Pet peeve: People calling Native American mounds 'just hills' on TV shows

I keep seeing documentaries where they mention Cahokia Mounds and say they were 'natural formations the natives used.' That is COMPLETELY backwards. I visited Cahokia last spring and the ranger showed me core samples with distinct layering from basket loads carried by hand. These were built deliberately over centuries, not just convenient hills. Why do so many networks keep getting this basic fact wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

violamurray1mo ago

I'm so dumb I once pointed at a hill and told my friend "look a pyramid" and it was just a hill with a weird tree on top. At least the TV people have the excuse of bad research, I just had bad eyesight that day. Let's all agree to let the actual archaeologists handle the mound naming from now on.

lopez.karen29d ago

Oh come on, it's not that deep. People missee stuff all the time, a weird tree on a hill can totally look like a pyramid from the right angle. TV producers aren't exactly amateurs either, they just know a good story sells better than a boring hill.