Editing History of Missouri (section)

==Pre-Columbian era==
{{unreferenced section|date=October 2021}}
[[Indigenous peoples]] inhabited Missouri for thousands of years before European exploration and settlement. [[Archaeology|Archaeological]] excavations along the rivers have shown continuous habitation for more than 7,000 years. Beginning before 1000 [[Common Era|CE]], there arose the complex [[Mississippian culture]], whose people created regional political centers at present-day [[St. Louis]] and across the [[Mississippi River]] at [[Cahokia]], near present-day [[Collinsville, Illinois]]. Their large cities included thousands of individual residences, but they are known for their surviving massive [[Earthwork (archaeology)|earthwork mounds]], built for religious, political and social reasons, in [[Platform mound|platform]], [[ridge]]top and [[Cone (geometry)|conical]] shapes. Cahokia was the center of a regional trading network that reached from the [[Great Lakes]] to the [[Gulf of Mexico]]. The civilization declined by 1400 CE, and most descendants left the area long before the arrival of Europeans. St. Louis was at one time known as Mound City by the European Americans, because of the numerous surviving prehistoric mounds, since lost to urban development. The Mississippian culture left mounds throughout the middle Mississippi and Ohio river valleys, extending into the southeast as well as the upper river.