UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · HISTORICAL
Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Born in Tulare, California, Kathleen O'Neal Gear is one of six children. Her parents, Harold Arthur O'Neal and Wanda Lillie O'Neal, left Oklahoma and Arkansas during the Dust Bowl and moved to California. For most of Kathleen's youth, her parents owned and operated a small farm in the central San Joaquin Valley of California, growing primarily cotton and alfalfa. But at the same time, her father authored more than fifty short stories, and her mother worked as a newspaper journalist. Kathleen received her B.A., cum laude, from California State University in Bakersfield, and her M.A., summa cum laude, from California State University in Chico. She conducted Ph.D. studies at the University of California in Los Angeles and did post-graduate studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel. Her family always spent their summer vacations visiting historical and archaeological sites around the United States. Those trips left indelible impressions. She worked on her first archaeological excavation at the age of ten, and won her first writing contest at the age of thirteen, where she took first place in the American Legion essay contest held at Tipton Elementary School. In the 1980's, she worked for the United States Department of the Interior as the Wyoming State Historian, and later as the Archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska. She has twice been the recipient of the federal government's "Special Achievement Award" for outstanding management of our nation's cultural heritage. In 2015, she was honored by the United States Congress with a "Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition," and the State of California honored her by passing Joint Member Resolution #117, saying, "The contributions of Kathleen O'Neal Gear to the fields of history, archaeology and writing have been invaluable. She and Michael currently operate an anthropological research company called Wind River Archaeological Consultants. Kathleen began writing full-time in l986 and has over one hundred non-fiction publications in the fields of archaeology, history, writing, and buffalo conservation. She has authored or is in the process of publishing 10 novels under her own name, and co-authored 37 international bestsellers with her husband, W. Michael Gear. She has two books which will soon be released including MAZE MASTER along with MOON HUNT which she co-authored with W. Michael Gear. Their books have been translated into at least 29 languages. She and Michael live on a buffalo ranch in the Owl Creek Mountains Mountains of northern Wyoming. She and Michael live on a buffalo ranch in the Owl Creek Mountains of northern Wyoming.
Dark clouds slipped soundlessly across the sky as night fell.
— from People of the Owl (North America's Forgotten Past, Book Eleven)
Most acclaimed
People of the Earth (North America's Forgotten Past, Book Three)
The towering saga of prehistoric North America begun in People of the Wolf and People of the Fire continues in this powerful new best seller - the gripping tale of a young woman with the gift of prophecy, destined to lead her people to a new way of life. Set five thousand years ago and ranging through what is now Montana, Wyoming, northern Colorado, and Utah, People of the Earth follows the migration of the Uto-Aztecan people south out of Canada. It is the unforgettable tale of a woman torn between two peoples and two dreams, of the two men who love her and the third who must have her, and of the vision given to the peoples long ago by the spirit of the wolf.
People of the Wolf (North America's Forgotten Past, Book One)
1990
As the Ice Age comes to an end, the climate is changing and game is scarce. Led by a youg shaman who receives a Dream from the spirit of the Wolf, a handful of courageous men and women dare to cross the fragile land bridge linking the Eurasian continent to the Americas to find an untouched, unspoiled continent. Set in what is now Alaska, this is the magnificent saga of the vision-filled man who led his people to an awesome destiny, and the courageous woman whose love and bravery drove them on in pursuit of that dream. A sweeping epic of pre-history that tells the story of the initial migration of Siberian hunters across Beringia and into Alaska. People of the Wolf is the first volume in North America's Forgotten Past, a multi-volume saga that traces the history of these pioneer peoples and their descendants, bringing the story of the ancestors of today's Native American peoples to life in an unforgettable saga of hardship and determination, conflict and passion.
People of the River (North America's Forgotten Past, Book Four)
A gripping new saga of pre-historic America that takes us to the Mississippi Valley and the tribe known as the Mound builders. It is a time of troubles. In Cahokia, the corn crop is failing again and a warchief--and the warrior woman he may never possess--are disgusted by their Chief's lust for tribute. Now even the gods have turned their faces, closing the underworld to the seers. If the gods have abandoned the people, there is no hope--unless it comes in the form of a young girl who is learning to Dream of Power. A masterful story of the mound-building Cahokia empire on the Mississippi River, by the bestselling authors of People of the Earth.