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Witches of Cahokia
Witches of Cahokia Something's turned up at a road construction site near Alton, Illinois. A pair of skeletal remains is causing a sensation in the local papers, and it falls on archaeologists Daniel and Lauren French to determine whether the project can go forward. But when further excavation turns up dozens of graves - each containing female remains - an ordinary dig turns into a major archaeological expedition. Quickly dubbed by the local press, Ancient Queens of Alton, the gravesites represent an irresistible professional challenge to Daniel and Lauren. Who were these women? What do they tell us about ancient beliefs, culture, and even migration patterns? The answers might be too incredible to believe. Slowly Daniel and Lauren's research reveals a remarkable line of shamanic women bound by an ancient promise to wait, watch, and remember. It is a tale filled with passion, sacrifice, love, and loss. It is the tale of an ancient civilizations rise and fall. It is the tale of the women who shaped the development of the city of Cahokia. The novel explores the growth of the mound city of Cahokia, an actual archaeological site along the Mississippi River. Circa A.D. 1200, Cahokia reached the pinnacle of its power and prestige. With a population of approximately 20,000 it was at the time larger than Paris, and no other North American city reached its equivalent size until 1800. At is zeneth, Cahokia was a major political and religious center for the Native American Mississippian Culture. Situated near its center stood a massive truncated pyramid, covering more than 14 acres, which rose in four terraces to a height of 100 feet. Archaeologists calculate that the mound contains 22 million cubic feet of dirt making it the largest prehistoric earthen structure in the Western Hemisphere. Cahokia is a city of Largest earthen structures, largest population, widest territorial influence, and unfortunately, among its graves are the largest number of human sacrifices north of Mexico. The novel, Witches of Cahokia, is a sequel to the archaeological fiction, Flight of the Piasa, which examines the creation of the enigmatic Piasa Bird pictograph overlooking the Mississippi River near Cahokia in Alton, IL. As Daniel and Lauren unravel the mystery, they're on the cusp of an incredible discovery that will change our archaeological knowledge forever. Spanning the continents and the ages, Witches of Cahokia is a thought-provoking novel that will keep you guessing right up to the shocking conclusion.
268 pages, Hardcover
First published November 30, 2009
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July 27, 2014
Witches of Cahokia is a direct sequel to his Flight of the Piasa, although it can be read without having first read the prior book.
As with Flight … it tells two stories – Snow Pine and her descendants living amongst what will become the Cahokian Mound people of the Mississippi River north of what is now St. Louis; and archeology professor Daniel French, his (now) wife Lauren and his mentor, Dr Fred Eldridge.
Unlike Flight, the story of the ancient cast is told as a narrative – not as an epistolary last will and testament. In Flight the majority of the book favors the ancient cast’s story. Witches is more balanced between the two stories – leaning more heavily on the ancient cast especially in the first half of the book and then on the modern cast in the last half of the book – particularly as one plot winds down and the other picks up.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The story of Snow Pine and her descendants begin exactly (is it too much of a pun to say “literally”?) where Flight leaves off – with the death of her husband Sun Kai in the cave complex near present-day Alton.
We learn Snow Pine’s side of the story during Sun’s search for her in Flight: how she was taken captive and sold to the Trading People, married Beaver Lodge, befriended his head wife Fawn Heart, and otherwise became part of the village due to her amazing healing techniques. She had a child with Beaver Lodge and called her Ming.
She is eventually ostracized because she helped heal members of the Osage tribes who were at war with the Trading People. She went to live in the valleys and caves near Sun Kai’s grave and the Piasa painting on the cliffs of the Mississippi River. She is considered a witch as her legend grows and is left alone by all sides of the conflict.
She continues to heal anyone who asks – friend or foe. This includes a young Osage warrior, Young Wolf, who falls in love with Ming (this takes place over several years). His mother, Buffalo Woman, joins Snow Pine and they and other Trading People and Osage women form a society called the Daughters of White Buffalo Calf Woman.
They heal; they watch the migration of tribes and buffalo and report it to Snow Pine. She advises them to tell their hunters where the buffalo are migrating. In exchange, the Daughters look for any strangers during their travels that look like her. She is convinced her people will come for her and Sun – just as Sun predicted on his deathbed. Eventually all this information is written on joined pieces of buffalo hide.
The Daughters meet every year at the winter solstice; every year they repaint the Piasa bird.
But time ends all things – Snow Pine passes her leadership of the Daughters to Ming, who passes it to her daughter Cassie (named after Snow Pine’s ancient ancestor Cassandra). Cassie then gives the leadership role to Fawn Heart’s great-granddaughter Raven.
Raven has a vision to go south to gather a crop of golden kernels, later called mahiz, that will sustain her people. She, her brother Wildcat and others head to (I assume) Mexico to gather maize. On the way they meet people both friendly and hostile. They rescue two children, a girl Mala and a boy He Looks Up, who were about to be sacrificed to the southern tribes’ god. Mala and He Looks Up are raised by the Trading People. He Looks Up brings his religion with him and it eventually takes over the Trading People’s lifestyle, changing it forever.
This part of the story is one of the more shocking and unexpected plot twists and I will say no more for fear of spoiling a splendid turn in the tale.
Note all this would still be in the “BCs” – Emperor Chin’in, a contemporary of Snow Pine and the reason she ended up with the Trading People, died in 210 BC; so three or four generations after that would still put us before the birth of Christ.
A few chapters later, after we visit the storyline of the modern cast, we meet Forest Water and her daughter Timid Girl. A strange visitor comes to the town. Could these be the strangers foretold by Snow Pine? Forest Water invites the stranger to her valley home. He rapes her. He is a Viking named Thornfield Skullsplitter. As she gets her revenge Forest Water is grateful that he is not of Snow Pine’s people.
Some chapters later we meet Zhu Wen. He sails the world under the orders of Zheng He, an admiral during the Ming dynasty who sailed to east Africa and, some argue, landed on American shores. In Witches, Zhu Wen sails up the Mississippi River until he gets to the deserted mound city of Cahokia.
Zheng He died in 1433, around the time of the end of the Cahokian Mound culture – the author did an excellent melding these facts together.
He sees the Piasa and is shocked to spot a dragon from his own culture painted on a cliff face on the other side of the world. The White Buffalo Calf Woman named She Who Remembers spots his ship and knows Snow Pine’s people have finally returned as prophesied. She gives Zheng He Sun Kai’s journal and the buffalo hide of her coven, with fourteen hundred years of information. This finally answers a thread left from Flight – what happened to Sun’s journal and how did it get back to China?
“Meanwhile” Daniel French’s story picks up ten years after the end of Flight – Daniel and Lauren are now married and have children. Both Daniel and Lauren are professors of archeology at SIU-Edwardsville, supervised by their former professor Fred Eldridge.
Road construction unveils a pair of female skeletons from ancient times. Construction halts until the skeletons are examined. Eldridge sends Mr. & Mrs. French along with assistants Josh Green & Jenn Rauch. Unfortunately these two lovers have just joined the Creative Artifacts Society – an anarchic group of Luddites who bury false evidence at such construction and archeology sites to halt the destructive advance of society.
The author makes no bones about the CSA’s villainy; their leader is a charmless terrorist who disappears quickly. I wonder if he will appear in the third book. Josh and Jenn plant an anachronistic buffalo hide amongst the finding at the construction site and the Frenchs and their friend, Jared Davidson, investigate. When they get too close, Josh and Jenn frame Jared for an attempted rape as their distraction. Eldridge must deal with the accusation and not only its affect on Davidson but on the department. Josh makes things more difficult by staging protests demanding Davidson’s removal from the university.
More time is spent with Eldridge in this book – we meet his wife and learn a bit of his background – and we see more of him than the cynical curmudgeon from Flight. He still lectures and suffers no fools, but especially at the end, we see his love for his trade. You can hear the giddiness in his voice during his phone call to Daniel at the end of the book. He goes to China at their invitation to examine a strange Buffalo hide the government has been keeping for quite some time…
This presumably sets of the third book, but without doing it as a cliff-hanger. If the story ended here, the reader would be satisfied.
END OF SPOILERS
There is foreshadowing of the next book, but it does not end in a cliffhanger. It ends the way stories end in life – some threads end (the CSA’s framing of Dr. Davidson, but not without consequences to Davidson, Josh or Jenn) and other threads begin (the Illini Confederation’s restraining order to stop any further investigation of the bodies found). I assume all these threads will be picked up and explored in the third book.
Time was handled well - eventually, although as a reader it was frustrating at times. The readers know these women lived before the time of Christ as does their second and third generations, yet it seems as if the archeologists consider them part of the Cahokian Mount culture from a thousand years later. Only late in the book is something said about the time differences between the multiple generations of bodies found. A quick line earlier in the story (“…these could be from a thousand years earlier or more…”) would have helped that nagging criticism.
Daniel and Lauren are just as likable as in Flight. They have aged and grown more confident in themselves and their skills as is expected. The growth in character of Eldridge is the most pleasant of all – we grow to respect his intelligence and authority rather than the somewhat-two-dimensional foil of Flight whose job seemed to be to consistently poo-poo anything Daniel had to say. Note that Eldridge’s “two dimensionality” wasn’t as apparent while reading that first book. The impression the character made in Flight wasn’t necessarily the correct one. Then again, he wasn’t as central to that story as he is to Witches.
New characters: Jared Davidson is a welcome addition and is written as a good and loyal friend. Josh is written as the smart-ass infallible know-it-all most college students are at that time in their lives (Daniel at that time in Flight was filled with doubt and less of a smart-ass, but he’s an exception). Jenn is a tool.
I enjoyed Flight very much. I enjoyed Witches even more. It is a better book. The modern-day characters are given more to do than just be our guide to the story from the ancient past – they are given their own drama to allow their good and bad personalities a chance to be shown and to grow. Plus the epistolary style of the first book lends to a lack of immersion in the story, I think. Reading a “letter” – even an excellent one like Flight, in which the “letter” is a long narrative – is still reading a letter. That willing suspension of disbelief is harder to do than with a story set presently. You know the letter-writer will survive at least long enough to write the letter! In a current narrative, not so much. In fact, some of the deaths – whether naturally or at the hand of man (or woman or child) is sudden and shocking. I know we’re talking about fictional people who lived two thousand years ago, of course they are dead by now (and of course they never existed to die in the first place), but for the reader to be saddened even a little at their deaths – or be shocked when they are killed – shows good writing. We care what happens to them. The fact that the modern cast may have found their remains and their writing gives the reader a sense of closure.
As with Flight … it tells two stories – Snow Pine and her descendants living amongst what will become the Cahokian Mound people of the Mississippi River north of what is now St. Louis; and archeology professor Daniel French, his (now) wife Lauren and his mentor, Dr Fred Eldridge.
Unlike Flight, the story of the ancient cast is told as a narrative – not as an epistolary last will and testament. In Flight the majority of the book favors the ancient cast’s story. Witches is more balanced between the two stories – leaning more heavily on the ancient cast especially in the first half of the book and then on the modern cast in the last half of the book – particularly as one plot winds down and the other picks up.
SPOILERS AHEAD
The story of Snow Pine and her descendants begin exactly (is it too much of a pun to say “literally”?) where Flight leaves off – with the death of her husband Sun Kai in the cave complex near present-day Alton.
We learn Snow Pine’s side of the story during Sun’s search for her in Flight: how she was taken captive and sold to the Trading People, married Beaver Lodge, befriended his head wife Fawn Heart, and otherwise became part of the village due to her amazing healing techniques. She had a child with Beaver Lodge and called her Ming.
She is eventually ostracized because she helped heal members of the Osage tribes who were at war with the Trading People. She went to live in the valleys and caves near Sun Kai’s grave and the Piasa painting on the cliffs of the Mississippi River. She is considered a witch as her legend grows and is left alone by all sides of the conflict.
She continues to heal anyone who asks – friend or foe. This includes a young Osage warrior, Young Wolf, who falls in love with Ming (this takes place over several years). His mother, Buffalo Woman, joins Snow Pine and they and other Trading People and Osage women form a society called the Daughters of White Buffalo Calf Woman.
They heal; they watch the migration of tribes and buffalo and report it to Snow Pine. She advises them to tell their hunters where the buffalo are migrating. In exchange, the Daughters look for any strangers during their travels that look like her. She is convinced her people will come for her and Sun – just as Sun predicted on his deathbed. Eventually all this information is written on joined pieces of buffalo hide.
The Daughters meet every year at the winter solstice; every year they repaint the Piasa bird.
But time ends all things – Snow Pine passes her leadership of the Daughters to Ming, who passes it to her daughter Cassie (named after Snow Pine’s ancient ancestor Cassandra). Cassie then gives the leadership role to Fawn Heart’s great-granddaughter Raven.
Raven has a vision to go south to gather a crop of golden kernels, later called mahiz, that will sustain her people. She, her brother Wildcat and others head to (I assume) Mexico to gather maize. On the way they meet people both friendly and hostile. They rescue two children, a girl Mala and a boy He Looks Up, who were about to be sacrificed to the southern tribes’ god. Mala and He Looks Up are raised by the Trading People. He Looks Up brings his religion with him and it eventually takes over the Trading People’s lifestyle, changing it forever.
This part of the story is one of the more shocking and unexpected plot twists and I will say no more for fear of spoiling a splendid turn in the tale.
Note all this would still be in the “BCs” – Emperor Chin’in, a contemporary of Snow Pine and the reason she ended up with the Trading People, died in 210 BC; so three or four generations after that would still put us before the birth of Christ.
A few chapters later, after we visit the storyline of the modern cast, we meet Forest Water and her daughter Timid Girl. A strange visitor comes to the town. Could these be the strangers foretold by Snow Pine? Forest Water invites the stranger to her valley home. He rapes her. He is a Viking named Thornfield Skullsplitter. As she gets her revenge Forest Water is grateful that he is not of Snow Pine’s people.
Some chapters later we meet Zhu Wen. He sails the world under the orders of Zheng He, an admiral during the Ming dynasty who sailed to east Africa and, some argue, landed on American shores. In Witches, Zhu Wen sails up the Mississippi River until he gets to the deserted mound city of Cahokia.
Zheng He died in 1433, around the time of the end of the Cahokian Mound culture – the author did an excellent melding these facts together.
He sees the Piasa and is shocked to spot a dragon from his own culture painted on a cliff face on the other side of the world. The White Buffalo Calf Woman named She Who Remembers spots his ship and knows Snow Pine’s people have finally returned as prophesied. She gives Zheng He Sun Kai’s journal and the buffalo hide of her coven, with fourteen hundred years of information. This finally answers a thread left from Flight – what happened to Sun’s journal and how did it get back to China?
“Meanwhile” Daniel French’s story picks up ten years after the end of Flight – Daniel and Lauren are now married and have children. Both Daniel and Lauren are professors of archeology at SIU-Edwardsville, supervised by their former professor Fred Eldridge.
Road construction unveils a pair of female skeletons from ancient times. Construction halts until the skeletons are examined. Eldridge sends Mr. & Mrs. French along with assistants Josh Green & Jenn Rauch. Unfortunately these two lovers have just joined the Creative Artifacts Society – an anarchic group of Luddites who bury false evidence at such construction and archeology sites to halt the destructive advance of society.
The author makes no bones about the CSA’s villainy; their leader is a charmless terrorist who disappears quickly. I wonder if he will appear in the third book. Josh and Jenn plant an anachronistic buffalo hide amongst the finding at the construction site and the Frenchs and their friend, Jared Davidson, investigate. When they get too close, Josh and Jenn frame Jared for an attempted rape as their distraction. Eldridge must deal with the accusation and not only its affect on Davidson but on the department. Josh makes things more difficult by staging protests demanding Davidson’s removal from the university.
More time is spent with Eldridge in this book – we meet his wife and learn a bit of his background – and we see more of him than the cynical curmudgeon from Flight. He still lectures and suffers no fools, but especially at the end, we see his love for his trade. You can hear the giddiness in his voice during his phone call to Daniel at the end of the book. He goes to China at their invitation to examine a strange Buffalo hide the government has been keeping for quite some time…
This presumably sets of the third book, but without doing it as a cliff-hanger. If the story ended here, the reader would be satisfied.
END OF SPOILERS
There is foreshadowing of the next book, but it does not end in a cliffhanger. It ends the way stories end in life – some threads end (the CSA’s framing of Dr. Davidson, but not without consequences to Davidson, Josh or Jenn) and other threads begin (the Illini Confederation’s restraining order to stop any further investigation of the bodies found). I assume all these threads will be picked up and explored in the third book.
Time was handled well - eventually, although as a reader it was frustrating at times. The readers know these women lived before the time of Christ as does their second and third generations, yet it seems as if the archeologists consider them part of the Cahokian Mount culture from a thousand years later. Only late in the book is something said about the time differences between the multiple generations of bodies found. A quick line earlier in the story (“…these could be from a thousand years earlier or more…”) would have helped that nagging criticism.
Daniel and Lauren are just as likable as in Flight. They have aged and grown more confident in themselves and their skills as is expected. The growth in character of Eldridge is the most pleasant of all – we grow to respect his intelligence and authority rather than the somewhat-two-dimensional foil of Flight whose job seemed to be to consistently poo-poo anything Daniel had to say. Note that Eldridge’s “two dimensionality” wasn’t as apparent while reading that first book. The impression the character made in Flight wasn’t necessarily the correct one. Then again, he wasn’t as central to that story as he is to Witches.
New characters: Jared Davidson is a welcome addition and is written as a good and loyal friend. Josh is written as the smart-ass infallible know-it-all most college students are at that time in their lives (Daniel at that time in Flight was filled with doubt and less of a smart-ass, but he’s an exception). Jenn is a tool.
I enjoyed Flight very much. I enjoyed Witches even more. It is a better book. The modern-day characters are given more to do than just be our guide to the story from the ancient past – they are given their own drama to allow their good and bad personalities a chance to be shown and to grow. Plus the epistolary style of the first book lends to a lack of immersion in the story, I think. Reading a “letter” – even an excellent one like Flight, in which the “letter” is a long narrative – is still reading a letter. That willing suspension of disbelief is harder to do than with a story set presently. You know the letter-writer will survive at least long enough to write the letter! In a current narrative, not so much. In fact, some of the deaths – whether naturally or at the hand of man (or woman or child) is sudden and shocking. I know we’re talking about fictional people who lived two thousand years ago, of course they are dead by now (and of course they never existed to die in the first place), but for the reader to be saddened even a little at their deaths – or be shocked when they are killed – shows good writing. We care what happens to them. The fact that the modern cast may have found their remains and their writing gives the reader a sense of closure.
August 23, 2018
I love the tale of snow pine and white buffalo women. If that was all the story was then I would've given the book a 5 star rating. I really disliked the modern day part of the novel. I feel as though it disrupted the other story.
March 15, 2017
Interesting and informative. I enjoyed the history with Snow Pine but lost interest when the artifact stealing began.
February 3, 2010
Witches of Cahokia
Author: Raymond Scott Edge
Publisher: Redoubt Books
ISBN: 978-0-9794737-2-2
Based on the Indian Settlement and Burial Mounds of Cahokia Mounds in Cahokia Illinois, this "reality-based" fiction novel is a true find.
The story consists of 2 archaelogists, Daniel and Lauren French of Southern Illinois University. The Frenches are both teachers and researchers, who met and married during grad school and are now affliated with the same university they once attended as students. Residing in nearby Alton Illinois, they are called in by the University when a construction crew working on a new road stumbles upon what appears to be the skeletal remains of 2 Indian females. As the Frenches investigate the burial site, they discover that it appears to have been the burial site of dozens of ancient indians, strangely all female.
This novel alternates between the current day study of the remains and the story of the group of women that have been laid to rest there.
These Indian women span numerous generations of women gifted with healing and shamanistic abilities, and their stories are a fascinating study of healing herbs, ancient Indian medical practices, and local indian lore. Standing on it's own, these tales would make a fascinating educational and imaginative read.
Add into this the discovery, recovery and research of the burial ground by the Frenchs and their students; and the story comes full circle with the ongoing learning of a truly fascinating part of American and local Illinois history.
But this inventive author doesn't stop there; add to the mix an underground student anarchy cell determined to halt progress on the roadway and what they consider to be the destruction of indigenous flora, fauna and landscape. Working with other far-flung underground cells; these groups conspire to place stolen achealogical finds from other international sites at this burial site, thereby muddying both the waters of research and the economy of the local area, as well as the ongoing infrastructure of the new roadway. Can the University's archaelogical dig continue in the face of these intrusions? And will we ever truly learn what actually began here so many generations ago?
The author, Raymond Scott Edge, has written a beautiful story mixing Southern Illinois Indian cultural heritage, the migratory study of ancient tribes, current academic research and an educational organization's "political" infighting and relationships. I look forward to reading the other work of this author; and hope he has plans to continue this line of research and sharing of local indian lore.
Readers will find themselves drawn into these story lines, and the book offers wonderful characters and believable plot lines to hold the reader enthralled and enraptured from beginning to end. Bravo to Raymond Scott Edge for a novel that is truly innovative, entertaining and educational.
Author: Raymond Scott Edge
Publisher: Redoubt Books
ISBN: 978-0-9794737-2-2
Based on the Indian Settlement and Burial Mounds of Cahokia Mounds in Cahokia Illinois, this "reality-based" fiction novel is a true find.
The story consists of 2 archaelogists, Daniel and Lauren French of Southern Illinois University. The Frenches are both teachers and researchers, who met and married during grad school and are now affliated with the same university they once attended as students. Residing in nearby Alton Illinois, they are called in by the University when a construction crew working on a new road stumbles upon what appears to be the skeletal remains of 2 Indian females. As the Frenches investigate the burial site, they discover that it appears to have been the burial site of dozens of ancient indians, strangely all female.
This novel alternates between the current day study of the remains and the story of the group of women that have been laid to rest there.
These Indian women span numerous generations of women gifted with healing and shamanistic abilities, and their stories are a fascinating study of healing herbs, ancient Indian medical practices, and local indian lore. Standing on it's own, these tales would make a fascinating educational and imaginative read.
Add into this the discovery, recovery and research of the burial ground by the Frenchs and their students; and the story comes full circle with the ongoing learning of a truly fascinating part of American and local Illinois history.
But this inventive author doesn't stop there; add to the mix an underground student anarchy cell determined to halt progress on the roadway and what they consider to be the destruction of indigenous flora, fauna and landscape. Working with other far-flung underground cells; these groups conspire to place stolen achealogical finds from other international sites at this burial site, thereby muddying both the waters of research and the economy of the local area, as well as the ongoing infrastructure of the new roadway. Can the University's archaelogical dig continue in the face of these intrusions? And will we ever truly learn what actually began here so many generations ago?
The author, Raymond Scott Edge, has written a beautiful story mixing Southern Illinois Indian cultural heritage, the migratory study of ancient tribes, current academic research and an educational organization's "political" infighting and relationships. I look forward to reading the other work of this author; and hope he has plans to continue this line of research and sharing of local indian lore.
Readers will find themselves drawn into these story lines, and the book offers wonderful characters and believable plot lines to hold the reader enthralled and enraptured from beginning to end. Bravo to Raymond Scott Edge for a novel that is truly innovative, entertaining and educational.
July 22, 2010
The book "Witches of Cahokia" by Raymond Scott Edge is really 2 books in one, as it alternates between the stories of Snow Pine and the Sisterhood during ancient times, and the 21st century discovery of skeletal remains at a construction site in Alton, Illinois. The author shows his writing skill by fully developing both stories and making sure both are complete by the end of the book without rushing through the ending to tie things up.
Daniel and Lauren French are professors and researchers at the same Illinois school they attended for their graduate studies in Archeology. Now married, they share a passion for their work and are excited by the discovery of female skeletal remains in their hometown. As they prepare the site for excavation we, the reader, are introduced to Snow Pine, a foreign woman in a new land who just doesn't quite fit in with the natives she now lives among. Eventually she strikes out on her own, moving to a nearby cave, and begins to teach the local woman about her heritage of healing herbs which brings the women together forming a Sisterhood that will last generations.
I really enjoyed this book and how the author was able to weave the two stories together in a way that kept me interested until the very end. I also appreciated the factual incorporation of the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois as it brought an air of authenticity to the novel that made the story even more exciting to read.
This book is beautifully written with well-developed and engaging characters that had me rooting for their successes and tearing up over their failures. I highly recommend this book to those interested in Native American culture and archeology as well as those who enjoy a well-written book with compelling characters and hope the author continues to write as he definitely has a talent for it.
Daniel and Lauren French are professors and researchers at the same Illinois school they attended for their graduate studies in Archeology. Now married, they share a passion for their work and are excited by the discovery of female skeletal remains in their hometown. As they prepare the site for excavation we, the reader, are introduced to Snow Pine, a foreign woman in a new land who just doesn't quite fit in with the natives she now lives among. Eventually she strikes out on her own, moving to a nearby cave, and begins to teach the local woman about her heritage of healing herbs which brings the women together forming a Sisterhood that will last generations.
I really enjoyed this book and how the author was able to weave the two stories together in a way that kept me interested until the very end. I also appreciated the factual incorporation of the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois as it brought an air of authenticity to the novel that made the story even more exciting to read.
This book is beautifully written with well-developed and engaging characters that had me rooting for their successes and tearing up over their failures. I highly recommend this book to those interested in Native American culture and archeology as well as those who enjoy a well-written book with compelling characters and hope the author continues to write as he definitely has a talent for it.
February 14, 2012
A witch is someone with magical powers. Sometimes, the most magical power is the power of knowledge. Snow Pine is called a witch because she has extensive knowledge of plants and how they can be used to heal. She’s a foreigner and a strong woman who doesn’t fit into the society of the Trading People. Sure she can predict the movements of the buffalo and heal the sick and wounded, but the only power she uses is knowledge.
“Witches of Cahokia” is the story of Snow Pine and the women she shares her knowledge with, but it’s also the story of the archeologists who discover the remains of the long line of women who followed in Snow Pine’s footsteps. Daniel and Lauren French are the archeologists in charge of the dig. Not only does the head of their department not believe their theories about the findings but they also have a student-anarchist group trying to sabotage the dig.
Raymond Scott Edge weaves the stories of the past and the present together to give the reader a delightful experience. He shows the dig and the thought process behind the theories as well as the story of what really happened to Snow Pine and the Sisterhood. It’s a story rich with Native American culture and stories. It’s a story that will captivate readers and have them rooting for the characters to overcome the hardships put before them.
I truly enjoyed reading this book. I especially enjoyed reading the Native American stories. Even though there are two stories with separate plots, both are fully developed and the characters in each are interesting and dynamic. I would recommend this book for high school and up, especially for anyone interested in history or Native American culture.
“Witches of Cahokia” is the story of Snow Pine and the women she shares her knowledge with, but it’s also the story of the archeologists who discover the remains of the long line of women who followed in Snow Pine’s footsteps. Daniel and Lauren French are the archeologists in charge of the dig. Not only does the head of their department not believe their theories about the findings but they also have a student-anarchist group trying to sabotage the dig.
Raymond Scott Edge weaves the stories of the past and the present together to give the reader a delightful experience. He shows the dig and the thought process behind the theories as well as the story of what really happened to Snow Pine and the Sisterhood. It’s a story rich with Native American culture and stories. It’s a story that will captivate readers and have them rooting for the characters to overcome the hardships put before them.
I truly enjoyed reading this book. I especially enjoyed reading the Native American stories. Even though there are two stories with separate plots, both are fully developed and the characters in each are interesting and dynamic. I would recommend this book for high school and up, especially for anyone interested in history or Native American culture.
September 24, 2013
As someone who visited Cahokia Mounds (a city larger than London or Paris in its time)
archeological site in my early 20's and was fascinated by what I learned, this book was a real page turner. The author presents historical fiction and archeological fact in a masterful blend peopling the ancient region with believable and rich characters. As a Master Herbalist, I followed in the footsteps of Snow Pine who comes to Cahokia from, of all places, China. Her establishment of a garden of medicinal herbs is a central facet of the plot and the lives of the natives who revere and fear the Great Winged Bird, the Piasa.
While some might not classify this book as a literary masterpiece, it is a great read, and its story will reverberate in my memory for many years to come. Kudos to the author who signed my book: "Be Brave- Be Creative-Be Decent"
June 7, 2012
I had the pleasure of meeting the author and his wife at a yearly festival in a town nearby. When I first walked up to look at the display of books and carving I was already intrigued. When he proceeded to tell me what the book was about I was absolutely enthralled, and I was in no way disappointed when I read the book. The story line keeps you on your toes and trying to guess what happens next. Its one of those books that you immediately are able love the characters. Although it is technically a sequel to his first book Flight of The Piasa (PI-UH-SAW I think that's correct) it works as a great stand-alone. I continue to be a fan and happily await his next book.
May 6, 2011
This was quite an interesting read. Since the Cahokia Mounds are practially in my back yard (okay, they're actually about 50 miles from my house) I was already interested in the Mississippian culture. This book added a new dimension to that interest. It may not have been the most literary writing I've ever read, but I believe the book was intended to appeal to a wide audience and manages to educate and entertain simultaneously.
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