Indian Mounds Park (Saint Paul, Minnesota)

Indian Mounds Regional Park
Protected area
Two of the park's prehistoric burial mounds
Country	United States
State	Minnesota
County	Ramsey
Location	Saint Paul
- elevation	876 ft (267 m)
- coordinates	44°56′44″N 93°3′13″W / 44.94556°N 93.05361°W / 44.94556; -93.05361Coordinates: 44°56′44″N 93°3′13″W / 44.94556°N 93.05361°W / 44.94556; -93.05361
Area	79 acres (32 ha)
Founded	1893
Management	Saint Paul Parks and Recreation
Part of	Mississippi National River and Recreation Area
Location of Indian Mounds Regional Park in Minnesota

Indian Mounds Regional Park is a public park in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, featuring six prehistoric Native American burial mounds overlooking the Mississippi River. The oldest mounds were constructed 1,500–2,000 years ago by people of the Hopewell tradition. Later the Dakota people interred their dead there as well. At least 31 more mounds were destroyed by development in the late 19th century. They were the tallest Native American mounds in Minnesota or Wisconsin (except for the unique 45-foot (14 m) Grand Mound outside International Falls, Minnesota), and comprise one of the northwesternmost Hopewellian sites in North America. Indian Mounds Regional Park is a component of the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a unit of the National Park System. The Mounds Group is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 2014 nomination document provides a description of the archaeology and the context.

There were once at least 18 mounds, plus another 19 a short distance to the northwest directly above Carver's Cave. The mounds of the second group were all quite small, under 2 feet (0.6 m) high. Anthropologists ascribe the oldest mounds to mound builders of the Hopewell Tradition, but later cultures also added to the mounds. No evidence of habitation has been found among the mounds, so the builders lived elsewhere nearby, probably in a village below the bluff.

The Dakota village of Kaposia was established at the foot of the bluff before 1600 CE. English explorer Jonathan Carver described the site in 1766 and visited the recent burial of a Dakota leader among the mounds.