Blog Posts by Susan Egner
Inspirations, thoughts by Minnesota author and flight attendant
You may be surprised to read that over three thousand people get lost yearly in our National Forests, and you may be relieved to hear that most are found. Those unharmed are called Saves. Then others are found, injured, or deceased by natural causes; heart attack, fatal injury from a fall, etc. But, at the end of calculations, say in the year 2014 for instance, over 700 were still missing. I haven’t seen anything on the news; have you?
In researching the Laurel people, I found that they made burial masks for their deceased. Legend has it that the masks helped them find their spiritual self. Seems like the dark ages? Not true; consider that Abe Lincoln, Stalin, Dillinger, and even a beheaded queen had burial masks. Eek, was the head still attached? And you can, too. People today can make burial asks of their faces, or whole bodies, way before death. Kind of like Roy Rodgers’ Trigger, except you, won’t have to stuff it.
In writing my most recent book, I went down a number of rabbit holes in my research. My story takes place in northern Minnesota, by Lake Superior and Superior National Forest. In looking for myths and legends related to the indigenous people of the area, I discovered the Laurel People, who preceded all others.
After I had completed the book, I read an article on the Internet about a group of Colorado-based scientists who traveled to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (basically the same area) and discovered cooking vessels, that when carbon-dated, date back to the Laurel People. How exciting is that!