A village of southwest Illinois, a residential suburb of East St. Louis. Nearby are the Cahokia Mounds, a group of approximately 85 prehistoric Native American earthworks. Population: 15,400.
Cahokia
Dictionary:
Ca·ho·ki·a (kə-hō'kē-ə)  |
A village of southwest Illinois, a residential suburb of East St. Louis. Nearby are the Cahokia Mounds, a group of approximately 85 prehistoric Native American earthworks. Population: 15,400.
| 5min Related Video: Cahokia |
| Archaeology Dictionary: Cahokia, Illinois, USA |
[Si]
An extensive Mississippian settlement and ceremonial centre of the period ad 700–1600 situated in an alluvium covered valley. Covering over 16 square kilometres, the site had an estimated population of about 38 000 souls at it height in the 11th and 12th centuries ad. However, the most striking feature of the site is the group of 45 or so mounds surviving out of an estimated original set of about 120. These mounds are of three types: platform, burial, and ridged. The largest is Monk's Mound, a platform mound built c.ad 900–1200: 316m by 241m, it rises in four terraces to a height of 33m. On the top is a large building interpreted as a ceremonial centre and home for the ruler of the area. All around Cahokia there are numerous smaller settlements representing hamlets and farmsteads.
[Sum.: D. Young and M. Fowler, 2000, Cahokia. The great native American metropolis. Columbia: University of Illinois Press]
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Cahokia |
Cahokia (kəhō'kēə), village (1990 pop. 17,550), St. Clair co., SW Ill., a residential suburb of East St. Louis, on the Mississippi River; inc. 1927. The first permanent settlement in Illinois, Cahokia's name is derived from a local Native American group. The French established a mission in 1699 and a fur-trading post later. Cahokia was occupied by the British in 1765 and captured by the Americans under George Rogers Clark in 1778. It has several buildings dating from the 18th cent. Parks College, part of St. Louis Univ., is there. Nearby are the Cahokia Mounds.
| Weather: Cahokia |
AccuWeather® Current Conditions
AccuWeather® 5-Day Forecast
Last updated
November 25, 2009 15:09
(EST)
 M/CLOUDY |
Temperature: 50°F /
10°C
RealFeel Temperature™: 47°F / 8°C Humidity: 47% Winds: W 9 mph / 14 kmh Pressure: 29.94" Visibility: 10 mi. / 16 km |
| Wednesday |
|
HI:
54°F /
12°C LO: 37°F / 2°C |
| Thursday |
|
HI:
45°F /
7°C LO: 31°F / 0°C |
| Friday |
|
HI:
54°F /
12°C LO: 35°F / 1°C |
| Saturday |
|
HI:
60°F /
15°C LO: 41°F / 5°C |
| Sunday |
|
HI:
54°F /
12°C LO: 37°F / 2°C |
| Wikipedia: Cahokia, Illinois |
| Cahokia | |
| Village | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Illinois |
| County | St. Clair |
| Coordinates | 38°33′43″N 90°10′22″W / 38.56194°N 90.17278°W |
| Area | 10.0 sq mi (26 km2) |
| - land | 10.0 sq mi (26 km2) |
| Population | 16,400 (2000) |
| Density | 1,705.8 /sq mi (659 /km2) |
| Founded | 1699 |
| Mayor | Frank Bergman |
| Timezone | CST (UTC-6) |
| - summer (DST) | CDT (UTC-5) |
| Postal code | 62206 |
| Area code | 618 |
   Location of Cahokia within Illinois
|
|
| Wikimedia Commons: Cahokia, Illinois | |
Cahokia is a village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2000 census, the village had a population of 16,391. The name is a reference to one of the clans of the historic Illini confederacy, who were encountered by early French explorers to the region.
Cahokia Mounds, a prehistoric Mississippian culture urban complex and World Heritage Site near Collinsville, Illinois was also named for this historic clan. It was built by an earlier, potentially unrelated people and reached its peak in the 13th century. It was abandoned centuries before European contact. The Cahokia lived in the Illinois area at the time of French contact.
Cahokia is the home of significant historic buildings: the Cahokia Courthouse (c1740), in the French Colonial style, and the Jarrot Mansion (c1810).
Contents |
Registered historic places
History
The European association with Cahokia began over 300 years ago, with Father Pinet’s mission to convert the Cahokian and Tamaroa Indians to Christianity in the later part 1696. Father and the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Quebec began with building a log church. It is dedicated to the Holy Family. During the next 100 years, Cahokia became one of the largest French colonial towns in the Illinois Country.
Cahokia had become the center of a large area for trading Indian goods and furs. In the city of Cahokia, there were about 3,000 inhabitants, 24 brothels, and a thriving business district. The nearby town of Kaskaskia became the region’s leading shipping port and Fort de Chartres had become a military and governmental command center. The 50-mile (80 km) area of land between the two cities had become a major area for farming settlers, whose main crop was wheat. As the area expanded and expanded, the relationship between the settlers and the Indians continued to be peaceful. Settlers were mostly French-Canadian migrants whose families had been in North America for a while.
In the following years, Cahokia suffered, mainly from the French loss in the French and Indian War in 1763. Defeated by Great Britain in what was an extension of the Seven Years War in Europe, the French were forced to cede large parts of the Illinois County to the victors. Many Cahokians fled in fear of the British, or because they wanted to live under a Catholic power; some went to French villages on the west of the Mississippi River, such as Ste. Genevieve.
The Odawa rebel leader Chief Pontiac was assassinated in Cahokia on April 20, 1769.
In 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, George Rogers Clark set up a court in Cahokia, because in earlier years Cahokia was an independent city state. Cahokia officially became part of the United States on July 5, 1778. Soon after that, the 105 Cahokia "heads of household" pledged loyalty to the Continental Congress of the United States. Later, Cahokia was named the county seat of St. Clair County. The Cahokian Courthouse acted as a United States territorial courthouse and a major political center for the next 24 years. When in 1801 St. Clair County was enlarged, Henry Harrison named the Cahokia Courthouse the legal and governmental center of a sizeable area extending to the Canadian border. By 1814, though, St. Clair County had decreased to its current size, and the county seat was moved to Belleville, Illinois.
Geography
Cahokia is located at 38°33′43″N 90°10′22″W / 38.561901°N 90.172878°W.[1]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 10.0 square miles (25.8 km²), of which, 9.6 square miles (24.9 km²) of it is land and 0.4 square miles (1.0 km²) of it (3.71%) is water.
Demographics
As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 16,391 people, 5,693 households, and 4,252 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,705.8 people per square mile (658.5/km²). There were 6,213 housing units at an average density of 646.6/sq mi (249.6/km²). The racial makeup of the village was 58.28% African American, 38.69% White, 0.32% Native American, 0.38% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.73% from other races, and 1.56% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.25% of the population.
There were 5,693 households out of which 41.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.2% were married couples living together, 25.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.3% were non-families. 20.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.84 and the average family size was 3.27.
In the village, the population was spread out with 33.4% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 29.4% from 25 to 44, 16.9% from 45 to 64, and 11.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females there were 88.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.5 males.
The median income for a household in the village was $31,001, and the median income for a family was $35,582. Males had a median income of $31,806 versus $22,429 for females. The per capita income for the village was $14,545. About 22.8% of families and 24.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.0% of those under age 18 and 5.3% of those age 65 or over.
Transportation
Cahokia is home to the St. Louis Downtown Airport, a general aviation facility.
References
- ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990". United States Census Bureau. 2005-05-03. http://www.census.gov/geo/www/gazetteer/gazette.html. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
- ^ "American FactFinder". United States Census Bureau. http://factfinder.census.gov. Retrieved 2008-01-31.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | Cahokia Mounds (geographical area, Illinois) |
| Collinsville (city, Illinois) |
| East Saint Louis (city, Illinois) |
 | Who won the battle of cahokia? Read answer... |
| Were the Cahokia Mound people monotheistic? Read answer... |
| Why were the Cahokia mounds built? Read answer... |
Help us answer these
 | Why is the cahokia importent? |
| Where was the battle of cahokia? |
| What was the cahokia battle? |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Archaeology Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Copyright © 2002, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
 |
| Weather. © 2008 AccuWeather, Inc. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cahokia, Illinois". Read more |
Related answers
- When was Cahokia built?
- Who found cahokia?
- What was the date of the Battle Of cahokia?
- Are the Mound builders related to the Cahokia?
ADVERTISEMENT
Answer these
- What is a cahokia?
- Where is the city of Cahokia?
- Who won at cahokia?
- What state is Cahokia in?
- Who captured Cahokia?
- Who built the Cahokia?
Mentioned in
- Cahokia Mounds (geographical area, Illinois)
- Collinsville (city, Illinois)
- East Saint Louis (city, Illinois)
- Saint Louis University (university, Missouri)
- 500 Nations, Vol. 1: The Ancestors - Early Cultures of North America (1994 History Film)
- Pierre Gibault (American Catholic missionary)
- Pontiac (Ottawa chief)
- Ancient Voices: Cahokia - America's Lost City (History Film)
- Illinois (indigenous people of North America)
- George Rogers Clark (American military leader)
- Indian Mounds (American history)
- Year 900 (in Science & Technology)
- Spiro (American history)
- Illinois (state, United States)
