, I subsequently read, studied, and visited Amerindian sites in many other countries in our hemisphere. I learned very early that the demonization of Columbus and the Conquistadors was myopic and disingenuous, to say the least.

When the first Europeans came to the new world they encountered natives that practiced cannibalism, infanticide, and murderous human sacrifice on a scale that beggars the imagination. When Cortez entered Tenochtitlan he was horrified by mountains of skulls and pyramids running red with blood! I could no longer fault the Christian impulse for proselytization, since the Church viewed this as saving the benighted savages from eternal damnation, as well as saving the victims from ongoing violent death.

As I later came to recognize, the historical record shows that every society on earth practiced human sacrifice. I can find no other reason but that this practice symbolizes the earthly reality that in order for something to live, something else must die; "The blood is the life". Even the ancient Greek had their Iphigenia. Given this, I found that the only religious tradition that explicitly denounced this practice is the Judeo-Christian tradition. Reason enough to be a servant of the one true God!

Lisa| 8.24.09 @ 10:54AM

I am a Native American Indian. There are several books written where the author is as dumb as the person who reads and believe's the books content. We are a culture that uses a vacum to suck an infant out of the womb and discard it with the trash. Or to leave a full term baby on a table to die because some slut could not swallow a pill. A culture that has men that rapes and kills toddlers. Little boys raped by so called priests. What could be more gruesome than this. And to Dave your remark about the mounds does not take much logic to understand. Today people are buried in a certain location some call a grave yard with a tomb stone to help identify the area as a place of burial to be respected. We do not dig the grave beside the road or in a parking lot. So I guess the mound helped to identify that is was a burial (cemetary) . And I would suppose that using less land was being sorta greenie.

Dave Lincoln| 8.24.09 @ 11:04AM

"What is the deal with the "Sugar Daddy Dating" Ad in the upper right hand corner of the page. The ad for the Pope's book "Charity in Truth" is on the other side of the article. Diversity?"

Michael, the Spectator people do not pick these ads. I have seen the ad-server pick ads (out of a database somewhere) specifically to match a word or two in an article title. Apparently, that's supposed to make us click on things. ha! So long as it saves me from having to make a donation, good on em!

Dave Lincoln| 8.24.09 @ 11:20AM

"...A culture that has men that rapes and kills toddlers. Little boys raped by so called priests. What could be more gruesome than this. .."

Ohhhh! Ohhhh! I know!
Ripping the heart out of someone when they are still alive to throw it into the fire pit.

Don't be so smug, Lisa. I am a Native American too, though not an Indian. My people (the white males) created almost all of modern civilization. I will give the Chinese some kudos too. Without us (the white males) we would pretty much be living like those people in Cahokia or in some types of caves, which sucks when you think about it.

Hey, don't thank me now. You can send flowers.


Oh, or build a mound in my honor (better get a permit nowadays though).

Dean| 8.24.09 @ 12:36PM

If the Native Americans had the same military technology as the Europeans they would have slaughtered their enemies with glee . . . just like civilized men!

Andrew B| 8.24.09 @ 12:43PM

The most interesting museum I have ever seen that is dedicated to prehistoric North America is in Alberta, Canada. It is called, with no subtlety whatsoever, "Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump", because that is just what it is.

The exhibits were amazing, but what was most interesting is that, in a nation as ridden with Political Correctness as Canada, the curators were unafraid to show unambiguously that the natives drove vastly more bison to their deaths than were necessary. Butcher marks on the bones proved that, far from "using every part of the buffalo" as I had always been told, the natives frequently took nothing but the tongue and selected tender bits and left the rest to the buzzards.

Why not, with countless millions of the big critters littering the plain?

Tim| 8.24.09 @ 1:26PM

I guess there'll be no Disney feature in the wrks. "Paint with all the colors of the wind" and such crap.

Ray| 8.24.09 @ 2:12PM

Lisa, the Native Americas use to leave children out in an open field for a whole day and night. Those who were quite survived while those who cried incessantly were devoured by Wolves. I learned this from a Native American back in the 60's when they visited our school for "cultural exchange." This was a common pratice amongst the Native Americans. They didn't want children who cried a lot because of the wars that were occurring between the tribes. A crying child could alert the opposing tribe as to the whereabouts of their enemies. That cryibng child cold cause an entire tribe to be killed, all because of the warfare existing between the tribes Tribes that fought over territory, and kept slaves, raped the victims, and other rather nasty activities that all human societies seem to do at one time or another.

And to those who believed that the Indians were "green," I suggest you think about the fact that Indian tribes used to set fire to the plains, killing off the mature grasses so new grasses could sprout, new grasses that would feed the Indian's favorite pray, the Buffalo. The Indians torched thousands of square miles every year. I wonder how much CO2 that produced each year? So much for the "green" Indians. You may as well "paint" them gray, like the ashes their burning fields left behind every year.

Organs for sale| 8.24.09 @ 2:16PM

Publication time: 3 November 2006, 21:15

Five teenagers - three boys and two girls - aged from 13 to 16 went missing simultaneously in the southern Russian town of Bryansk near the Ukrainian border. It was reported about the loss by parents of a teenager almost two weeks ago.
Local police began the search of the children, who left home more than 10 days ago. The children were last seen at Bryansk 2 Railway Station, where they were registered by outdoor surveillancesystem, on October, 19 night. Witnesses said the teenagers were going to leave the town.
It was established that the children had not left their homes for the first time, although they used to disappear for two or three days. Police believe that an appeal to Bryansk residents will help to find the teenagers.
It is worth reminding that a similar case had happened in Krasnoyarsk in spring 2006,when five boys, aged from nine to twelve, went missing. One of the boys had been escaping from home repeatedly. The federal search of the children started and lasted for 21 days. More than one thousand people were employed in the search. The charred remains of the children were found in a sewing pipe in May.
A criminal case was incited by the Public Prosecutors' Office first on kidnapping, then on murder. The children's remains underwent numerous forensic medical expert examinations later to establish the death reasons. The children were buried in Krasnoyarsk on September, 25, the Russian agencyNews Lab reported.
Russian Christians accused local jews for kidnapping and killing these Christian and Muslim children in Krasnoyarsk that happened just a week before the jewish Passover in 2006. As established by Russian police in the last investigated case of jewish ritual murders of a 10-year-old Christianchild, Andrey Yushchinsky, during a trial in Kyiv in 1912, the jews regularly kidnap children and slowly exsanguinate them in a special ritual similar to the jewish slaughter of cattle. 33 wounds (equal to earthly years of Christ) in distinguished places of the body of a bound child victim arereported to be needed to collect the pouring blood according to the ritual.The blood in then collected in cloths, the cloths are subsequently dried up, burnt, and the ashes are added in jewish food, such as matzoth (buscuits of unleavened wheatmeal) . Police and religious expert includingjews converted to Christianity testified at the trial that the jews believed such food brought them financia prosperity, happiness and a huge sexual potency.
In addition to a definite number of wounds cut with a blunt instrument in distinguished places, a special feature distinguishing the jewish ritual from for example murders by Satanists is that the dead bodies of victims are to be thrown out in the open and should be in no case burried in the earth or hidden in some other way.
The remains of the children found in Krasnoyarsk were thrown in the open and contained no blood traces at all, meaning that the victims were exsanguinated before their deaths, acccording to an earlier Russian news report.

Ray| 8.24.09 @ 2:24PM

Organs for sale, that sounds remarkably similar ti the serial killer who preyed upon children back in the 70,s 80's, and 90's It even occurred in the same area.

That man, Andrei Chikatilo wasn't even a Jew, he was, in fact, an atheist, and a loyal member of the Party. He even tried to attend the Moscow University, but failed the entrance exams. The Russians at that time also blamed the Jews, but that blame was misplaced. Just like it is today.

OrgansFor salePalestinianFarms| 8.24.09 @ 2:30PM

WELL AUTHENTICATED CASES IN SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

NATURALLY, here we get a number of juridically decided cases, as might be expected.

1603. Verona. A Jew was tried on a charge of killing a child to get its blood for an infamous purpose. He was acquitted. The sentence of acquittal, dated 28th February, 1603, given in full in the Jew Roth's The Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew (p. 78), released the accused "because the Hebraic witch abhors the shedding of blood" and "various Princes held this rumour of the use of blood to be vain and false?" We hold that such absurd reasoning as all excuse for acquittal is clear proof that the Court was bought.

1670. Met. As this was a very strongly established case, one does not find any mention of it in Strack's book in defence of the Jews! A three-year-old boy was lost by his mother on the way to a well. The boy was wearing a red cap, and witnesses had seen him carried away by a Jew mounted on a horse. This Jew was Raphael Levi. At first, the boy's body could not be traced. The Jews, becoming frightened, spread the report that wolves must have killed him in the forest. The forest was searched and eventually the head, neck and ribs of a boy were found, together with clothes which were identified as the missing boy's, red cap and all, by the boy's father. But as these clothes were neither torn nor bloody, it was concluded that the wolf story was a "blind," and then witnesses came forward who had seen Raphael Levi with the boy in such places and at such times as to remove all doubt of his guilt. Levi was sentenced to death by the order of the Parliament of Metz, and was burned alive. Authority: La France Juive, by Drumont.

1698. Sandomir, Poland. Authority: The Jew Cecil Roth, in Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew, p. 24. The highest tribunal in the land, that of Lublin, condemned a Jew for Ritual Murder. the local court having exculpated him.

1748. Duniagrod, Poland. Jews condemned for Ritual Murder by Episcopal Court. Mentioned by Roth.

1753. Pavalochi, Poland. Jews condemned for Ritual Murder by Episcopal Court. Mentioned by Roth.

1753. Zhytomir, Poland. In this case, a three-year-old boy was murdered; Jews were tried by the Episcopal Court of Kiev and condemned to death. A painting supposed to commemorate this murder is even now visited by pilgrims to the Carthusian Monastery at Kalwarya near Cracow. Authority: The Jew Cecil Roth, in Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew, p. 25.

Of course, the Jew Roth denies that the cases quoted were Ritual Murders.

Jewish Black Magic & Organs| 8.24.09 @ 2:32PM

WELL AUTHENTICATED CASES IN SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

NATURALLY, here we get a number of juridically decided cases, as might be expected.

1603. Verona. A Jew was tried on a charge of killing a child to get its blood for an infamous purpose. He was acquitted. The sentence of acquittal, dated 28th February, 1603, given in full in the Jew Roth's The Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew (p. 78), released the accused "because the Hebraic witch abhors the shedding of blood" and "various Princes held this rumour of the use of blood to be vain and false?" We hold that such absurd reasoning as all excuse for acquittal is clear proof that the Court was bought.

1670. Met. As this was a very strongly established case, one does not find any mention of it in Strack's book in defence of the Jews! A three-year-old boy was lost by his mother on the way to a well. The boy was wearing a red cap, and witnesses had seen him carried away by a Jew mounted on a horse. This Jew was Raphael Levi. At first, the boy's body could not be traced. The Jews, becoming frightened, spread the report that wolves must have killed him in the forest. The forest was searched and eventually the head, neck and ribs of a boy were found, together with clothes which were identified as the missing boy's, red cap and all, by the boy's father. But as these clothes were neither torn nor bloody, it was concluded that the wolf story was a "blind," and then witnesses came forward who had seen Raphael Levi with the boy in such places and at such times as to remove all doubt of his guilt. Levi was sentenced to death by the order of the Parliament of Metz, and was burned alive. Authority: La France Juive, by Drumont.

1698. Sandomir, Poland. Authority: The Jew Cecil Roth, in Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew, p. 24. The highest tribunal in the land, that of Lublin, condemned a Jew for Ritual Murder. the local court having exculpated him.

1748. Duniagrod, Poland. Jews condemned for Ritual Murder by Episcopal Court. Mentioned by Roth.

1753. Pavalochi, Poland. Jews condemned for Ritual Murder by Episcopal Court. Mentioned by Roth.

1753. Zhytomir, Poland. In this case, a three-year-old boy was murdered; Jews were tried by the Episcopal Court of Kiev and condemned to death. A painting supposed to commemorate this murder is even now visited by pilgrims to the Carthusian Monastery at Kalwarya near Cracow. Authority: The Jew Cecil Roth, in Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew, p. 25.

Of course, the Jew Roth denies that the cases quoted were Ritual Murders.

Palestinians Organs for sale| 8.24.09 @ 2:33PM

WELL AUTHENTICATED CASES IN SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES

NATURALLY, here we get a number of juridically decided cases, as might be expected.

1603. Verona. A Jew was tried on a charge of killing a child to get its blood for an infamous purpose. He was acquitted. The sentence of acquittal, dated 28th February, 1603, given in full in the Jew Roth's The Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew (p. 78), released the accused "because the Hebraic witch abhors the shedding of blood" and "various Princes held this rumour of the use of blood to be vain and false?" We hold that such absurd reasoning as all excuse for acquittal is clear proof that the Court was bought.

1670. Met. As this was a very strongly established case, one does not find any mention of it in Strack's book in defence of the Jews! A three-year-old boy was lost by his mother on the way to a well. The boy was wearing a red cap, and witnesses had seen him carried away by a Jew mounted on a horse. This Jew was Raphael Levi. At first, the boy's body could not be traced. The Jews, becoming frightened, spread the report that wolves must have killed him in the forest. The forest was searched and eventually the head, neck and ribs of a boy were found, together with clothes which were identified as the missing boy's, red cap and all, by the boy's father. But as these clothes were neither torn nor bloody, it was concluded that the wolf story was a "blind," and then witnesses came forward who had seen Raphael Levi with the boy in such places and at such times as to remove all doubt of his guilt. Levi was sentenced to death by the order of the Parliament of Metz, and was burned alive. Authority: La France Juive, by Drumont.

1698. Sandomir, Poland. Authority: The Jew Cecil Roth, in Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew, p. 24. The highest tribunal in the land, that of Lublin, condemned a Jew for Ritual Murder. the local court having exculpated him.

1748. Duniagrod, Poland. Jews condemned for Ritual Murder by Episcopal Court. Mentioned by Roth.

1753. Pavalochi, Poland. Jews condemned for Ritual Murder by Episcopal Court. Mentioned by Roth.

1753. Zhytomir, Poland. In this case, a three-year-old boy was murdered; Jews were tried by the Episcopal Court of Kiev and condemned to death. A painting supposed to commemorate this murder is even now visited by pilgrims to the Carthusian Monastery at Kalwarya near Cracow. Authority: The Jew Cecil Roth, in Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew, p. 25.

Of course, the Jew Roth denies that the cases quoted were Ritual Murders.

ACynic| 8.24.09 @ 2:43PM

An interesting book is "Captured by the Indians; true accounts of whites who were captured by Native Americans, held hostage - often for years - and eventually made it back home alive. It provides good first hand accounts - both good and bad - of Indian culture and life.

By the way, how on earth did Cortez win a military victory over the Aztecs when he, at most, had 1000 soldiers, and the Aztecs numbered in the tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands??

Simple, the Aztecs were hated by ALL the surrounding Indians because of their brutality and they joined Cortez in defeating the Aztecs.
So much for the peace loving , nature loving Indians.

Native Americans, at the time the Euros landed in N.America were stone age people. They had not even invented the wheel. Like all stone age folks - think the head hunters of New Guinea, the Polynesians, the Maori, etc., - many were peaceful and wished to be let alone, and many were war-like savages.
They were - and are - no different than any other race , white or otherwise.

blackelkspeaks| 8.24.09 @ 3:40PM

Jewish this; Jewish that; Blood rituals; Organs for sale; Palestinian... -- WTF?

Doesn't American Spectator have some sort of mediated filter to stop this sort of crap from ever being posted? If they don't, they should! It ruins the blog!

Tony in Central PA| 8.24.09 @ 3:47PM

I recently read " 1491 ", which did spend some time on the subject of Cahokia. I don't recall it mentioning anything about human sacrific there, especially on the level reported in Pauketat's book.

Black elk correctly points to preChristian societies all over the globe frequently practicing some sort of ritualized human sacrifice. Funny how this historical fact never seems to come up in any secular scholarship. As Lisa noted, a postChristian America has arguably returned to this awful practice.

Dave Lincoln| 8.24.09 @ 7:04PM

"...but what was most interesting is that, in a nation as ridden with Political Correctness as Canada, the curators were unafraid to show unambiguously...."

Well, there's a simple answer for that, Andrew B. Someone messed up. Shhhh, keep it down, or it'll be "fixed" right away.

Rob Schmidt | 8.24.09 @ 8:09PM

So Pauketat found, what, three examples of human sacrifice at Cahokia, which was one culture out of thousands in the Americas? I sure hope his evidence is more extensive than that.

The buffalo jumps were limited to the places that had, well, buffalo and jumps. Again, a few Plains cultures out of the thousands of Indian cultures in the Americas. And killing a few dozen buffalo while leaving the herd intact is a lot more environmentally sound than exterminating the entire species, as the white man almost did.

Re "When the first Europeans came to the new world they encountered natives that practiced cannibalism, infanticide, and murderous human sacrifice on a scale that beggars the imagination": Cortes may have encountered this, but most European explorers didn't. It's amazing that you people can't distinguish between the Aztecs and Cahokians and thousands of other Indian cultures. Can you say "racist"? I guess all "redskins" look alike to you, eh?

Dave Lincoln| 8.24.09 @ 9:05PM

I am not sure whom you are addressing, Mr. Schmidt, when you say "you people". Whom would that be, us palefaces? Of course all "redskins" look alike - black hair, dark skin (not sure where the "red" comes in), just like we people apparently look and write alike too (to you).

It is true not all Indians were any more cruel as a society than any white society, and Cortez was truly a murderer himself (as his men were also). However, I personally was just responding that the Indians were no big friend to the environment and the white men have no monopoly on violence and cruelty. Plus, building mounds is kind of stupid, when there's real work to be done. The white man built the world. That's another point of mine.

Course, I'm just speaking as one particular paleface. Your mileage may vary (YMMV).

Pingback| 8.25.09 @ 9:25AM

Twitter Trackbacks for The American Spectator : The Sacrifices They Made [spectator. links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

…The_Spectator jpfreire J.P. Freire su_spectator The Spectator 106 Show more Shortened Links Linking to the spectator.org page http://bit.ly/1Y7p1 info   1 tweet Tweet The American Spectator : The Sacrifices They Made spectator.org/archives/2009/08/24/the-sacrifices-they-made – view page – cached I do not know how many times we visited Cahokia Mounds when I was a kid, but it had to be…

Richard Baker| 8.25.09 @ 5:44PM

Went to college in Cahokia and the remaining mounds are amazing. Standing atop one of them causes one to marvel at the size and crude engineering that was used for construction and this without machinery or modern day techniques. Go see if you're ever in the St. Louis area. Worth the visit.

John McGuinness| 8.25.09 @ 10:37PM

"AUTHOR TIMOTHY R. PAUKETAT has poured over the archeological evidence..." Poured?

Dave Lincoln| 8.26.09 @ 2:55AM

"... causes one to marvel at the size and crude engineering that was used for construction and this without machinery or modern day techniques."

Now, you're getting to my point, Richard. How many years did that civilization exist without anyone in it having the brains to develop some engineering/technical skills? It makes me think of many peoples' comments about the pyramids of Egypt and such: "Wow - we could never build this today without modern equipment!" "Hell no, that's why WE invented the freakin' back-hoe and the front-end loader and the excavator." (That last thing is what I say, BTW)

I'd rather see a real marvel, the St. Louis Arch, over some dirt mound any day, unless they are selling that mound cheap for fill dirt (though I would be a little worried about the Poltergeist effect, I must admit. "They're back!!" Gives me a Chris Mathews type tingle, except not in my leg.)

Dave Lincoln| 8.26.09 @ 3:06AM

I guess he meant "pored", John.

History Chaser | 8.30.09 @ 1:04PM

I think you all need to read Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond to understand the development of civilizations world wide.

And read about human sacrifice in Europe.

The Indigenous people of the Americas were neither stupid or lazy. Stupid lazy people would not have survived. Burning the land improved it. They had other beneficial practices. They were not the Noble Savages, but they never wasted food like the Buffalo hunters, who killed for hide and tongue and left the meat to rot.

You need to try and see both sides. Some of you are alienating people with your smug superior attitude. I have Indian and European ancestors . London was one of the filthiest cities in the World, while cities of 100,000 or more in MesoAmerica were very clean.

I respect all my ancestors. And the wise men and women in history who guided their people.

http://the-lost-colony.blogspot.com/

Al Carroll| 10.2.09 @ 4:24PM

Mr. Lincoln, obviously by "you people" Rob Schmidt meant racists. But typical for a racist, you jump to the conclusion he's one of those dark skinned people you hate and fear. Schmidt is himself a white guy, but well known among Indians for his working on Native causes.

To me the biggest tragedy is that white racists looking at Cahokia ignore that it's the biggest pyramid in the world, larger than the ones in either Egypt or Mexico. It's evidence of a technologically advanced civilization far back in American history. It's a great shame that American kids of all ethnic backgrounds are not taught about it, because it might force them to acknowledge the land was not empty nor holding only so called "savages."

Of course focusing on the small number of sacrifices and using that to smear hundreds of cultures and nations is called stereotyping, and it's also called racism. I'd hate to think people a thousand years from now would conclude all Americans are savages just because the State of Texas carries out dozens of executions every decade.

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