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You’re invited to take a look back at a North America that never was, it is the middle period of the Second Dynasty of Oyo, the largest state in North America. Throughout the Archaic, Formative, and Early Dynastic periods the Anicinàbemowin people [1] had relied heavily on animal furs for clothing. By the fourth century of the Common Era this had started to change. Spun and knitted cloth begins to appear during this time and begins to replace furs and skins because of its cost effectiveness [2]. The yarn that was used to create this new clothing came from two different sources; the first source of yarn was of the canine variety [3]. Dogs were the oldest domesticated animal in North America by thousands of years and were bred into more specialized roles with the rise of civilization and by the Second Dynasty several dog breeds were common place within the Empire. Amongst dear farmers Ozàwà Animosh was the most common; like all North American dogs the Ozàwà Animosh breed was a Spitz-like dog roughly the size of an Australian Cattle Dog which behaved much like an Old English Sheepdog herding deer. Amongst hunters the admired was the Makwa Animosh; bred for strength and size it was comparable to the Japanese Akita in size and purpose, its name even translating to English as “Bear Dog”. It was from the Makwa Animosh that the Pkocshuke' Animosh would arise from. Pkocshuke' Animosh looked much like a Long Coat Akita and was bred for its fleecy undercoat and long outer hairs. The dogs were generally kept by families and were used to create home spun clothing that was many times cheaper than deer skin clothing. The shift away from deer skins caused a dramatic economic shift that threatened the economy of the Empire. To deal with this threat Deer shepherds bred deer that had thicker coats year round. It took several decades before a breed of white-tailed deer with a thick coat that was suitable for the use of its fur as yarn. Pkocshuke' Animosh yarn was still used and would continue to be used even after the introduction of cotton, but it took a back seat to commercially available deer yarn.
By the Second Dynasty cultivation of Rhus glabra (Smooth Sumac) along with several other species of Sumac had taken off due to the rising desire amongst the Ogama-Odanes for a tea-like beverage brewed from boiled sumac. Along with the use of Sumac in Tea the various species provided dyes of various colors, red, yellow, black, and brown, made from different parts of the plant. Sumac Tea was not the only tea within the Oyo Empire, Monarda didyma (Bergamot) was cultivated as an aromatic herbal tea. Along with herbs cultivated for their aromatic nature several spices were cultivated as flavor additives. One such plant was Lindera bezoin (spice bush) which with its strong and pleasant, spicy aroma was used to season meat. Agastache foeniculum (blue giant hyssop) was used in tea and as a seasoning in preserved Hopniss, along with being used medicinally for cough, fevers, wounds, and diarrhea. Herb and spice Monoculture flourished during the Second Dynasty, but experienced a collapse during the f year period between the Oyo Empire and the Misi-Ziibi Empire known as the Time of Many Kings.
A side effect of the intensive cultivation of Lindera bezoin would be rise an elite fiber that dramatically affected the elite in North America. Even after the introduction of Cotton this fiber would produce the most prized and most coveted fabric in North America; I speak of course of Silk. Spicebush was a staple of Callosamia promethean’s diet and with large scale cultivation of the spice Callosamia promethean (Promethea Silkmoth) was drawn to these places like a moth to a flame. At first treated as a pest the cocoons were gathered up by farmers to prevent a new generation. It is unknown how or who originated the idea of using the material of the cocoons as fiber for fabric, but by the second half of the fourth century silk production became a business all of its own. To attain a white fiber that would be easily died the cocoons went through a process of demineralizing. The cocoons are immersed in a formic acid solution made from sumac [4] for roughly 72 hours at 40°C and gently stirred. During the process, the cocoons were kept under the surface of the solution by means of a mesh net. Afterwards, the cocoons were thoroughly washed with running and reeled in water at room temperature. Though the Silk produced this way was not of the quality of silk produced in China by Bombyx mori, it was beyond anything that would appear in Europe for at least another two centuries.
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It is 431 CE and the Oyo Empire has been shattered for a decade, Mkukos Kokoko, king of the northern kingdom of KIte'cigwe' [5] looks to restore order to a chaotic world; the Thunderers demand a new dynasty receive the sanction of the Upper World and he knows that he is the one they seek. One the people that live within the territory that makes up the kingdom of KIte'cigwe' thought themselves as a separate people from Oyo, but hundreds of years of rule has changed that and the respect the rule of order as much as any other people within the empire. Stretching from Upper Michigan to south eastern Wisconsin KIte'cigwe' dominates the bronze trade and Mkukos Kokoko uses this domination of fund the building of the most well equipped army in the western hemisphere. His troops will be armed with bronze breast plates and shields for protection and the latest weaponological advance, the bronze sword. Similar to an Apa type sword which consisted of a leafbladed sword, with a thick but narrow blade near the hilt, and a broad but thin blade near the tip. Unlike many of the peasant armies fielded by his rivals Mkukos Kokoko led a professional army that had been in place since his father ruled as an Ogama-Odanes during the time of the Oyo Empire. In 436 Mkukos Kokoko launched his 25 year campaign to unify the states that had made up the Oyo Empire. Most of the states of the Ohio River Basin did not see the threat that Mkukos Kokoko was to them because their populations dwarfed his, allowing them to field massive peasant armies yet Mkukos Kokoko’s troops had better weapons and more importantly, their troops and officers were better trained and disciplined. Over the course of the next twenty five years Mkukos Kokoko would conquer all of the old Oyo Empire and more, extending his rule down the Mississippi River until it came to the Natchez Empire and then doubling turning north and conquering western Pennsylvania, before crowing himself Ogama- Ogama or King of Kings. His new empire was not the Father River Empire that was the Oyo Empire his empire as the Great River Empire that was the Misi-Ziibi Empire, which though dynasties would change would go on to see European contact with North America.
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When the Oyo Empire conquered the Lesser Ohio the bison herding pastoralists that resided in the region were scattered by the early 270s. The dispersion of pastoralist culture followed a west and southwards track that resulted in the dispersion of pastoralist culture amongst the Onkawa, Coahuiltecan, Comecrudo, and Karankawa peoples. These southern Texan cultures did not abandon their hunter gatherer ways immediately, the process of transferring to a horticulturalist, pastoralist people taking several hundred years; but by the reunification of the Anicinàbemowin people and the creation of the Misi-Ziibi Empire roughly 200 years after the introduction sedimentary life style had started to take hold, especially after the introduction of Rice farming along the Rio Grande and numerous other Texan rivers. Hopniss, cultivation occurred to a lesser degree and mostly persisted amongst the Onkawa who lived in a climate more suitable to cultivation of Hopniss than some of their southern neighbors. While more permanent settlements occurred with the Onkawa the Coahuiltecan and Comecrudo adopted a life style similar to the Maasai of Africa. These pastoralists were strongly patriarchal in nature, with elder men, sometimes joined by retired elders, deciding most major matters. A full body of oral law covered many aspects of behavior. Nomadic and semi-nomadic people, the Coahuiltecan relied on local, readily available materials to construct their housing. The expansion of civilization southwards was a leading component in the rise of trade that would eventually lead to contact with the Mesoamerican cultures of. As trade expanded southwards it first lead to greater interaction between the Chichimeca [6] and the pastoralists of Texas but as agriculture spread through trade and tales of great cities and even greater empire to the north trickled into civilized Mesoamerica the interests in the world beyond the deserts of central Mexico were peaked. It is unknown when exactly contact between the Empire of Puh/Tollan [7], but it can be gaged that contact occurred between 440 CE and 460 CE as it was during the 450s when the city seemed to be at its height that it was stuck by a plague that could only be Bleeding Cough. Bleeding Cough spread throughout the Empire crossing into Zapotec lands and spreading amongst the Maya city-states. With no natural immunity the virus ravaged the peoples of Mesoamerica and led to the near collapse of Puh/Tollan. The devastation brought the Zapotec apogee [8] which had only recently been reached to a screeching halt. It would take decades for Tollan and the Zapotec to recover from the blow, but with all peoples of Mesoamerica stuck by the devastating plague few had the opportunity to take advantage of the upheaval caused by the plague. After the outbreak emissaries from Tollan crossed the desert northwards to find what they would describe as petty villages and grew strange crops and had pet deer and nomads who walked with great thunder beasts that grazed from the fields. The Tollan emissaries did not go so far north that they would discover the Misi-Ziibi Empire or the Natchez Empire, but they heard tales of great empires and of an empire so large that it might encompass half the world. When they returned to Tollan they brought back domesticated deer, Rice, a few bison, tales of empires, and tools made from the strange substance we call bronze.
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[1]: This name will be used by Europeans to describe the ethnic group and language group that is the largest in the Empire. Like the Han of China earlier adoption of farming led to a much larger population of Anicinàbemowin compared to their neighbors leading to greater assimilation into the Anicinàbemowin identity. Any invading ethnic group will always be faced by the fact that they are a small group of people trying to rule a much larger ethnic group with a massive superiority complex.
[2]: It is a lot cheaper to raise an animal and be able to have a product that will grow back after you shave it off an animal than having to kill an animal and raise a new one each time you need more clothing.
[3]: I want to thank Mojojojo for posting an article in the non-chat section that showed that not only is this possible, but that it actually happened in the North West.
[4]: ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid is used today, but citric acid (present in lemon juice, orange juice, pineapple juice), formic acid, aluminum nitrate,and phosphate ions are all known to remove calcium oxalate by chelating calcium ions or by directly dissolving it.
[5]: Literally meaning Northern Thunder
[6]: Yes, I know this means barbarian, but it is better than calling them the Bajio.
[7]: Since no one knows the name of the actual name the residents of Teotihuacan called the city I’ve decided to use the Maya name for the city and the Nahua name for it rather than the Mexica name for the city a.k.a Place of Reeds.
[8]: Both Teotihuacan and the Zapotec were reaching their height of power during this time. Bleeding cough stalled this, but the introduction of new agriculture might just save them both.
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Comments? Questions? Criticisms?