In Search of Cosmic Power: Contextualizing Spiritual Journeys between Cahokia and the St. Francois Mountains

Abstract

Religious observance historically incorporated journeys to sacred places for American Indian groups on the Plains and around the Great Lakes as an integral part of individual experience and communion with the spirit world. The history of such journeys is exemplified by the environmental contexts of several large ritual centers in the Mississippi river basin. They include the Archaic Period center of Poverty Point, the Middle Woodland centers such as the Pinson mounds, and finally the large Mississippian center of Cahokia. Material evidence reveals that the nearby mountains of the Ozarks, composed of caves, springs, and materials imbued with sacred power, were thus important as a destination for Cahokian spiritual journeys. An ancient volcanic remnant known as the St. Francois Mountains contains intrusive basalt dykes engulfed by the cedar glades of the Ozarks resulting in a ritual landscape of particular importance. Both basalt and red cedar were an important part of the material record at Cahokia and its surrounding communities. Given their power we argue that these materials were transported back to Cahokia as a token either of pilgrimages or journeys for vision quests. We explore such spiritual journeys so widespread among Native American Indians in both the recent and distant past.