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St. Louis was once known as Mound City for its many Native American mounds. Only one left
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St. Louis was once known as Mound City for its many Native American mounds. Only one left

ST. LOUIS — What is now St. Louis was once home to more than 100 mounds built by Native Americans – so many that St. Louis was once known as “Mound City.” The settlers demolished most of them, and only one remains.

Today, the last remaining earthen structure, Sugarloaf Mound, is poised to be returned to the hands of the Osage Nation.

The city of St. Louis, the Osage Nation and the nonprofit Counterpublic announced Thursday that an 86-year-old woman who owns a home atop Sugarloaf Mound has agreed to sell it and possibly transfer property to the tribe.

Meanwhile, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen plans to pass a resolution in January recognizing the sovereignty of the Osage Nation, said Alderman Cara Spencer. Ultimately, the goal is to develop a cultural and interpretive center on the site overlooking the Mississippi River, a few miles south of downtown.

“One step toward our tribal sovereignty is reclaiming the lands we have inhabited for hundreds of years,” said Andrea Hunter, director of the Osage Nation Historic Preservation Office in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. “And to be able to save at least one mound in St. Louis, on the west bank of the Mississippi River, it means a lot to us to reclaim our heritage.”

But a sticking point remains. A pharmaceutical fraternity owns the only other house on the mound, and it remains unclear whether they are willing to give up the property.

Native Americans built thousands of mounds across the United States in the centuries before colonization. All were sacred ceremonial sites, but some were also used for habitation or commerce. Many were burial sites. Tribal elites sometimes made a living from it, Hunter said.

Joan Heckenberg's house, located atop the last remaining indigenous village...

Joan Heckenberg’s home, located atop the last Native American mound in St. Louis, is seen here on Wednesday, November 20, 2024. Credit: AP/Jim Salter

The mounds in the St. Louis area are believed to have been constructed between approximately 800 and 1450. Even today, many mounds remain in nearby Cahokia, Illinois. Experts estimate that centuries ago, Cahokia was home to as many as 20,000 people.

Sugarloaf Mound and Big Mound were among the most significant man-made structures in what is now St. Louis, said James McAnally, executive director of Counterpublic, a St. Louis nonprofit that s strives to bring about change through art-based projects and has helped facilitate the acquisition of new land.

“They were built on the river specifically to serve as signal mounds,” McAnally said. Native Americans on the west bank of the Mississippi could send visible smoke signals to those in Cahokia to let them know if people were seen coming down the waterway, Hunter said.

The mounds were still clearly visible in St. Louis when it was founded in 1764. Visitors — even European royalty — came to the fledgling city just to see them, said Patricia Cleary, a professor of American history at California State University, Long Beach, and author of the book “Mound City: The Place of the Indigenous Past and Present in St. Louis.”

Eventually, the removal treaties forced the Native Americans to leave St. Louis. The settlers had little use for the mounds.

“They used them to build the banks of the Mississippi River and used them as fill for roads and railroads, with complete disregard for the graves of our ancestors that were in many of them,” Hunter said. “There are even accounts that as they were destroying Big Mound, they were simply throwing the bones into the Mississippi River.

Today, St. Louis landmarks dot the places where mounds once stood, including several spots in Forest Park, where the mounds were demolished to make way for the 1904 World’s Fair. In the early 20th century , only Sugarloaf Mountain remained.

In 2009, the Osage Nation purchased the first section of the mound, dismantled a house and began work to stabilize it. But two houses remained in private hands.

One of those owners, Joan Heckenberg, 86, has agreed to transfer the property to the Osage Nation once she moves or dies.

Heckenberg has lived in the house for 81 years, ever since his grandfather bought it and convinced his skeptical wife to move the family there.

“But they fell in love with it,” Heckenberg said of his grandparents.

The deal with Heckenberg leaves only one other private home on the mound, a building owned by Kappa Psi, a national pharmaceutical fraternity. Heckenberg said students haven’t lived there for years and homeless people sometimes stay there.

A fraternity spokeswoman said a limited liability company manages the house and its sale would go to the LLC. She did not have the name or contact information for the LLC. McAnally said the fraternity had been approached about selling the house, but “so far they haven’t taken any action.”

Spencer said the mounds are an important and neglected part of St. Louis and the preservation of Sugarloaf is vital.

“It’s a really special place for Osage history and for our Native American heritage in this country, which has been largely erased,” Spencer said.