Cahokia is a settlement and former village in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, founded as a colonial French mission in 1689. Located on the east side of the Mississippi River in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, as of the 2010 census, 15,241 people lived in the village. On May 6, 2021, the village was incorporated into the new city of Cahokia Heights. The name refers to one of the clans of the historic

Illiniwek The Illinois Confederation, also referred to as the Illiniwek or Illini, were made up of a loosely organized group of 12 or 13 tribes who lived in the Mississippi River Valley. Eventually, member tribes occupied an area reaching from Lake Mich ...

confederacy, who met early French explorers to the region. Early European settlers named the nearby (and long-abandoned)

Cahokia Mounds Cahokia Mounds ( 11 MS 2) is the site of a Native American city (which existed 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from present-day St. Louis. The state archaeology park lies in south-western Illinois between East St. L ...

in present-day Madison County after the Illini clan. The

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

and State Historic Park were developed by the

Mississippian culture The Mississippian culture was a collection of Native American societies that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was known for building la ...

, active here from 900 to 1500 AD, andsome connection to the clan is possible but unknown. The area was part of an extensive urban complex, the largest of the far-flung Mississippian culture territory through the Mississippi and Ohio River Valleys. French Canadian colonists founded Cahokia village in 1696 as a Catholic mission. The historic Church of the Holy Family is the oldest continuously active Catholic parish in the United States, as well as the oldest church west of the

Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range ( ) — also spelled Alleghany or Allegany, less formally the Alleghenies — is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada. Historically it represented a significant barr ...

. Other significant colonial and Federal-period buildings listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

include the Cahokia Courthouse (''circa'' 1740, in the French Colonial style); and the Jarrot Mansion (''circa'' 1810).

History

Cahokia Mounds

Archeologists ascribe the earthwork mounds Cahokia complex to the

, an earlier

indigenous people There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

, who are not believed to have been ancestral to the Illini. The city site reached its peak in the 13th century and was abandoned centuries before European contact. The Cahokia Native Americans of the Illinois did not coalesce as a tribe and live in the Illinois area until nearly the time of French contact 300 years ago.

Pinet's Mission

Father Pinet founded a mission in late 1696 to convert the Cahokian and Tamaroa Native Americans to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. Father Pinet and the Seminary of Foreign Missions of Quebec built a log church and dedicated it to the

Holy Family The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on,Ainsworth, 122 but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de La ...

18th-century settlement

During the next 100 years, Cahokia became one of the largest French colonial towns in the

Illinois Country The Illinois Country ( ; ; ), also referred to as Upper Louisiana ( ; ), was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s that later fell under Spanish and British control before becoming what is now part of the Midwestern United States. Whi ...

. It was centrally located for trading Indian goods and furs, and grew to about 3,000 inhabitants. Its thriving business district reflected a frontier society numerically dominated by needy males, as it had 24 brothels. The nearby town of Kaskaskia on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the main stem, primary river of the largest drainage basin in the United States. It is the second-longest river in the United States, behind only the Missouri River, Missouri. From its traditional source of Lake Ita ...

(founded 1703) became the region's leading shipping port, and Fort de Chartres (founded 1718) was developed by the French as a military and governmental command center. The area of land between the two villages was cultivated by farming settlers, known as '' habitants'', whose main crop was wheat. As settlement expanded, the relationship between the settlers and the Indians continued to be peaceful. Settlers were mostly

Canadien French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the provi ...

migrants whose families had been in North America for a while.

French and Indian War

Cahokia declined after the French lost the

French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

in North America to the British in 1763, as part of the broader

Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...

in Europe. Only Fort Kaskaskia (built 1733) was destroyed in the conflict, and Cahokia remained regionally important for another four decades. In the treaty ending the war, France ceded large parts of what it called the Illinois Country east of the Mississippi River to the British, including the area of Canada. Many French-speaking residents of Cahokia and elsewhere in what had been

Upper Louisiana The Illinois Country ( ; ; ), also referred to as Upper Louisiana ( ; ), was a vast region of New France claimed in the 1600s that later fell under Spanish and British control before becoming what is now part of the Midwestern United States. Whi ...

moved west of the river to territory still controlled by the French rather than live under British rule. Many moved to Lower Louisiana, where they founded new Canadien villages on the west side of the Mississippi River, such as Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and St. Louis. The

Odawa The Odawa (also Ottawa or Odaawaa ) are an Indigenous North American people who primarily inhabit land in the Eastern Woodlands region, now in jurisdictions of the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Their territory long prec ...

leader, Pontiac, was assassinated by other Indians in or near Cahokia on April 20, 1769.

American Revolutionary War

In 1778, during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

, Virginian

George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark (November 19, 1752 – February 13, 1818) was an American military officer and surveyor from Virginia who became the highest-ranking Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot military officer on the American frontier, nort ...

captured Kaskaskia and set up a court in Cahokia, making Cahokia an independent city state, though it was part of the British

Province of Quebec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...

. Cahokia (and Kaskaskia and the rest of Illinois County) officially became part of the United States by the

Treaty of Paris (1783) The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and representatives of the United States on September 3, 1783, officially ended the American Revolutionary War and recognized ...

, by which the United States took over former British territory west of the Appalachian Mountains. The US soon designated this area as the

Northwest Territory The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from part of the unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolution. Established ...

(and after Ohio and Indiana became states, the

Illinois Territory The Territory of Illinois was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 1, 1809, until December 3, 1818, when the southern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Illinois. Its ...

). Meanwhile, 105 Cahokia "heads of household" pledged loyalty to the

Continental Congress The Continental Congress was a series of legislature, legislative bodies, with some executive function, for the Thirteen Colonies of British America, Great Britain in North America, and the newly declared United States before, during, and after ...

of the United States. Falling Springs Cahokia Illinois

Northwest Ordinance

After Congress passed the

Northwest Ordinance The Northwest Ordinance (formally An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States, North-West of the River Ohio and also known as the Ordinance of 1787), enacted July 13, 1787, was an organic act of the Congress of the Co ...

in 1787 and established a governmental system for the territory, the Cahokia Courthouse was adapted for use as a United States territorial courthouse. Cahokia continued as a major political center for the next 24 years. Flood-prone Kaskaskia became the governmental seat of the

(1809–1818), until the territorial seat was moved to Vandalia, Illinois, and in 1809 became the county seat of Randolph County. Cahokia became the seat of St. Clair County, named by and after Arthur St. Clair, the first territorial governor. When St. Clair County was enlarged in 1801 and 1809, Governor

William Henry Harrison William Henry Harrison (February 9, 1773April 4, 1841) was the ninth president of the United States, serving from March 4 to April 4, 1841, the shortest presidency in U.S. history. He was also the first U.S. president to die in office, causin ...

(and later territorial secretary and acting governor

Nathaniel Pope Nathaniel Pope (January 5, 1784 – January 23, 1850) was an American government leader in the early history of the State of Illinois. He served as the Secretary of the Illinois Territory, then as a Non-voting members of the United States House of ...

) named the Cahokia Courthouse as the legal and governmental center of a sizeable area extending to the Canada–U.S. border. By 1814, other counties and territories had been organized, and St. Clair County became its current size. The county seat was moved to the more centrally located

Belleville, Illinois Belleville is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois, United States, and its county seat. It is a southeastern suburb of St. Louis. The population was 42,404 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the most populated city in the Me ...

, (incorporated 1819 and as a city in 1850) when a local developer offered to donate land for a new county courthouse and seat.

Annexed territory

In the late 1950s, Cahokia annexed some population and territory, increasing its population by more than 15,000 in 1960.

Geography

Cahokia was located at . According to the 2010 census, Cahokia had a total area of , of which (or 5.05%) is covered by water.

Climate

Demographics

2020 census

2000 census

As of the 2000

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

, 16,391 people, 5,693 households, and 4,252 families were residing in the village. The population density was . The 6,213 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the village was 58.28% White, 38.69% African American, 0.32% Native American, 0.38% Asian, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 0.73% from other races, and 1.56% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latino2 of any race were 2.25% of the population. Of the 5,693 households, 41.2% had children under 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 not families. About 20.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.6% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.84 and the average family size was 3.27. In 2010, the population dropped to 15,241, with 61.3% being African American and 34.5% of the population being White alone. In the village, the age distribution was 33.4% under 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 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 for a family was $35,582. Males had a median income of $31,806 versus $22,429 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the village was $14,545. About 22.8% of families and 24.9% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, 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 General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

facility. Metro operates the #2 bus route to East St. Louis, Illinois, where connections can be made to the MetroLink light rail to St. Louis.

Education

* Cahokia Unit School District 187 operates public schools.

Notable people

*18th-century settler Marie Josephte L'Archevêque, her daughter Marie Joseph La Marche (Mme. Le Comte), and granddaughter Marie Josette Languedoc from Cohakia inspired what Governor John Reynolds said was the "truthful" telling of Madam La Compt in ''Pioneer History of Illinois.'' * Terron Armstead - NFL player * Well Hungarians – country and rock band * Michael B. Whit - country singer-songwriter