Cahokia

Circa 1050 CE, Cahokia, along the Mississippi river in the "American Bottom", was the largest city north of Mexico, with about 10,000-15,000 citizens plus 40,000 more in the hinterland.

Cahokia was a 2nd-order state, combining violence and charisma.

Cahokia's reach extended from Virginia to Minnesota. They expanded control through violent colonization.

Cahokia was in a fertile area for maize, but also a swamp. In the Mississippian religion, these watery places were connected to the chaotic underworld. And Cahokia may have began as a place of pilgrimage.

Cahokia played a violent sport, chunkey. Not unlike the Olmec Ball Games. Commoners could win their way to nobility through heroic achievement in war or chunkey.

Around 1350 CE, Cahokia and it's tributary towns began to depopulate. Something happened that left bad memories. By 1400 CE, the entire region, the "American Bottom," despite being fertile, was abandoned.

Note: This pattern of depopulation is typical of many early social movements, which were often, literally, movements of people.

See: the first freedom is the freedom to move.

The Cahokian collapse left a lasting mark on Indigenous Americans.

For the Creek, tobacco and caffeinated drinks, once the province of Cahokian shaman elites, were doled out in carefully equal portions to all.

A central Osage story involves the taming of the chief sorcerer. The sorcerer may be a stand in for the Cahokians, who abused the sacred math of the Mississippian culture to build forts. In the Osage story, the sorcerer is forced to share his knowledge with all. Osage, and others, saw their social structures as a conscious choices meant to prevent the accumulation of power. When they visited France in 1725, Montesquieu likely heard (and took) their theory of separation of powers.