Nokee: The Last of the Great Lakes Mound Builders by Stephen J. Rheaume

The Ancient Culture of Mound Builders is Explored in Author’s Debut, a Fascinating Story of Michigan’s Indigenous People

Traverse City, MI—Once a scientist, always a scientist. Retired after thirty-five years from a government position where he wrote and published fact-driven research reports, Stephen Rheaume visited a Mound Builders site in Ohio, exposing himself to an ancient culture he knew nothing about. Then, drawing on his strong research background, and joining the Michigan Archaeological Society, Rheaume was on his way to the publication of Nokee, The Last of the Great Lakes Mound Builders, Mission Point Press, (February 26, 2026).

Nokee: The Last of the Great Lakes Mound Builders

Suspenseful, lyrical, and steeped in the mysticism of a vanishing world, Nokee tells the story of a young man, the last remaining member of an ancient mound-building culture in Michigan, who carries a sacred burden: to ensure his people’s stories survive. Rheaume, with his new interest in Mound Builders—indigenous individuals who constructed earthen mounds for burial sites and ceremonial use—shared this, “The thought crossed my mind that someone needed to write an entertaining yet fact-driven story about these forgotten people. Why not me?”

A Life of Their Own

Rheaume’s historical narrative puts his protagonist, Nokee, on a treacherous journey to find the only person who holds the whole truth of his ancestors—an aging shaman whose knowledge is fading with time. As Nokee’s trek evolves, he’s inspired by the arrival of French Jesuit missionaries, the Black Robes, and their written words. Together, they forge an unlikely alliance. “Sometimes, my imaginary characters would surprise me; it felt like they took on a life of their own,” Rheaume stated.

Mining his personal history to inform his story, Rheaume detailed several points of interest: his ancestor, Louis Hebert of France, leaving France with explorer Champlain to settle in New France in 1607; his great-grandfather’s move from Canada to Michigan in the late 1800s; and his grandfather’s purchase of land north of Detroit, where Rheaume grew up, a place referred to as Mudwayaushka, “the wind in the beech trees sounds like the waves on the shore,” by the Ottawa Indians who once lived there.

Advance Praise

The lifelong scientist and now author, who has already started work on both a prequel and a sequel, observed, “This story was easy to write because I felt like I lived it in many ways.”  

Advance praise for Nokee, The Last of the Great Lakes Mound Builders from William Murphy, author of books, journals, and magazine articles on history, travel, and environmental issues; inducted into the Michigan Environmental Hall of Fame in 2018:

“Mr. Rheaume's finely crafted story of a tribal chief fighting to protect his people resonates at the deepest human levels of existence. … Through finely crafted details of the lives of those directly impacted … it's nothing less than a novel that will change how the reader views a crucial period of American history.”

The Author

Stephen Rheaume is a thirteenth-generation descendant of Louis Hebert, New France’s first European apothecary and farmer. A native of Michigan, he earned his Bachelor of Science in Fish and Wildlife Management from Lake Superior State University. For more than thirty years, he worked as a federal biologist and geo-hydrologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the US Geological Survey.

Rheaume’s professional contributions include the authorship of fifteen government publications addressing hydrological and ecological dynamics within the Great Lakes basin. His scientific background informs his narrative work, often weaving together themes of cultural preservation, natural history, and Indigenous knowledge systems. He resides in Williamston, Michigan, with his wife and family.

The Book

Nokee, The Last of the Great Lakes Mound Builders

Stephen J. Rheaume

376 pages, 6” x 9”, B/W

Fiction/Indigenous, Historical, Native American, History/Indigenous/Colonial History & Interaction with Nations, Tribes, Bands & Communities

ISBN: 978-1-965278-97-0, $29.95 (Hardcover)

ISBN: 978-1-965278-98-7, $22.95 (Softcover)

Mission Point Press, February 26, 2026

Copies are available for preorder at Bookshop.org, Amazon, and other online retailers. On its February 26, 2026, publication date, it will be available for purchase wherever books are sold. For information or to arrange for signings and events, contact the author at sjrbooks2025@gmail.com.