Investigating the controversial phenomenon
The most sacred sites in America number some of the nation's most cherished landmarks and natural wonders. Of considerable cultural and spiritual significance to indigenous peoples long before the arrival of European settlers, these locations served as places of habitation, scenes of ceremony, and burial grounds for prehistoric tribes and Native Americans. They were also seen as the embodiment of ancient gods, and worshipped accordingly. Today, many of these locales have been preserved as national monuments, with some designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. So, where in the US can you find the most revered destinations?
Click through and seek out indigenous America's most evocative landmarks.
One of Washington state's most scenic natural wonders is a site of natural, historic, and cultural convergence for the Snoqualmie people. In ancient times the falls served as a traditional burial site, the belief being that the mist rising from the base of the waterfall connected Heaven and Earth.
Edited content: With a summit elevation of 6,190 m (20,310 ft) above sea level, Denali is the highest mountain in North America. The Koyukon people who inhabit the area around the mountain have referred to the peak as Denali for centuries. However, upon his inauguration in January 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to change the mountain's official name back to Mount McKinley, the name by which it was recognized in the US prior to 2015.
Located near the crest of the Bighorn Mountains of north-central Wyoming, Medicine Wheel is a significant prehistoric archaeological landscape as well as an ancient Native American spiritual site where tribal ceremonial activity continues to this day. It's a major cultural attraction of Bighorn National Forest.
Tucked away in the Zuni Mountains, Blue Lake is among the most important sites for the Taos Pueblo to congregate for ceremonial reasons. As descendants from the great ancestral Puebloans Indian culture, the Taos Pueblo regard the lake as their most sacred shrine and central to religious beliefs and practices of their culture.
A jaw-dropping geological feature, Devil's Tower is a sacred site for many Plains Indians. Native American names for the iconic monolith include "Bear's House" and "Brown Buffalo Horn." Devils Tower was the first United States national monument, established in 1906 by President Theodore Roosevelt.
Native Americans were witnesses 7,700 years ago to the creation of this stunning lake, present in the region when a violent volcanic eruption triggered the collapse of Mount Mazama. The Klamath tribe in particular venerate the deepest lake in America as a sacred site.
Mount Shasta is a majestic, steep-sided stratovolcano located north of Redding. It's been a sacred place and vision quest site of the Wintu, Karuk, Okwanuchu, Modoc, and Shasta Indian tribes for centuries. For them, the mountain serves as the center of the universe, and it's spoken about as being the home of the creator.
The site of a pre-Columbian Native American city, Cahokia dates back to around 1050 CE. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, this is the largest prehistoric earthen construction in the Americas north of Mexico. The site is distinguished by a series of mounds, the largest of which is the 30-meter-high (98 ft) Monks Mound.
Native Americans have long considered the isolated Black Hills mountain range their spiritual home. The region is especially associated with the Lakota and places like Black Eld Peak and Inyan Kara ("Rock Gatherer"), which have been central to their culture since the mid-18th century.
The Great Serpent Mound is the largest earthen serpent effigy in the world. It was created around 1000 CE during the Fort Ancient period, though archaeological evidence suggests it was built over an earlier mound dating back 2,100–2,300 years. Fort Ancient is the name of a Native American culture that predominantly inhabited land near the Ohio River valley in the areas of modern-day southern Ohio.
Petroglyph drawings found in the Organ Mountains region chronicle centuries of Native American life. Tours of specific historic sites are conducted by tribal leaders.
Hopewell Culture National Historical Park encompasses dozens of monumental mounds and earthen enclosures built by the Hopewell culture, indigenous peoples who flourished from about 200 BCE to 500 CE. The ceremonial landscapes were used for feasts, funerals, rituals, and rites of passage.
Several Native American tribes have spiritual and historic associations with the Sweet Grass Hills, none more so perhaps than the Blackfoot aboriginal people who regard the small group of low mountains as a sacred site.
Ocmulgee National Monument preserves more than 12,000 years of continuous human habitation. The site's chief remains, however, are major earthworks built before 1000 CE by the South Appalachian Mississippian culture. These include the extraordinary Great Temple Mound.
One of America's most evocative ancient sites, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument was created to protect Mogollon cliff dwellings in New Mexico's Gila Wilderness. The Mogollon culture flourished from 200 CE to the late 15th century.
One of Maui's most spectacular natural wonders, Iao Valley was for centuries used by Hawaii's ali'i, or chiefs, as a burial site. Several gods are associated with the region, including Kanaloa, the Hawaiian god of the underworld, represented by the phallic stone of the ʻĪao Needle (pictured).
Mesa Verde National Park is deserving of its UNESCO World Heritage Site status, protecting as it does some of the best-preserved Ancestral Puebloan archaeological sites in the United States.
Still visited by many American Indian tribes who come here to hold religious ceremonies, Bear Butte (or Noahȧ-vose, the "giving hill") has been an important landmark and religious site for the Plains Indians tribes, including Cheyenne and Sioux Lakota, long before Europeans reached South Dakota.
Located just outside Coolidge are a group of Hohokam structures dating back to the Classic Period (1150–1450 CE). The ruins once stood as adobes occupied by the Sonoran Desert people. The best preserved is the Casa Grande, sheltered under a ramada.
Ancestral Puebloans, the Navajo, and other indigenous people have over the centuries made Canyon de Chelly their home. Its most distinctive geologic feature is Spider Rock. Today, Canyon de Chelly is entirely owned by the Navajo Tribal Trust of the Navajo Nation.
In Hawaiian mythology, Kīlauea, on Big Island, is the body of the deity Pele, goddess of fire, lightning, wind, and volcanoes.
Representing one of the longest continuously occupied sites in Florida, Crystal River Archaeological State Park consists of a series of burial mounds and temple-platform mounds that for 1,600 years served as an imposing ceremonial center for indigenous peoples.
Spirit Mountain, known as Avi Kwa' Ame in Mojave, is home to the Grapevine Canyon petroglyphs. Created between 1100 and 1900 CE, it's unclear whether they were produced by the hands of the Mojave or other Native Americans such as Wala Pai, Marakopa, or Quechen.
Hovenweep is largely known for the ruins of six groups of Ancestral Puebloan villages, the foundations of which date back to about 900 CE. At its height, Hovenweep was home to 2,500 people.
Enchanted Rock is a prominent pink granite mountain held in reverence by the Tonkawa, Apache, and Comanche tribes, who have long ascribed magical and spiritual powers to the dome-like rock formation.
The tallest sand dunes in North America distinguish this national park, natural wonders that were long known to indigenous peoples: the traditional Ute phrase for the Great Sand Dunes is Saa waap maa nache ("sand that moves"). The mountains behind the dunes are sacred landmarks to the Navajo people.
A prehistoric earthwork constructed by the Poverty Point culture—indigenous peoples who inhabited the Mississippi valley around 1730–1350 BCE—this series of earthen ridges and mounds is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Fronting a stretch of Lake Michigan's eastern coastline, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is named after an Ojibwe legend of a bear who lost her cubs, both of which were later commemorated by the Great Spirt as two islands (North and South Manitou Islands).
Petroglyphs, cave dwellings, and standing masonry walls identify the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans, who settled on the Pajarito Plateau some 1,000 years ago.
A North Carolina landmark, Pilot Mountain was known to the native Saura Indians as Jomeokee, meaning "great guide."
See also: The oldest mountains in the world and their histories
Indigenous America's most sacred landmarks
American locations of great cultural and spiritual significance
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The most sacred sites in America number some of the nation's most cherished landmarks and natural wonders. Of considerable cultural and spiritual significance to indigenous peoples long before the arrival of European settlers, these locations served as places of habitation, scenes of ceremony, and burial grounds for prehistoric tribes and Native Americans. They were also seen as the embodiment of ancient gods, and worshipped accordingly. Today, many of these locales have been preserved as national monuments, with some designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. So, where in the US can you find the most revered destinations?
Click through and seek out indigenous America's most evocative landmarks.