Ancestral Knowledge hires its instructors from a strong community of Native Life Skills specialists who live locally, here in Maryland. As you will read below, our core group draws from a wide variety of backgrounds – from skateboarder to scientist and engineer to environmentalist! In addition, Ancestral Knowledge brings in guest instructors from far and wide to teach their own area of specialized knowledge
Bill Kaczor
(CEO / Founder)
”I was introduced to the studies of nature, native cultures and primitive technologies in 1996. Since then I have realized how important human interaction with nature is to the survival and growth of our environment as well as humanity’s state of mind and emotional well being. I believe the forest is a place for us to go and learn the lessons of life, reflect, and plan our days, a retreat accessible whenever we need or want it. I have been involved with the sharing of this knowledge with many different people and age groups, but I believe that the youth are the most important ones to reach – especially urban and suburban youth. I chose to teach for Ancestral Knowledge because they specialize in reaching out to the youth and their communities.”
Bill is the founder an CEO of Ancestral Knowledge. He has completed over 21 levels at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School. Bill has also studied both youth mentoring, naturalist studies, and tracking with Jon Young, Errett Callahan and Charles Worsham. He has been teaching children and adults in these subjects since 1998 — For five years Bill worked as head instructor for Tom Brown Jr. Coyote Tracks summer programs for children, ages 8 to 18, for two years he was a summer program coordinator. He has instructed students at the University of Maryland, Georgetown University, Rivercane Rendezvous, Maryland Area Primitive Skills (MAPS) Meet, currently Bill is a guest instructor at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School teaching primitive traps, bow making, flint knapping, pottery and hide tanning. In 1999, Bill chose to leave his skateboard/snowboard business and dedicate his life to teaching these skills. Shortly afterward, Bill designed and was granted an after school and summer program for the 21st Century Learning Community in Public School District 150 in Peoria, Illinois. This program was successful in that it led the children to a respect for nature, respect for themselves and others, self-discipline and adventure. Bill brings to this project many skills, but is a specialist in bow making, stone tool technologies, fire by friction and basketry. Bill has documented many thousands of hours of hands-on experience — he has even spent seven days in the Monongahela National Forest living in FULL survival.
Read what Tom Brown Jr. had to say about Bill in the July 2007 Newsletter
Suzanne Wald
(Founder)
“I’ve had a really exciting, hands-on career in environmental protection. I particularly love Low Impact Development, which is a design for construction projects that works to recreate Earth’s hydrologic cycle. When proposing these design changes to the developers, engineers and architects who could use them, the biggest problem I encountered is that people don’t want to be bothered with changing their work practices – even if it financially benefits their business! I feel that tangible success in environmental protection requires a grass roots effort to connect the youth with the Earth. The movers and shakers of tomorrow have to feel the NEED to factor the Earth’s welfare into their business equations. Bringing the children back to nature, rooting them in a native culture is what Ancestral Knowledge strives to do. It’s what I want to do.”
While earning a degree in Political Science from the University of Maryland, Suzy spent three summers as a mentor for the Anacostia Crew of the Maryland Conservation Corps. In this capacity she gained front line knowledge of local environmental issues as well as the social and emotional struggles of at-risk teens in Prince George’s County, MD. Suzy returned to the University of Maryland to study Natural Resources Management with a plan to return to her work on the Anacostia River. Due to her specific combination of skills, Suzy was hired by the District of Columbia’s Watershed Protection Division to monitor Anacostia River ecosystems, and to educate District residents, businesses and city officials on the prevention of nonpoint source pollution through Low Impact Development. Throughout these adventures, she has studied at the Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School, the Earth Connection School of wilderness studies, and spent hundreds of hours practicing wilderness living skills. Suzy assisted in teaching these skills at the University of Maryland, and for 21st Century Learning Community’s programs in Public School District 150 in Peoria, Illinois. For two summers, Suzy worked as an instructor for the Children of the Earth Foundation’s Coyote Track Summer Programs for children ages 8 to 18. Suzy brings enthusiasm, patience, excellent speaking skills and first-hand experience to our programming.
Joe Murray
(Founder)
“What ties together all the teachings from native cultures around the world is the truth that our lives are interwoven with every plant, animal, rock, wind and water on this planet. Everything we need to live a luxurious life is out there in the garden of the world! But we are dependent on the well-being of the Earth, so when we harvest the materials we need to make a friction fire or shelter or a gourmet feast of wild edibles, we must take care to disturb only what we have to, and do it in a way that actually leaves that area healthier than it was when we got there. It’s not hard at all, you just have to develop a caretaker attitude.”
Joe is a degreed anthropologist as well as a professional pilot. He has completed over 18 levels at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School. He has been an important part of Ancestral Knowledge from the beginning. Joe has studied youth mentoring, naturalist studies and native philosophy with Jon Young, Noguchi, Paul Raphael, Gilbert Walking Bull an Oglala Lakota, and Ingwe an Acomba elder. Joe has been teaching children and adults in these subjects for six years — He has instructed for Tom Brown Jr. Coyote Tracks summer programs for children, ages 8 to 18, for three years, and continues his association with them as an on-call instructor. Joe is also responsible for setting-up Wilderness Living Training for the University of Maryland Outdoor Recreation Center Staff. He has instructed students at the University of Maryland, heads a local Tracking Skills group, mentors individual home school students and teaches at the annual Maryland Area Primitive Skills (MAPS) Meet. In 2004, Joe taught a Primitive Skills Series for the nonprofit organization Boys-To-Men. Most importantly, at the age of 32, Joe is still a kid, and as such, is a favorite instructor for the kids – earning their respect and enthusiasm for the fun-and-games as well as the serious philosophical subjects.
Marie Maccabee
Marie is an inspiration to many. As a child she grew up surrounded by the wilderness areas of the Catoctin Mountains of Maryland. She learned many native life skills through her own curiosity and self determination to succeed. Some of her specialties include wild edible and useful plants, fire by friction, hide tanning, basketry and scout movement. Marie is also gifted in the fine art of painting and drawing. Her portfolio is breath taking. She is a true asset to Ancestral Knowledge and we are proud to have her onboard.
Owen Budd
Owen has taken the art and philosophy of wilderness survival and the primitive skills to a level that is admirable. As an anthropology major at Montana University, he has made it his goal to learn the skills of our ancestors and to understand them on all levels.
He has a very calm and peaceful way about him and it shows in his teaching style. Owen is a great leader and is a very important part of the Ancestral Knowledge family.
Nicholas Grenier
“Many of my coolest wilderness experiences have taken place literally in my own backyard – like this morning when a female kestrel, beautifully lit up by the low morning sun, dropped to the ground and caught breakfast – not thirty feet from where I was sitting against the house. Modern science tells us that all life on earth is literally related, that it is family. I’m a biologist by training, but I don’t know of anything better than native living skills for instilling a profoundly felt sense of both the fundamentals of the scientific process as well as of this very real kinship of all life. I teach for Ancestral Knowledge because, like me, it is committed to opening the eyes of the young to the thrill of both observation and participation in the living landscape we inhabit.”
Nick’s been leafing through field guides and investigating nature for about as long as he can remember. As a teenager he spent several years volunteering at the National Zoo’s Amazonian exhibit, and was also mentored extensively by the Wilderness Awareness School in two Art of Mentoring classes and as a correspondence student in the Kamana naturalist training program. Nick learned survival, tracking and other native life skills during 8 classes at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School. As an outdoor specialist for the Montgomery County Recreation Department, Nick worked with at-risk youth and with the general public, teaching white-water canoeing and kayaking, rock-climbing,
rappelling, spelunking and other outdoor skills. Nick designed and implemented native living skills curricula for a summer at Eagle’s Nest Camp in Pisgah Forest, NC and in a semester-long middle school class at the Skyview School in Prescott, Arizona. He has also taught at the Maryland Area Primitive Skills (MAPS) Meet. Most recently, Nick lived in a primitive cabin on the Potomac River’s Offut Island for several months while still attending college; spent a month exploring Siberia; and spent two weeks hunting bones for a conservation biology study in Yellowstone National Park. He is currently finishing his major in Biology at Georgetown University.
*Because it is necessary in the year 2005, Ancestral Knowledge instructors are First Aid / CPR certified, have completed CJIS Criminal Background Checks, and have been checked against the National Sex Offenders Registry
