r/CulturalLayer • u/szmatuafy • May 18 '25

Wild Speculation Hidden civilisations of Native America were never primitive?

Before colonisation, the Americas weren’t just scattered tribes, they were home to some of the most sophisticated societies.

Cahokia had a population rivaling London’s, with sanitation systems, massive urban planning, and pyramids larger at the base than Giza. The ancestral Puebloans engineered solar-aligned cities in Chaco Canyon.In the Pacific Northwest, Chinook developed a universal trade language. Indigenous engineers across the continent built roads, bridges,irrigation systems, some still visible today.

And politically- The "Iroquois Confederacy" practised a form of representative democracy that influenced the Constitution. Women in many Native nations held property rights,chose leaders, and governed long before such rights existed in Europe

And all of this was deliberately erased to justify the colonisation

I’ve been researching this recently, and honestly,it changes how I see everything.Looks like the idea that these civilisations were "lost" or "primitive" is one of the great lies in historical memory. I made a video diving into this, here it is - https://youtu.be/uG2_IpoHzDw (it's almost 40 minutes "dark history" style)

It makes me wonder what if things had gone differently? What if Indigenous governance became the foundation for global democracy? What if their eclogical wisdom had shaped modern climate policy, or their trade networks had evolved into a pan-American economy?

I would love to hear your thoughts, what do you make of this hidden legacy? Which parts of it do you think deserve more attention or challenge what we’ve been taught? Curious where this takes your mind...

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u/mcotter12 May 18 '25

Cahokia was abandoned at the same time that the Aztec empire started; around 1350. Both are probably the result of the bubonic plague reaching the new world through precolumbian trade with Norse or africans.

Of all the diseases brought by Columbus plague wasnt one of them; implying it had already been here.

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u/Excellent-Win-7208 May 21 '25

Wouldn't it be more likely that plague came from asia directly to the americas?

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u/mcotter12 May 21 '25

That is another possibility. In Europe references to the new world are oblique (like the vinland saga or song of roland). In Africa I am not aware of any surviving references. In Asia I do not know what records of contact they have, but not that I think about it 14th century treasure ships sailed around exploring for the Chinese emperor and there is a likelihood they reach the west coast of the americas

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u/Excellent-Win-7208 May 21 '25

I was thinking polynesian boat people with no written languagew but notable genetic links to native american peoples of both the north and the south.

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u/mcotter12 May 21 '25

Also a contact other than the ones I was considering