Hunters of the Dawn - Hardcover

by William K. Thayer (Author)

This is a short novel set in time some 8,000 years ago. The protagonists in this work of historical fiction are a tribe of Native Americans living in the vicinity of the Columbia River at its confluence with the Pacific Ocean. Primitive hunter-gatherers whose primary sources of food were the annual runs of salmon and smelt that entered the Columbia River to spawn at various times of the year. It is a tale of survival, courage, resilience, resourcefulness, vision, and leadership, interwoven with insights into how such early Americans may have lived, made clothing, preserved seasonally abundant food opportunities in order to be prepared for times of scarcity, defended themselves and their children and elders from predators and hostiles, passed along life-skills and domestic survival techniques from generation to generation, and traded with other tribes competing for resources in the vicinity. The book offers insights into the flora and fauna of the region at that early moment in time, and it explores the risk of living along a coastline under continual threat from the destructive effects of reoccurring tsunamis. In short, it is an intriguing glimpse into an ancient world of river hunters living in the Pacific Northwest thousands of years before the North American continent was settled by Europeans.