He Walked the Americas: Science Fiction or True Native Legends?
This is a hard one. Is the book, He Walked the Americas by L. Taylor Hansen researched anthropological fact based on Native legends or is it merely cleverly-crafted fiction?
I’m reading He Walked the Americas by L. Taylor Hansen in preparation for my September 29th talk, THE YUCATAN CONNECTION TO ATLANTIS AND LEMURIA USING CAYCE CLUES AND MYTHOLOGY for the Edgar Cayce Forum in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
However, as fascinating as the stories in the book appear, there are details that seem absolutely outlandish such as that this Pale Faced Prophet knelt to pray. The rendition of the Lord’s Prayer, Native American-style seems concocted rather than a true translation from a Native American tongue.
Therefore, I did a Google search to see if I could find a biography of L. Taylor Hansen and discovered that she made her living as a science fiction writer. Therefore, could it be that He Walked the Americas a cleverly crafted science fiction novel a la Michael Crichton’s Congo?
I also went to Amazon’s listing of the book to see if I could come across research by other readers and discovered that a reviewer that gave the book a one-star rating had contacted Stanford University and discovered that L. Taylor Hansen had never been a student there as her biography on the back of the book says.
In addition, her own Amazon review (posthumously posted on Amazon from her autobiographical memoir) says that she went to University of California at Los Angeles, went to a northern dog-sled adventure and then returned to school, I assume to Stanford but she does not say in her own autobiography. Did she, or did she not go to Stanford?
These are just some of the confusing details that make me wonder if her book is science fiction rather than actual anthropological research.
The book sure did get me excited that the Natives of the Americas had recollections of Atlantis (“the Old Red Land“) in their traditions. But, like I said, it might all be fiction.