Cahokia Mounds to offer free lectures on Illinois story

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (AP) - Illinois history buffs will get the chance to look back at 2,000 years of Native American history.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in southwestern Illinois is offering a series of free lectures.

The speaker at the first presentation on Jan. 15 is Jason King, who is director of the Center for American Archaeology. He'll discuss the center's research, including recent mound excavations. Other presentations will take place on Feb. 26 and March 19.

Cahokia Mounds is in Collinsville, not far from downtown St. Louis.

The site is home to the largest Native American earthworks north of Mexico. It was the location of a large city of thousands of residents from the Mississippian culture, which flourished 1,000 years ago in the Midwest and South.