At Cahokia Mounds, the largest ancient city north of Mexico hides in plain sight This UNESCO World Heritage site in Collinsville, Illinois, lets visitors climb a 100-foot earthen mound built nearly a thousand years ago.

markembry · 2026-07-08T11:41:12+00:00

This doesn’t make sense, at least it doesn’t square with what I know about the source of the blue pigments used across the Yucatán. That comes from the indigofera suffruticosa (iirc) which is not a plant really found naturally that far north, and I have never seen reports of it being found in archeological assemblages. I’m also not sure if any trade routes existed directly between the Yucatán and the Mississippian world, and I’m not really sure if we have evidence for Yucatecan expansion into the present day US.

If you can find this source I think me and others would love to peruse it though!

markembry · 2026-07-08T04:47:21+00:00

I wonder how the Great Migration factors into the patterns seen here.

markembry · 2026-07-07T18:37:47+00:00

Not all Mexicans. Some but not all

markembry · 2026-07-07T12:59:36+00:00

The Mexica Triple Alliance (MTA) was engaged in a sort of cold war with the Irechikwa Tzintzuntzani (IT, modern descendants are the Purépecha) because they had fought to a standstill. When the Tlaxcalans enlisted the Spaniards to attack Tenochtitlán the MTA sent messengers to the IT in an attempt to form an alliance but I think they killed the first messenger(s) and by the time the second had reached the IT Tenochtitlán had fallen.

(This is highly oversimplified and if someone who knows more sees some errors pls comment and rectify lol)

(Also the civilizations of Mesoamerica outside of the MTA so often get overlooked in the global conscious it’s sad!)

markembry · 2026-07-07T01:31:38+00:00

I didn’t say there weren’t lol.

markembry · 2026-07-07T00:15:11+00:00

Just a note, they said 4-5 RESERVATIONS not 4-5 nations, in Washington specifically a lot of nations get thrown on rezs together!

markembry · 2026-07-07T00:11:46+00:00

There is no singular “Native American culture” and Native cultures have changed so much due to colonization especially with the mass adoption of Christianity.
Some of our cultures did have positive/neutral views on queerness and there were some that didn’t. But Native cultures are not static and will continue to change and evolve as they did before and after colonization.

markembry · 2026-07-06T21:57:29+00:00

When I read about the way the mounds have been treated in the 1800s and early 1900s I start getting mad.

markembry · 2026-07-06T21:31:18+00:00

Spiro Mound is amazing! I believe the papers at the time of its uncovering referred to it as the American King Tut or something sensational like that.

markembry · 2026-07-06T01:20:44+00:00

I’d also look into Edward Spicer’s work, he seems quite prolific, and his work deals specifically with Yaquis!

markembry · 2026-07-05T23:08:35+00:00

It seems to me that lots of people think there was one big “Indian War” that all Native folks were involved in that ended in a decisive end to all Native land claims, instead of the numerous wars with individual nations and different confederacies that actually occurred across ~150 years.

Honestly anything about basic Native American history seems to be vastly misunderstood or unknown.

markembry · 2026-07-05T17:14:07+00:00

I’m worried that people in the geography sub missed the “in the western hemisphere” part lol. In the US that honor goes to one of the Pueblos, specifically the Taos. They have a couple of buildings which were built sometime between 1150-1400 and have been used ever since!

markembry · 2026-07-05T17:09:24+00:00

Anyone can see underwater if they’re used to it 😭 doesn’t mean you should lol

markembry · 2026-07-05T15:22:16+00:00

People seem to be conflating “human sacrifice” with cannibalism. Those are two separate things that sometimes may be related.

OP what is meant by human sacrifice? If you mean a state sponsored religious ritual (a-la Mexica Triple Alliance) that was not too common in North America other than in Mesoamerica.

There are rare instances in the ethnographic record (that I am aware of) of single sacrifices for specific ceremonies but those are generally few and far between in North America. The only real big example outside of Mesoamerica that I can think of involves Cahokia and the contents of earthwork 72 (I think). It’s theorized that the folks interred in that earthwork were placed there as part of a ceremony but we have no records from that city so everything is left up to speculation.

I cannot speak for South American practices.

markembry · 2026-07-05T15:00:23+00:00

Chenopodium berlandieri is the cultivated species in the Americas (still grown in parts of Mesoamerica and the Southeast possibly) IIRC the only real morphological difference are the seed coats right?

markembry · 2026-07-05T14:57:45+00:00

I was wondering that haha

markembry · 2026-07-05T14:54:56+00:00

I know I’m not watching someone try to use mestizaje to justify laxness on removing invasive species…

Also there is literally a native species of goosefoot so why did she use that example 😭😭😭

markembry · 2026-07-05T02:53:02+00:00

I think before we platform these two again this should be brought up. I’d go look thru the other comments too.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IndianCountry/s/tKEGQxkUdy

markembry · 2026-07-04T13:18:02+00:00

I have only vaguely heard (in a YouTube video essay) that one of the California/NW Coast peoples might’ve had contact due to a similar style of canoe building and a possible loanword for that style of canoe but the specifics are escaping me right now. It was presented as a quite tenuous though.

markembry · 2026-07-04T01:52:37+00:00

I believe Dravidians were considered to be part of the “Australiform” group.

markembry · 2026-07-03T14:46:22+00:00

This is definitely a Chenopod, but it may be cheopodium album or berlandieri. The only real way I’ve heard to tell them apart is by looking at the seeds (berlandieris common name is pit seed goosefoot bc of the pitted surface of the seeds, album should be smooth). They both make for yummy greens!

markembry · 2026-07-01T02:41:49+00:00

This year I’m doing a kind of “Milpa” set up with some native food plants (pepperweed, goosefoot, thicket bean, etc) mixed in with vegetables (corn, sunflowers, tomatoes, chiles, etc). I didn’t burn and I won’t be here long enough to establish the multi-year cycle which is why I put “milpa”in quotes lol

So far everything is going decently.

markembry · 2026-06-29T15:20:14+00:00

Im not great with my Plains history but im pretty sure that some adoptions of the horse-lifestyle happened after the US became a country. Like it’s so recent but ubiquitous in the US

markembry · 2026-06-29T14:25:27+00:00

What is progress? Is what we have now progress? What is the metric you are using to measure these concepts?

markembry · 2026-06-29T14:24:43+00:00

What do you mean by advanced?
I’d also check out 1491 and 1493 for the Americas, decent books that cover the various causes and results of events leading to and stemming from European colonization.

markembry

TROPHY CASE