Cahokia, Illinois
village in St. Clair County, Illinois, USA
Cahokia is a village now part of Cahokia Heights, Illinois, in St. Clair County, United States. It was founded as a colonial French mission in 1689. It is in Metro East, east of the Mississippi River in the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, Cahokia had a population of 12,096. On May 6, 2021, the village was incorporated into the new city of Cahokia Heights.
The name refers to one of the clans of the historic Illiniwek confederacy, who met early French explorers to the region. Early European settlers named the nearby (and long-abandoned) Cahokia Mounds in present-day Madison County after the Illini clan. The UNESCO World Heritage Site and State Historic Park were developed by the Mississippian culture, active here from 900 to 1500 AD. A connection to the clan is possible but unknown.
“Cahokia, Illinois” enters the record as village in St. Clair County, Illinois, USA. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Cahokia, Illinois and village can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Cahokia, Illinois” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Cahokia, Illinois and village provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1025785. VIAF identifies the subject as 268534752. The Library of Congress control number is n83039983. Authority coordinates are 38.562, -90.173. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1689, 2020, 2021 and 1500.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Cahokia, Illinois”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Cahokia, Illinois primary sources, Cahokia, Illinois archive and Cahokia research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Cahokia, Illinois”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Cahokia, Illinois” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.