Authors: Kathleen O'Neal Gear
It Sleeps in Me (26 page)
THE ANASAZI MYSTERY SERIES
The Visitant
The Summoning God
Bone Walker
THE FIRST NORTH
AMERICANS SERIES
AMERICANS SERIES
People of the Wolf
People of the Fire
People of the Earth
People of the River
People of the Sea
People of the Lakes
People of the Lightning
People of the Silence
People of the Mist
People of the Masks
People of the Owl
People of the Raven
People of the Moon
*
*
People of the Weeping Eye
*
*
BY KATHLEEN O’NEAL GEAR
Thin Moon and Cold Mist
Sand in the Wind
This Widowed Land
It Sleeps in Me
It Wakes in Me
*
*
It Dreams in Me
*
*
BY W. MICHAEL GEAR
Long Ride Home
Big Horn Legacy
The Morning River
Coyote Summer
The Athena Factor
*
*
OTHER TITLES BY
KATHLEEN O’NEAL GEAR
AND W. MICHAEL GEAR
KATHLEEN O’NEAL GEAR
AND W. MICHAEL GEAR
Dark Inheritance
Raising Abel
*Forthcoming
Four miles north of Tallahassee, Florida, in the lush oak and gum forests, sits the Lake Jackson Mounds State Archaeological Site. During the fifteenth century this site was the heart of one of the most powerful political entities in North America. Part of the grand “Mississippian Culture” that spanned the eastern half of the continent, the Lake Jackson site consists of seven earthen mounds. Six of these are pyramidal, flat-topped mounds. One is round. The largest mound, Mound 2 (the Chieftess’ Mound in this book), measures 270 feet by 300 feet along its rectangular base and stands 36 feet (11 meters) high. The other mounds vary from 3 to 16 feet in height. Radiocarbon dates taken during the excavation of Mound 3 indicate the cultural florescence of the town occurred between A.D. 1250 and A.D. 1500, but the site was inhabited as early as A.D. 1050.
The total polity population—that is, the number of people who lived at Lake Jackson phase sites (called the Black Falcon Nation here)—was probably around twenty thousand. Most of these people lived in dispersed villages, hamlets, and farmsteads that stretched from the Ochlockonee River on the west, to the Aucilla River on the east, and north to just across the Georgia border.
They were an agricultural society, primarily raising corn, beans, and sunflowers; but they also relied heavily on hunting, fishing, and collecting foods like hickory nuts, acorns, persimmons, maypop, wild cherry, plums, saw palmetto and cabbage palm seeds, and chinquapin. The bones of deer, turkey, squirrel, various birds, and a wide variety of fish, turtles, and shellfish are common to Lake Jackson phase sites.
We know little about their houses, except that some were circular, others rectangular. They probably had winter and summer
houses. The winter homes may have been made of wood and thatch. The summer homes were probably little more than ramadas, upright poles set in the ground and roofed. Though wattle and daub impressions were found at the Lake Jackson site, these were associated with an elite building. There’s no evidence to indicate that ordinary villagers went to the trouble of “plastering” their homes.
houses. The winter homes may have been made of wood and thatch. The summer homes were probably little more than ramadas, upright poles set in the ground and roofed. Though wattle and daub impressions were found at the Lake Jackson site, these were associated with an elite building. There’s no evidence to indicate that ordinary villagers went to the trouble of “plastering” their homes.
The Lake Jackson site acted as the capital, the locus of governmental and ceremonial activities for the people it served. We also know it was the residence of the high chief or chieftess, his or her family, and political associates.
High chiefs like the ruler of the Lake Jackson site governed the surrounding villages and controlled the redistribution of goods. The chief received “tribute,” a sort of tax, from outlying villagers in the form of raw goods: shells, pearls, tool stone, rabbits, venison, feather cloaks, buffalohides, etc. In return, the high chiefs gave village chiefs protection when their villages were in danger and food when they were hungry.
The status of elite individuals was reflected in the way they were buried. The higher one’s rank in the society, the more prestige goods were included in the grave. A person of high nobility was buried in a tomb dug into the floor of a building erected on one of the pyramidal mounds and was covered with opulent goods like an engraved copper breastplate, hundreds of pearls and marine shell beads, a headdress and cape of rare feathers. The array of objects is extraordinary: arrow points, T-shaped steatite pipes, limestone bowls, elbow pipes, lizard effigy pipes, pottery vessels, paint palettes stained with red ochre, lumps of yellow ochre and graphite, stone axes, a galena-backed mica mirror, a shark jaw knife, and numerous stone “discoidals.” Discoidals are stone discs, concave on both sides, that we believe were used in a game called “chunkey,” which was played by historical southeastern tribes. The chunkey stone was rolled across the field and a spear thrown at it. Whoever hit the stone, or came closest, earned a point.
Some floors had more than one burial. Mound 3 contained twenty-four floor burials. A dog was also found in a floor tomb, probably a beloved pet.
Other high-ranking individuals may have had their bones cleaned, then stored in charnel houses on the mounds, overseen by priests and priestesses.
Commoners were buried in cemeteries, two of which have been excavated and that contained about one hundred people each. The bodies were either in flexed or extended positions, or grouped in mass graves. Burials have also been found in trash middens or fire pits. A few burial mounds are known in the region—that is, mounds dedicated to the dead, rather than pyramidal mounds with burials—but they are not common.
Many of the burial goods were fashioned from materials not native to Florida: copper, lead, mica, anthracite, graphite, steatite, greenstone. This is not surprising. One of the most important ways Mississippian chieftains maintained their status was through an elaborate trade network that crisscrossed the continent. The artifacts that distinguish these elite goods at the Lake Jackson site include copper, shell, and stone items. Several are weapons, elaborate headdresses, carved shell gorgets, and copper plates. They also exchanged practical items: shell cups, ceramic beakers and bottles, and pipes and pins decorated with the images of crested birds, among other things. In receipt for these elite goods, the Mississippian rulers at the Lake Jackson site probably traded marine shell beads, pearls, shark’s teeth, and holly leaves (
Ilex vomitoria
), used to make sacred “Black Drink,” a high-caffeine drink used in religious ceremonies.
Ilex vomitoria
), used to make sacred “Black Drink,” a high-caffeine drink used in religious ceremonies.
We know that for some reason their trade routes were disrupted at around A.D. 1400—the number and type of prestige goods drops suddenly. Was it warfare?
In the sixteenth century, the chiefdom was respected and feared. Ethno-historical documentation exists that demonstrates violent factional competition between members of the nobility—which means
the answer is probably yes. Warfare is well documented across the Mississippian world, as those of you who read
People of the
River know.
the answer is probably yes. Warfare is well documented across the Mississippian world, as those of you who read
People of the
River know.
The artwork tells us a great deal about what they wore, believed, made, and what kind of activities they engaged in. A number of copper plates were recovered during the Mound 3 excavations. Four were found lying on the chests of elite individuals. Each was made from copper nuggets, cold-hammered into thin sheets, riveted together, then embossed by the hand of a master artist. One plate, measuring ten by twenty inches, shows a dancing Birdman in profile. Birdman—a half-human, half-bird figure—is common in the Mississippian world. In this particular plate he holds a ceremonial baton in one hand and a severed human head in the other. A waist pouch is suspended from his belt. He wears a feather cape and headdress, earspools, a busycon shell pendant, beaded anklets, bracelets, and has shoulder tattoos. Another copper plate, 6 inches wide by 21 inches high, shows Birdman from a full frontal view. This is a curious figure because he appears to be in a state of decomposition. Part of the face is fleshed, the other part skull. He wears a feathered headdress and cloak, but the cloak seems to be wrapped around him, in the same way cloaks were in burials. Another elite individual found in Mound 3 had five cutout copper plates with him, each depicting falcon figures. Peregrine Falcon and his forked eye motif fill Mississippian religious art.
From the study of historical southeastern tribes we suspect the chieftainship was a hereditary position. They were matrilineal, meaning they traced descent through the female only, but generally passed on leadership positions to sons. However, if there were no sons, daughters ascended to the position of chieftess. Daughters remained in the villages where they were born. Sons, except for those who would become chiefs, went to live in their wives’ villages. In the case of divorce, women generally retained the house, land, and custody of the children. Adultery was frowned upon. Especially among the elite, couples were expected to be faithful. If caught in
adultery, the man or woman was likely to be beaten by his or her spouse’s relatives and mutilated with a knife, or declared Outcast and banished.
adultery, the man or woman was likely to be beaten by his or her spouse’s relatives and mutilated with a knife, or declared Outcast and banished.
Marriage negotiations were handled strictly between women. Fathers, not being blood relatives, were not formally consulted, though they might be told about marriage considerations out of politeness.
The cosmos of southeastern peoples consisted of three worlds: an Upper World in the sky, This World on the surface of the earth, and an Under World beneath the surface. The Upper World was a place of purity and grandeur; it represented order. The Under World was chaotic. This World vacillated between the two. It was the duty of human beings to strive for harmony and balance. As with Birdman, historical southeastern tribes had a variety of sacred creatures that combined elements of all three worlds: serpents with human faces and wings, deer with talons and snakeskin, cougars with fish-like tails and falcon eyes. These creatures seem to have been able to traverse all three worlds to speak with the sacred beings that lived there.
The southeastern tribes had interesting concepts of justice, particularly relating to what we would call “murder.” In the strictest sense, they did not believe in murder. Intent was not a consideration. If one person caused the death of another, whether it was accidental or intentional, he was liable for that death. The offended clan had the right to take the life of the killer in retaliation, or one of his relatives could be killed in his place. Killing a member of your own clan was the worst crime a person could commit. The killer was generally put to death, but if his clan decided they needed the person, he or she could be forgiven, or another person killed in his place to satisfy the family. A mother had the right to kill her own child until it was a month old. But if the father, being from a different clan, killed that same child he would be held responsible for that death under the law of retaliation, and he or one of his relatives might be put to death (Hudson, p. 231).
It Sleeps in Me
is set at about A.D. 1400, the peak of power for the
Lake Jackson rulers, and explores a subject I’ve barely touched in my previous novels: the sexual side of healing rituals among prehistoric societies. These rituals are fabulously colorful and fascinating. One of the most spectacular was the
andacwander
among the Huron tribe. During this ceremony the unmarried young people of the village assembled in the sick person’s house and, while two priests shook rattles and sang, engaged in sexual intercourse while the sick person watched. Oftentimes, the patient joined the ritual. When Jesuit missionaries arrived in the seventeenth century they were so appalled by this healing ritual they were loath even to mention it (Trigger, p. 83).
is set at about A.D. 1400, the peak of power for the
Lake Jackson rulers, and explores a subject I’ve barely touched in my previous novels: the sexual side of healing rituals among prehistoric societies. These rituals are fabulously colorful and fascinating. One of the most spectacular was the
andacwander
among the Huron tribe. During this ceremony the unmarried young people of the village assembled in the sick person’s house and, while two priests shook rattles and sang, engaged in sexual intercourse while the sick person watched. Oftentimes, the patient joined the ritual. When Jesuit missionaries arrived in the seventeenth century they were so appalled by this healing ritual they were loath even to mention it (Trigger, p. 83).
What the Jesuits failed to understand was that to the Huron illness was largely caused by unfulfilled desires of the soul, which if left unattended could result in death. The
andacwander,
and similar soul-curing rituals that went against the basic moral teachings of the tribe, demonstrated the extent to which the Huron would go to heal their sick relatives.
andacwander,
and similar soul-curing rituals that went against the basic moral teachings of the tribe, demonstrated the extent to which the Huron would go to heal their sick relatives.
While many people in modern western cultures look at this idea with a jaundiced eye, you must understand that to the Huron, our sexuality, our fruitfulness, indeed our very creativity itself were the heart of a truly spiritual life.
Of course sexual energy had healing powers.
In the next book in this series,
It Wakes in Me,
we’ll explore this subject more thoroughly.
It Wakes in Me,
we’ll explore this subject more thoroughly.
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