From now to then, what once was Mound City.

    St. Louis in the present day is a strange blending of two realities. Amazing historic architecture can be found just blocks away from some of the worst urban blight in the United States. Stick with me through this next bit, as I set the scene. Please know that I am not an expert on any of these issues, and am trying to include plenty of links to clarify anything I may have gotten wrong, and offer more information if you want it.

    Racial issues following the end of slavery, moving into the Jim Crow Era (1916) and racial segregation ordinances that further served to marginalize the black population are a grim reflection of the continued "colonial" mindset that elevated those with lighter skin in every way. (**This will be a theme I come back to.)  This included limiting where people lived or where they could buy property. When the Supreme Court ruled this practice illegal 32 years later, many of the "solutions" put in place further served to create what is known today as the Delmar Divide.  (It also lead to the horrible failed experiement of Pruitt-Igoe . If you have never heard of this public housing development, then you also don't know that the military conducted extensive expreiments on the residents of PI and the surrounding neighborhoods, without their knowledge or consent in the 50's and 60's. Pruitt-Igo Cold War Testing )

    We live in a peaceful neighborhood of St. Louis known as DeBaliviere Place. Anchored by the 1,300 acre Forest Park (A bit larger than Central Park in NYC) , we are a lovely shaded walk away from the zoo, art and history museums and more attractions.  Or miles and miles of walking trails, through curated and wild feeling areas, masking the reality that you are in the middle of the city. 

    Our neighborhood is made up of 100 year old brick condo buildings, large gated neighborhoods with sprawling historic mansions, and a few modern condo buildings with more amenities. To the East side of the park is the large medical campus of Washington University and the many associated hospitals and practices, and luxury high rise buildings. The South side of the park is framed partially by my beloved St Louis Science Center. To the West is the stately and sweeping Washington University Danforth campus. A convenient Light Rail train runs from downtown St Louis, through the edge of the park and then out to the suburbs, East to West. 

    The park, our neighborhood and the surrounding ones are idyllic feeling. Carefully nurtured old growth trees provide much needed respite from the intense heat of our region. We have extra police patrols, making it quite safe to enjoy those wonderful sidewalks in the evening while the fireflies are buzzing in the landscaping. 

    A comittee of residents recently added a new stop sign and additional street lights to increase safety. We pay to have trash cans on every corner, which are miraculously emptied regularly, and pet waste bag stations always stocked by invisible hands.

    Just a short 3 block drive to the north will start to reveal the other sad truths of St. Louis. Delmar Avenue serves as an east-west demarcation between idyllic and impoverished. Closed businesses, graffiti, and empty houses. Driving anywhere north of Delmar slips you into a surreal alternate reality that would fit in any post-apocalyptic movie. Blocks of empty or burned out houses with only a handful of determined residents keeping up their homes and sticking it out. So many closed businesses. You will immediately notice that the trees are really rare here, and the sun is far more grueling. This is urban blite in a way I had never imagined seeing in the United States. It is poverty, which increases crime. Life is one way south of Delmar, and an absolute struggle north of it.

    The wisdom given to any tourist or newcomer to St Louis is to stay south of Delmar.

    Even more than that you notice that there are no grocery stores. NONE. There are a few small restaraunts eeking out a survival by providing carryout only from behind bars for safety. One or two aging fast food franchises close early. There are not medical resources, social services, or many job options  or opportunity nearby. They unshaded bus stops allow access to other parts of town, but there is no high speed option in the North. Getting anywhere takes time, and is dangerous. There is trash, graffiti, abandoned yards, and decaying infrastructure everywhere.

    When explorers first came to the St. Louis area, they found over 50 mounds remaining on the west side of the Mississippi river, and hundreds on the east side. This was but one precinct of the greater Cahokia region. More on this later.

    The earliest colonial explorations of the area that would become St. Louis took place in June 1673. After being claimed by France, and then Spain, real settlement began around a century later. Even in this early period of European contact with the region, Cahokia was abandoned. 

    The Mississippian culture that had established the largest urban establishment north of Mexico had eclipsed almost entirely by 1350. The practices were gone, the religion was abandoned, and the people who built the mounds were considered  unknown distant ancestors by the migrating tribal groups living in the region at the time. 

    

    The settlers found rich farmland, sometimes interrupted with mounds that they had to work around, or level. As cities were planned and developed along this vital river corridor, these relics of antiquity were often in the way of progress. On the St. Louis City side (west) that meant that these were especially problematic towards progress. So began the fairly rutheless and haphazard removal of mounds leveled without any oversite by archaeologists or anthropologists, or an opportunity for research. Countless artifacts holding parts of the story were just discarded with fill dirt.

    Mounds were flattened, dismantled, built over, and forgotten. There was such a systematic erasure of the whispers of that ancient history on this side of the river that it was almost completely forgotten. St. Louis quietly lost its title of "Mound City" by the end of the 1800's.

At this juncture I have to observe some really uncomfortable realities about the cutlure I grew up in. I learned history through a Post-Colonial filter, with a quick glossing over of many topics in order to keep it all palatable for the predominantly white culture I was in. I learned the most basic versions of history regarding slavery, segregation, and my entire education on Indigenous Americans was regarding their interactions with the settlers. I failed to become more educated as an adult. I focused my awareness on social justice issues in front of me: Immigrant rights, Womens rights, Unhoused Rights. I failed to really see, until now.

I am facing my white privilege in a way I should have decades ago. I am feeling curious to understand what has been erased, and feel an obligation to give voice to those who are calling out to me from centuries ago.

I want to leave you with this article, and invite you to join me on a journey of seeing and listening.

St. Louis was once Mound City. Its Native American residents still feel erased

The unknown has always intrigued me.

     From the time I had my earliest awareness that there were "strange" or unexplained things in this world, I wanted to know more. I lived in a very small Colorado mountain town in the late 70's. The summer between Kinder and first grade was the summer I started to realize the world was unlocked by my basic reading skills. I would walk my myself to the town library, roam the stacks unsupervised, and was allowed to check out anything. 

    That was the summer I realized that the library had adult books, collected together in useful categories. In particular I was transfixed by the fact that there were unexplained, mysterious things documented in books. That meant they were real. I spent a lot of time in the shelves finding books about metaphysics, philosophy, occult topics, ancient civilizations, UFO's, paranormal and cryptids. (Dewey Decimal Fans will know the section: 110's with metaphysics, up to the 130's with parapsychology and occultism and a bit beyond.)  I especially loved the books with as many pictures as possible, and captions I was able to sound out. There was no way I could actually read half of the books I lugged home that summer! I remember vividly the joy of feeling the world was unlocked for me that year. I checked out enough books to win the summer reading program for my age category! 

    I am still enchanted by and drawn into the unknown and unexplained. I have spent  the last 8 years with my primary focus being UFO's. have been a team lead for a paranormal investigation team, I have learned about ancient civilizations around the world. I have dreamed of going to places like Egypt, the deep jungles of Mexico to explore Mayan ruins, or the Turkish countryside to see Gobekle Tepe. I have listened to podcasts about ley lines and earth energies in England and Europe, followed travels to Antarctica, and imagined. I dreamed of being at Stonehenge for the solstice.

    It felt like so many of the incredible mysteries were far away. In other countries, hidden in other cultures. Far away, hard to access, and shrouded in mystery. 

    What I didn't realize, and you may not realize either, is what an incredible ancient civilization is beneath our very feet at this minute.

    Like every 80's child, I received a highly filtered version of the history of my country. In general, the history began with the entrance of Europeans to the story. I learned how brave  white settlers slowly conquered this land, after surviving and then controlling the native inhabitants. Those inhabitants were made up of the post-Columbian tribes that then blend into the stories of cowboys and Indians and Little House on the Prairie. Learned a bit more about the tribes in my state (Colorado) through school, but again that history was more in relation to how those tribes effected the settlers.

    As I grew to adulthood my understanding of that history has broadened. I am able to see that it was missing a huge part of the story. I am able to feel great sadness for what happened to the Indigenous people of this land, and feel outraged at the social issues plaguing Native Americans today. 

    However I neglected to go out and learn more of the story. I didn't know what I was missing, and I have a feeling you may not know either!

    Our move to St. Louis 2 years ago meant I had a new region of the country to explore. I was intrigued by Cahokia. 

    I remember the moment I first learned that there had been a CITY in the middle of the country, well before European explorers tried to claim the land. I was in bed reading, with my husband beside me. He set his book down to tell about this real ancient city he was reading about. It was in a book about Atlantis. Having grown up with a history of the Indians living in small bands, it seemed almost as crazy as the story of Atlantis.

    Now over a decade later, the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Cahokia is just a 20 minute drive away from my home. It took a few visits and some additional research to have my mind absolutely blown away by the secret ancient history of the land we call the United States! 

    Are you curious enough to follow along and see where my journey takes me?

    

Let the adventure resume!

 I started this blog 7 years ago. So many adventures have happend since I stopped writing. It is time to write again.

I am now living in St. Louis, MO with my husband Dan. We love the city, the new region of the country, the new experiences, but are still adjusting to the sticky humidity. I don't think I will ever fully adapt to that aspect of the climate.

Reflecting on early blog entries, I can see how perfect it is that my writing so carefully documented the early magic that has lead to the sweetness of my current life. My soul was so powerfully called to the desert. I thought it was because I was going to find my tribe. The common listeners of a radio show.

I did meet those people, many who are dear to me to this day. However even that first trip had hints of the powerful circle of women that was being pulled together. My favorite day of the conference was actually a day when many of us left the conference, and sat around a table in the shade and connected, as women. It filled my soul and I wanted more. So I nurtured relationships. 

I met Rita at that first conference. Our friendship has grown with the blessing of time, and many shared experiences. It also lead to rich friendships with Lisa and then Lucinda. They are two other amazing women Rita drew in. Today I consider these three women to be the sisters I always wanted. We have all loved each other through so much of life, unconditionally and honestly.  They are each amazing women in their own ways, and I am honored to have them as my council in life. They are the ones I can ugly cry with and be empowered by, sometimes in the very same garage conversation.

Today we are all about to roll deep into individual projects that can all connect in a fascinating Venn Diagram of interests. Rita recently returned to her homeland of Armenia, and is launching into some deep exploration and sharing of the ancient and present day magic of that land. Lisa is working far too many hours as she heads towards retirement, but dazzles us with her love, positivity and crystal wisdom whenever she can. Lucinda is everywhere, but most recently returned from a week on Pine Ridge, collecting oral accounts of Bigfoot encounters. More about what I am diving into in a later blog entry.

Just know that collectively, we are working on so many fascinating things that it only made sense to share those things together. Rita was the mastermind behind The Human Factor X , a digital media company through which we can collaborate and support each other on our important and fascinating projects, and work on future shared projects we have been dreaming up. Stay tuned, it is going to be AMAZING! 

I am proud to say that I am still adventuring despite my body really preferring a recliner! I have acquied really validating additional diagnosis of significant back problems, with multiple points of osteoarthritis, bulging disks and nerve impingement. I am currently undergoing nerve block injections every other week, and I am experiencing a significant reduction in some aspects of my pain, which feels miraculous. I continue to adventure through research from my recliner when I need to, but also have a lot more confidence in getting out by myself now. I have mastered the art of car-camping, and can comfortably do multi-day solo adventures with little concern now. Most of those adventures have really been back to Colorado to see family, but I am looking forward to more adventures in the Midwest to learn more about my latest deep dive.

Stay tuned here for more on THAT! I hope to make you question your understanding of history, and ponder what messages the ancient people might want us to hear them whispering to us today.