Don Wildman

All of that, very personally interesting to me, the more modern version of that history.

But today we're going to really talk about the earlier history of this, coming out of the early settlements that were going on there.

So let's go way back.

These are obviously native lands, like everything in the American continent.

It was the intersection of several great waterways, which allowed those native peoples to travel and trade.

They were Algonquin, then Miami.

What's interesting and will be a theme of this conversation is how much Confederacy there was, how many overlappings of these territories were going on at this time.

It seems to inform the place, doesn't it?

How fascinating.

Early in this podcast series, we did a show about the Cahokian mounds, and I've been there myself.

And it's right across, for those who don't know, across the Mississippi River from St.

Louis, generally.

And then you head inland from there.

And it was an amazing, huge settlement.

Not even a fair word for it.

It was a city, a huge city.

And a sign of what had really been accomplished by those societies.

And that would have been due south from everything we're talking about right now, which is so fascinating.

The early European visitors are French Jesuits.

So often the case, right?