Americans have refused to accept the reality that Native Americans constructed astonishing monuments of earth through out the nineteenth century. The idea that the historical mounds were produced by early Native Americans was met with much criticism for hundreds of years. The fact that the Native Americans built such mounds was denied because of the prejudices and egos of the White Americans. Sadly, the noble truth of these mysterious mounds was not publicized until the middle of the twentieth century (Source 13).
Accepting the truth that the Native Americans constructed the great mound of Cahokia would also recognize that many of the Native Americans were not nomadic people. The mounds were the foundation of major cities and towns that served as platforms for public buildings and homes (McClellan page 3). Accepting the theory of the mounds would reveal that the Native Americans had the standard for a civilization. The fact that there was a thriving civilization prior to the Europeans would show that the Europeans were invaders rather than settlers of "The New World". This would destroy the concept that Europeans discovered and settled a virgin North America. .
Acknowledging the Native Americans as the builders of the mounds would therefore entitle the American Indians to claim present United States land. The White settlers did not want to acknowledge that the natives were anything other than savage and uncivilized (Source 8). Admitting the Native Americans undeniably had communities would obliterate the propaganda that Europe claimed unsettled lands. Instead, the European settlers would have seized the land from of a flourishing civilization. The glorious notion that the White settlers tamed the lands of North America would become a paradox. .
The egotistical, White Americans of the nineteenth century resisted the idea that Native Americans erected such magnificent mounds in fear of shaking the self-esteem of the Caucasian race.