Cahokia

Cahokia (kəhōˈkēə) [key], village (1990 pop. 17,550), St. Clair co., SW Ill., a residential suburb of East St. Louis, on the Mississippi River; inc. 1927. The first permanent settlement in Illinois, Cahokia's name is derived from a local Native American group. The French established a mission in 1699 and a fur-trading post later. Cahokia was occupied by the British in 1765 and captured by the Americans under George Rogers Clark in 1778. It has several buildings dating from the 18th cent. Parks College, part of St. Louis Univ., is there. Nearby are the Cahokia Mounds.

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