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People of the Morning Star & Cahokia

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About People of the Morning Star: Bestselling authors and archaeologists Michael and Kathleen Gear begin the stunning saga of the North American equivalent of ancient Rome in People of the Morning Star.

The city of Cahokia, at its height, covered more than six square miles around what is now St. Louis and included structures more than ten stories high. Cahokian warriors and traders roamed from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. What force on earth would motivate hundreds of thousands of people to pick up, move hundreds of miles, and once plopped down amidst a polyglot of strangers, build an incredible city?

A religious miracle: the Cahokians believed that the divine hero Morning Star had been resurrected in the flesh. But not all is fine and stable in glorious Cahokia. To the astonishment of the ruling clan, an attempt is made on the living god’s life. Now it is up to Morning Star’s aunt, Matron Blue Heron, to keep it quiet until she can uncover the plot and bring the culprits to justice. If she fails, Cahokia will be torn asunder in warfare, rage, and blood as civil war consumes them all.

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What’s Changed in Twenty Years?

People of the Morning Star by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear

Written by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear

In the twenty-three years since we wrote People of the River, archaeological research has revolutionized our understanding of the great site at Cahokia. In a sense, we got lucky. Today, People of the River still describes what researchers now call “Old Cahokia,” the complex settlement that existed at the end of the Edlehardt cultural phase, which ended at 1050 C.E..

At the time we wrote People of the River, we went out on a controversial limb and depicted Cahokia as a “state-level” society because it made sense. Today researchers talk in terms of “imperial” Cahokia; given the advancements in research, that, too, now makes sense.

A younger generation of archaeologists, like Tim Pauketat, John Kelly, Kent Reilly, and others, have beaten their way out of “processual” archaeology’s statistical, methodological, and theoretical straightjacket and taken a new look at Cahokia and its impact. In many ways, Cahokia was to North America as Rome was to Europe. Even today Cahokia’s stamp on Native American culture remains.

Cahokia, at its height, consisted of a series of mound centers built in strategic locations across the American Bottoms, on the eastern floodplain of the Mississippi and at St. Louis itself. Each appears to have been an autonomous politico-religious center tied to its peers through a shared mythology.

At the beginning of Cahokia’s Lohmann phase, at around 1050 C.E., something miraculous happened—what Dr.Timothy Pauketat calls the “Big Bang.” Tens of thousands of people from all over the American Midwest picked up entire villages and migrated to Cahokia. They brought their traditional designs, pottery, and household architecture, along with their peculiar styles of clothing, kinship, and languages, and settled every bit of arable land in and around Cahokia.

Due to Federal and Illinois cultural resource laws—which mandated archaeological survey prior to highway and, in some cases, urban development—wherever archaeologists looked in the American Bottom and in the eastern uplands they found what we now call “urban sprawl.” The mound centers around Cahokia weren’t separate towns; they were part of a megaplex. To date, more than two hundred mounds have been identified in association with the Cahokian phenomenon in the American Bottom and atop the upland bluffs in Illinois and Missouri. We now know that then, as today, from the top of Monks Mound, the city expanded farther than the eye could see—perhaps thirty miles in every direction.

The amazing thing is that it happened, essentially, overnight. In 1050, Old Cahokia was razed, new Cahokia was planned, surveyed on a great scale as a cosmic representation of the heavens, and building began. More than five square miles of land was leveled and graded to create the great plazas around Monks Mound. Mounds were raised in precisely determined, astronomically important, locations. Huge amounts of lumber were hauled in and palaces and temples—some five stories tall—were constructed on atop the mounds. Even with modern earth-moving equipment, this would be a huge undertaking. What the Cahokians accomplished with sticks and strings, hoes and baskets, and bent backs, was nothing short of monumental!

But what force on earth would motivate hundreds of thousands of people to pick up, move hundreds of miles, and, once plopped down amidst a polyglot of strangers, build an incredible city?

We think it was a religious miracle, perhaps inspired by the 1054 supernova which spawned the Crab Nebula. Our best guess is that the Cahokians believed the nova, shining so brightly in the midday sky, to be the return of the mythological hero Morning Star. Archaeologists like Tim Pauketat, John Kelly, Robert Hall, and others speculate that in a dramatic ritual, the Cahokians ceremonially resurrected the divine hero’s spirit into a human body.

Messianic movements are common in anthropological literature, and we think eastern North America had a long tradition of prophesy and messianic movements going back to the Woodland Archaic period, three thousand years ago. Such a movement explains the “Hopewellian interaction sphere,” the two-thousand-year-old Middle Woodland cultural phenomenon that swept eastern North America that we wrote about in People of the Lakes. Oral traditions of such a movement may have laid the foundation for the religious phenomenon that reached its peak at Cahokia between 1050 and 1100.

Remove the question from the hypothetical: What if it were true? What if Jesus suddenly returned to Jerusalem? Or if Mohammed miraculously reappeared in Mecca? What if tomorrow the Buddha stepped out of the sacred dimensions to sit and preach under the Bo tree? How many hundreds of millions of the faithful would trek to see share, and commune in the presence of the miracle? Tens of millions would consider it an affirmation and fulfillment of faith.

The notion that souls could be resurrected into someone else’s body was widespread across eastern North America when Europeans arrived. If you have read our People of the Longhouse, The Dawn Country, The Broken Land, or People of the Black Sun, you are already familiar with the Iroquois “requickening” ceremony. For those seeking additional information, we refer readers to Dr. Robert L. Hall’s 1997 An Archaeology of the Soul (University of Illinois Press, Urbana). For a discussion of Morning Star’s presence at Cahokia see Dr. Timothy Pauketat’s Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi (Viking, 2009).

Resurrected gods or not, Cahokia was an overnight sensation. Hundreds of thousands flocked there, and in doing so, they changed the face of North America. Cahokian colonies were established throughout the eastern woodlands; its traders and influence spread from the Atlantic to the Gulf Coast, to Oklahoma and the Dakotas. Reverberations from its messianic religion are still observed in renewal ceremonies like the modern Sun Dance. In a sense, we are all descendants—in one way or another—of Cahokia’s majesty.

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From the Tor/Forge May 5th newsletter. Sign up to receive our newsletter via email.

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More from the May 5th Tor/Forge newsletter:

On the Road: Tor/Forge Author Events in May

Valour and Vanity by Mary Robinette KowalThe Kraken Project by Douglas PrestonThe Tropic of Serpents by Marie BrennanMy Real Children by Jo Walton

Tor/Forge authors are on the road in May! Once a month, we’re collecting info about all of our upcoming author events. Check and see who’ll be coming to a city near you:

Thursday, May 1

Renee Graziano, Playing With Fire
Barnes & Noble
Eatontown, NJ
7:00 PM

Marie Brennan, The Tropic of Serpents and Mary Robinette Kowal, Valour and Vanity
DePaul University Bookstore
Chicago, IL
6:00 PM

Friday, May 2

Marie Brennan, The Tropic of Serpents and Mary Robinette Kowal, Valour and Vanity
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM

Daryl Gregory, Afterparty
Copperfield’s Books
Petaluma, CA
7:00 PM

Saturday, May 3

W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear, People of the Morning Star
Hastings Entertainment
Laramie, WY
1:00 PM

Marie Brennan, The Tropic of Serpents and Mary Robinette Kowal, Valour and Vanity
Powell’s Books
Beaverton, OR
2:00 PM

Daryl Gregory, Afterparty
Borderlands Books
San Francisco, CA
3:00 PM

Sunday, May 4

Daryl Gregory, Afterparty
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
2:00 PM

Marie Brennan, The Tropic of Serpents and Mary Robinette Kowal, Valour and Vanity
Book Bin
Salem, OR
3:00 PM

Tuesday, May 6

Marie Brennan, The Tropic of Serpents and Mary Robinette Kowal, Valour and Vanity
Murder by the Book
Houston, TX
6:30 PM

Thursday, May 8

Marie Brennan, The Tropic of Serpents and Mary Robinette Kowal, Valour and Vanity
Weller Book Works
Salt Lake City, UT
6:00 PM

Elizabeth Bear, Steles of the Sky
Pandemonium Books & Games
Cambridge, MA
7:00 PM

Saturday, May 10

Marie Brennan, The Tropic of Serpents and Mary Robinette Kowal, Valour and Vanity
Mysterious Galaxy 21st Birthday Bash
San Diego, CA
10:00 AM

W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear, People of the Morning Star
Hastings Entertainment
Gillette, WY
2:00 PM

Elizabeth Bear, Steles of the Sky
Annie’s Book Shop
Worcester, MA
3:00 PM

Sunday, May 11

Marie Brennan, The Tropic of Serpents and Mary Robinette Kowal, Valour and Vanity
Borderlands Books
San Francisco, CA
3:00 PM

Monday, May 12

Mary Robinette Kowal, Valour and Vanity
Quail Ridge Books
Raleigh, NC
7:30 PM

Tuesday, May 13

James L. Cambias, A Darkling Sea
Powell’s Books
Beaverton, MA
7:00 PM

Wednesday, May 14

Douglas Preston, The Kraken Project
Murder by the Book
Houston, TX
6:30 PM

Thursday, May 15

W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear, People of the Morning Star
Barnes & Noble
Billings, MT
7:00 PM

Hilary Davidson, Blood Always Tells
One More Page Books
Arlington, VA
7:00 PM

Douglas Preston, The Kraken Project
Tattered Cover
Highlands Ranch, CO
7:30 PM

Friday, May 16

Kevin J. Anderson, The Dark Between the Stars
Dallas Comic-con
Dallas, TX
May 16-18

Douglas Preston, The Kraken Project
Arizona Biltmore, books provided by Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ
7:00 PM

James L. Cambias, A Darkling Sea
University Bookstore
Seattle, WA
7:00 PM

Saturday, May 17

Jon Leiberman and Margaret McLean, Whitey on Trial
Meriden Public Library
Meriden, CT
2:00 PM

W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear, People of the Morning Star
Barnes & Noble
Bozeman, MT
2:00 PM

Hilary Davidson, Blood Always Tells
Mystery One Bookstore
Milwaukee, WI
2:00 PM

Sunday, May 18

Glen Hirshberg, Motherless Child
Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA
2:00 PM

Monday, May 19

Douglas Preston, The Kraken Project
Collected Works
Santa Fe, NM
7:00 PM

Tuesday, May 20

Douglas Preston, The Kraken Project
Bookworks
Albuquerque, NM
7:00 PM

Thursday, May 22

Jo Walton, My Real Children
Towne Book Center
Collegeville, PA
7:00 PM

Friday, May 23

Kevin J. Anderson, The Dark Between the Stars
Comicpalooza
Houston, TX
May 23-26

Saturday, May 24

Glen Hirshberg, Motherless Child
Dark Delicacies
Burbank, CA
2:00 PM

Douglas Preston, The Kraken Project
Book People
Austin, TX
4:00 PM

Sunday, May 25

Gary Kriss, The Zodiac Deception
Booksy Galore
Pound Ridge, NY
2:00 PM

Tuesday, May 27

Jo Walton, My Real Children
Word Bookstores
Brooklyn, NY
7:00 PM

Wednesday, May 28

Jo Walton, My Real Children
Wellesley Books
Wellesley, MA
7:00 PM

Saturday, May 31

Melanie Rawn, Thornlost
Alamosa Books
Albuquerque, NM
4:00 PM

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Throwback Thursdays: Flying Snakes, Seeing Hands, Glorious Weeping Eyes

Welcome to Throwback Thursdays on the Tor/Forge blog! Every other week, we’re delving into our newsletter archives and sharing some of our favorite posts.

There’s more to American history than the Revolutionary War, but it’s easy to forget that from the vantage point of the 21st Century. Luckily, we have W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear to remind us, with their incredible series North America’s Forgotten Past. To celebrate the release of the newest novel in the series, People of the Morning Star, we went back to the Tor Newsletter from May of 2008, when they wrote about the largest city in North American in A.D. 1350. We hope you enjoy this blast from the past, and be sure to check back every other Thursday for more!

People of the Weeping Eye by W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal GearBy W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear

Okay, here’s the question: The year is A.D. 1350. Name the largest city in America? Come on, it can’t be that hard. This is America, for Pete’s sake! Remember? Like, you live here. You know London was the largest city in England, and Paris in France. Surely you must know the largest city in America at the same time. Okay, we’ll give you a hint: it dominated four states for nearly four hundred years—that’s one hundred years longer than New York City has been in existence. This city had economic ties to Canada in the north, Florida in the south, and Oklahoma in the west. For its first two hundred years it was surrounded by a twenty-foot-high wall with bastions every thirty yards. After that it was so powerful no enemies could mount a sufficient threat to justify the great fortifications. Still don’t know the name of this city?

That’s America. We’re a curious country. One out of four Americans claims to have some percentage of Native American ancestry. Of those, the majority claim some Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, or Seminole blood. Ask those who are Italian, and they can tell you something about Romans, the Renaissance, Venice, Florence, or Rome. Others know something about their German, Spanish, or Irish heritage. Why, then, has our Native American heritage been forgotten?

People of the Weeping Eye is another of our novels about “America’s Forgotten Past.” But this one is special: it deals with the great civilization that flourished around Moundville, Alabama. (And, yes, that is the answer to the question asked above.) While Moundville wasn’t the only powerful city in the Southeast, it survived the longest, was the most powerful, and built the largest monuments. You can still go to Moundville; it’s a twenty-minute drive south of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. You won’t see the great wall, or the multi-storied buildings that once stood there.

What you will see are foundations, but even seven hundred years later, they remain impressive. Why, you might ask, are foundations all that are left? These people built with logs and roofed with thatch. Log buildings-no matter how large-don’t survive in humid forests for six hundred years.

Who built Moundville? The best guess is that ancestral Chickasaw were responsible. They came in around 1000 A.D., conquered the ancestral Alabama peoples, and built a city that would inherit part of grand Cahokia’s legacy. We call this period the Mississippian. To newcomers in American archaeology, Mississippian describes a series of cultures that traded and warred, built earthworks, crafted stylistically similar art, and built similar houses and cities.

Despite the fact that we are writing about America’s past, for many readers, People of the Weeping Eye will seem like epic fantasy. Here is a universe that is at once familiar and ultimately foreign. We rely heavily on the myths and legends of the great Southeastern tribes. They believed the world was divided into three realms: that of the sky, earth, and underworld. Each of these worlds was filled with powerful and dangerous spirit-beings. The most powerful were those with mixed characteristics—like snakes with wings, birds that lived underwater, and flying fish. Only the most powerful shaman, like the Kala Hiki in Weeping Eye, could locate and pass through the holes that led from one realm to the other. Snakes were water beings, and the most powerful of these was the horned serpent. He had rainbow-colored scales, horns on his head, and great crystal eyes.

Our characters, Trader, Old White, and the Contrary girl, Two Petals, travel the same Mississippi River that flows today. They pass sites like the Shiloh Mounds and Cahokia, a World Heritage Site. If you go to Moundville, you can climb the same stairs that Smoke Shield and Flying Hawk did. You can look down from the bluff where Mary Wet Bear heard singing rise from the Black Warrior River. The novel is about actual places and archaeology. In museums you can see many of the artifacts we describe in the novel. We include a bibliography at the end so that interested readers can go to the same source material we use.

We hope you enjoy this journey through America’s forgotten past, and into the heart of one of the grandest civilizations in the world. Watch out for Two Petals!

This article is originally from the May 2008 Tor/Forge newsletter. Sign up for the Tor/Forge newsletter now, and get similar content in your inbox twice a month!

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