Review: The awakening of the Cahokian.. wonderful story
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 14, 2013
Zoe Saadia chose an interesting group to feature, especially since I haven't observed the river culture/mound building peoples being the subject of as many fictional novels as are those of the US western plains and northeast tribes of the US and Canada. [Although the Gears write about tribes all over the place.] What I thought was especially valuable about the story was the object lesson contained within the plot. It is a human thing, I guess, to demonize and pathologize people/customs that we know little or nothing about and label them as evil savages. Acoto, not by choice, learns that those he thought of as stupid, evil savages were, in fact, no different from him or his people in their basic human needs and desires. In the long run, and much to his surprise I think, he viewed the Onandowaga people as more noble than those with whom he was raised. This book is more than just a fascinating story about a people and culture which no longer exist; it is basically about people.