by Jacob P.
In July pf 2019 Representative Mike Bost of Illinois’s 12th district submitted a bill to Congress propose to make Cahokia Mounds a unit of the National Parks System. To gauge public suppose for this proposal I spends a day at the Cahokia interpretative center talking with public and handing out surveys. Most people in the area are at least familiar with Cahokia in a passing sense, many having gone there as school children. However, many of those people are unaware that Cahokia is still a state park and managed as one.
The director of Cahokia Mounds, Lori Belknap, was kind enough to allow me to set p a table for a Saturday to pass out my surveys and interact with the public. The survey contained only two simple questions: “Do you support Cahokia Mounds becoming a unit of the National Parks System” and “How willing would to be to contact your representative about this issue?” Over the course of the day only 24 surveys were completed but many more people chose to talk to me, declining the survey when asked.
A total of twenty-four surveys were handed out and successfully filled out. This was short of the hopeful goal of 100 but expected after a conversation with Lori explained the previous problems getting numbers of surveys done by others. Though these responses do give a good insight into the publics feeling. Twenty-three of the twenty-four responds were in favor of Cahokia becoming a National Park. There was a single response of response of unsure was given giving results of 96% in favor with 4% unsure and none being opposed (see figure 1). Such a high rate of suppose is exciting to see but the bias of location must still be considered as a possible explanation.
The second question had slightly wider reaching results but were unsurprising considering the first question. This question asked visitors their willingness to contact the representatives in Congress. Out of the twenty-four surveys collected six were very willing, seven were willing, five were unsure, three were not willing and none were opposed (see figure 2). Three were not able to be transcribed for different reasons: One simply was not filled out, one was from a visitor who was not a resident of the United States and the last was from someone who did not believe they could contact their representative as they did not live in the area
These results suggest a strong public support for Cahokia joining the National Parks Club, even if that pubic isn’t necessarily as willing to call congress to show their support. This might just suggest what we are like as Americans, as one of the one that could not be transcribed was very willing to contact their representatives but happened to live in Sweden.
Interactions with the public gave a lot of reasons why people would suppose the idea. Some wanted to see increased funding for research or public outreach. Many wanted to see more reconstructions as has been done with palisade walls at certain places on the site. There was however input from the public that I was unprepared for. As the bill is still currently in committee many details are still be hammered out. Most of the people I talked to during my day wanted to know specifics of what the changes would be, how the site and staff wold be impacted. I wish I would have been able to answer their questions better but unfortunately the process is still to early on to be sure of what the end product may look like.
Ultimately no matter what happens with its status Cahokia and its staff will continue to excellently serve the public. The numbers collected in this survey though leads me to believe that the public does broadly support the Cahokia being elevated to the status of National Park. From the interactions I had off survey these most likely stems from the fond feelings people have for the site that many developed in their early years. Some remember visiting as children and for many the potential research and outreach that can be accomplished make the site worth it alone.
SIUE Public Archaeology 