It’s 4000BC. Horses have been extinct in North America for about 6000 years, the bow won’t be used for another 2 or 3 thousand years. Instead, people use the Atlatl. This is a throwing lever, used to hurl long darts—longer than arrows—tipped with stone or bone points for hunting.
The people of the time were hunter / gatherers and followed the game over the plains during the hunting seasons, drying and storing meat and grains for winter. The sometimes had permanent winter dwellings, partially dug into the ground.
Recently found cave art shows something of their beliefs, where people and animals transform, a change of spirit.
The Boy Who Ran is set in the Mid-Archaic Period, 4000BC. This ran from about 8000BC. People migrated to the continent between 12000 and 15000 years ago—the first immigrants, the first to become Native Americans.
The novel follows a boy, the sole survivor of a massacre, who was taken in but never fully adopted by another village, his struggle to overcome his past and his desire to become one of the People.
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