ArchaeoCafé - Episode 13 - Tales from the trenches: An interview with W. Michael Gear (Part 1)

In this episode, I talk with author and archaeologist W. Michael Gear about popularising the long history of North America, the challenges of writing historical fiction, and bringing archaeological research to the public.

Episode notes are available on the ArchaeoCafé website.
http://archaeocafe.kvasirpublishing.com/archaeocafe-podcast-ep-13-gear-pt-1/

About W. Michael Gear

W. Michael Gear is an archaeologist and award winning author of fiction. Along with Kathleen O'Neal Gear, co-writes the First North American's series of historical fiction which spans the vast period of time from when the first people migrated to the Americas at the end of the last Ice Age up until the arrival of the Europeans in the 15th century. In addition to being an authors, Michael is also also an archaeologist and anthropologist.

Web:
https://www.gear-gear.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Michael_Gear
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/47406.W_Michael_Gear

Some useful terminology and links

First North Americans series
The series explores various civilisations and cultures in prehistoric North America.
https://www.gear-gear.com/the-books/people-books
https://www.goodreads.com/series/40994-north-america-s-forgotten-past
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_America%27s_Forgotten_Past

Oral tradition
a form of communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved and transmitted orally from one generation to another.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_tradition

Shamanism
a religious practice that involves a practitioner, a shaman, who is believed to interact with a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shamanism

Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)
a confederacy of nations in the Great Lakes region of North America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois

Chaco Canyon
Between AD 900 and 1150, Chaco Canyon was a major center of culture for the Ancestral Puebloans.
https://www.nps.gov/chcu/index.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaco_Culture_National_Historical_Park

Cahokia
a pre-Columbian Native American city (which existed circa 1050–1350 CE) directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. Cahokia was the largest and most influential urban settlement of the Mississippian culture, which developed advanced societies across much of what is now the central and southeastern United States, beginning more than 1000 years before European contact.
https://cahokiamounds.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cahokia

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