For a long time, historical research was based on the theory that indigenous civilizations existed exclusively in South and Central America before the arrival of Europeans.
In contrast, only nomadic hunter-gatherer cultures were to be found north of the Rio Grande.

Since the 1990s, archaeological research has thoroughly revised this one-sided and prejudiced picture. The relics of advanced civilizations that were closely linked to the Mesoamerican cultural area were not only found in the southwest of what is now the USA, but also east of the Mississippi, where the city of Cahokia exercised comprehensive political, military and religious hegemony between 1050 and 1250.
This extended from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic coast and from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.

This lecture will trace the history of the rise and fall of a great Indian power before Columbus.

Michael Hochgeschwender teaches North American cultural history, empirical cultural research and cultural anthropology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich.