sentences:  Gear is a former state historian and archaeologist for Wyoming, Kansas, and Nebraska for the U.S. Department of the Interior.She has twice received the federal government's Special Achievement Award for "outstanding management" of America's cultural heritage, and has published fifty novels .In 2015, she was honored by the U.S. House of Representatives with a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, and the State of California passed Joint Member Resolution #117, saying, "The contributions of Kathleen O'Neal Gear to the fields of history, archaeology and writing have been invaluable..." She is perhaps best known for her North America's Forgotten Past series, co-authored with her husband W. Michael Gear.