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How our Ancient Traditions can help us Today

While most people may think of primitive skills/bushcraft in purely practical terms (e.g. making a shelter to stay dry, firemaking to cook and keep warm), an often overlooked aspect of learning and practicing these skills, is the community and sense of empowerment that comes from being in nature.

When I began working at the Wood Wise summer camps, the bulk of my nature experiences, like most people from cities and suburbia, came from yearly camping trips with my family. I remember our tried and true method of making a fire: drive to the camp site’s store, buy firewood and then douse it in lighter fluid and light in the fire pit. Fire in addition to being one of humanity’s earliest and most important discoveries is also a community builder. Most can attest to the comradery and familiarity that a camp fire brings.

When I started working at Wood Wise Camps, I was introduced to Bow Drill:
Bow Drill is one of the oldest fire making tools, consisting of a wooden bow, tied with some form of cordage, a hearth board, a handhold, and a spindle. It has been used by people from North America to Egypt. The Egyptian style of Bow Drill has been used since around 2000 BCE, The Egyptian bow drill differs from other styles by tying the spindle to the string using a clove hitch and then wrapping the excess cord around it.

One of the activities we did at camp, was group bow drill. Seeing a group of around six people, pushing and pulling a rope, easily working in tandem to reach our goal of fire, reminded me of something I think we’ve lost in modern society, community. For most of our history, people lived in smaller, more connected communities with every person having a role to play in it. I think by practicing these skills and getting back to nature, we not only gain survival skills but a direct link to how our ancestors lived.


I would consider myself to be a fairly shy and withdrawn person, but being able to connect with this small pocket of community and to act as a Mentor with these skills, has grown my confidence. I have seen this same transformation take place in the kids I’ve taught, children have come to programs shy and timid but upon getting into the woods, building debris shelters and experiencing nature, they come alive.

Today, it’s important to engage in a community that encourages cooperation and sharing of ideas and technique, especially as trends show every subsequent generation growing more isolated than the last. I can not think of a better way to connect with others and your environment than to learn and practice the skills that our ancestors used to survive and thrive.

By Ben Kamm (Field Instructor in Training)

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Awareness and returning to “baseline”

What does the word awareness bring to mind for most people?

Maybe…Time management skills, a good sense of social etiquette, quick reaction time while driving?

The demands of our busy lives may give us a different idea of the “aware” human, but try to think of instinct, on more animal terms. In the forest, we have a chance to practice these skills away from the disruptions of other humans and the busy, modern world, and to carry them out into that world with us. Listening to the subtle cues in the language of the forest and creatures can help restore our sensitivity and perception.

How do most humans move through the city?

We tend to look straight ahead, our vision fixed on our destination, walking with firm and quick steps in sensation muffling , foot compressing shoes.

When moving through nature, we can learn to roll our foot in a way that minimizes sound when we walk, feeling every obstacle before we have a chance to break it, “fox walking” through the woods. This is done best barefoot, or in thin soled shoes/moccasins but can be achieved in almost any footwear. If you’d like to try, start barefoot. Walk with relaxed, slightly bent knees. Place the blade of your foot upon the earth first, and roll towards the center, your heal landing last. This allows you to adjust your movement if you feel something like a rock or stick that could snap. Some find a kind of walking meditation in this exercise, and with continued use, it may start to come naturally to you. There is more intention in this way of walking, you may find that it forces you to observe the present rather than dwell in your thoughts.

Where do we tend to focus our gaze when navigating the city?

Most people tend to look straight ahead, as previously stated. They may miss things above or below them. People who have a sense of hyper-awareness may use a form of wide angle vision already, watching others from the corner of their eye, when their guard is high.  We can learn to open our vision, widening the boundaries of our sight, until we can watch all that is moving around us, versus one fixed point.

An exercise in “Wide Angle Vision”, or “Owl Eyes”:

Stand with your arms a bit wider than your body. Wiggle your fingers and stare straight ahead. Slowly bring your hands out as far as you can, until the motion of your fingers is on the very edge of your range of vision. Keep looking straight ahead while watching this motion. This can make it easier to slip into Wide Angle Vision, with practice.

How do we listen, vs the animals we observe?

Our ear dish is rather small, compared to a deer or a dog. You’ve probably seen these animals swivel their ears in order to pinpoint a sound. We can mimic this larger, more effective ear dish, with our hands. We can also create a more pinpointed sound, by swiveling our cupped hands, or turning them around, to listen behind us. We can open our ears to more, creating the dish with our hands for the sound to bounce off of, angling forward and back, as the deer do.

  Think of the forest as a watery surface, each disruption you cause, through sound or movement, sends out a ripple that we call a concentric ring. This concentric ring consists of alarm calls from birds and squirrels, and warnings from fleeing creatures, warning of your presence, traveling through the area. When the ripples you cause have calmed, the forest has returned to “baseline”. These concentric rings create anywhere from a 20 minute to a 40 minute disruption in the baseline. We use Sit Spot as a tool to increase our awareness and practice this return to stillness. As we learn to walk silently, to listen and to see, we can sit in this quiet state for hours. We start to see things as they are, no longer only experiencing human disruption.

If you find the time, take a pause this week. Sit beneath a tree, open your deer ears, and let things be still.

By Eden Cornelius (Program Coordinator and Field Instructor)

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Ancestral Knowledge Receives 2022 Best of Greenbelt Award!

Ancestral Knowledge Receives 2022 Best of Greenbelt Award

Greenbelt Award Program Honors the Achievement

GREENBELT October 19, 2022 — Ancestral Knowledge has been selected for the 2022 Best of Greenbelt Award in the School category by the Greenbelt Award Program.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2022 Greenbelt Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Greenbelt Award Program and data provided by third parties.

Each year, the Greenbelt Award Program identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and our community. These exceptional companies help make the Greenbelt area a great place to live, work and play.

About Greenbelt Award Program

The Greenbelt Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Greenbelt area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

The Greenbelt Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in our community. Our organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. Our mission is to recognize the small business community’s contributions to the U.S. economy.

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Barbie is Dead!

“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.”

Nature empowers females (Notice that we call her Mother Earth, not Father Earth.). Although there are certainly laws of nature that must be “obeyed,” we generally don’t think of the planet in paternalistic terms. It’s difficult to behold the abundance of life brimming forth from every nook and cranny of this bizarre space rock and not feel the power of the womb, and realize that the forces at play are the maternalistic ones of nurturing, caring, and giving.

Every time a parent gives us feedback about how their daughters come home from our programs more animated, capable, and confident from climbing over rocks and roots, getting dirty, carving with knives, making things with their hands, learning about plants, and all the other things we do out in the woods, it is a truly heartwarming experience. We live to receive emails like this:

“So proud of my daughter, Sophia. She started off the week not sure if she wanted to go to Ancestral Knowledge Wood Wise I Camp, anxious at first that she was the only girl until a few more girls showed up. She came home every day with a layer of dirt and a smile on her face. Today she was so proud that she had earned her bead for going out in the woods alone, sitting quietly for half an hour, and observing animals. I’m grateful to the young women who were her role models as counselors this week. Sophia seems stronger and more confident. Ancestral Knowledge Camp seems to be an effective counter to princess culture. (See https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/24/princess-culture-is-bad-for-girls-now-theres-proof/) Let’s hope she carries these lessons with her. Wood Wise II is next week! She is on her way to becoming a strong young woman. Thank you!”

All that being said, it’s important to keep a balanced perspective and remember that our young men face plenty of their own challenges in the modern world. In an age where the masculinity of our young people is pathologized, criminalized, and medicated out of existence, time in nature is more important than ever for all our children, regardless of gender. Just like our daughters need Mother Earth to bring forth their strengths and cure them of timidity, our sons need Her to teach them lessons of empathy and connectedness.  Wild nature is the perfect antidote for Ken, too. Plastic people don’t seem to fare too well out there, and good riddance.

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Teaching Kids to Love the outdoors during Winter time!

 

Teaching Kids to love the winter

Teaching kids to love the winter is not that hard. We at Ancestral knowledge have been guiding children for over ten year in winter camp outs and outdoor activities. Most kids naturally love playing outside no matter what the weather. When given the chance children learn not to fear the cold. Here are some wonderful tips that will help kids learn to love the winter weather:

1. Make it fun
If it not fun and rewarding chances are that they’re not going to be interested. Most all kids love to play on ice puddles, built snow shelters, go sledding, have snow ball fights, play with ice icicles, snowboard and ski.

2. Play with Friends
To help motivate your child it helps to invite a few friends over. They can do all types of fun outdoor activities together that they will enjoy.

3. Appropriate winter clothing
Good winter clothing allows kids to be comfortable. Along with a winter jacket and snow pants I recommend; boots, socks, gloves, scarf and hat to keep kids warm. We encourage all our students to have extra wool socks and gloves and always carry an extra blanket to help warm kids up.

4. Celebrate the fun and excitement at the end of the day
Celebrate the cold and honor your kids for braving the winter weather. It is important to recognize winter conditions can be challenging and you can help them problem solve the challenges of winter weather.

5. Participate in outdoors clubs or outdoor winter programs
Outdoor clubs, winter hikes and wilderness youth programs with expert instructors are a great resource in helping your kids to develop a love for the winter. These outside programs teach kids fun and exciting winter activates that parent don’t often know or have the time to teach.

 

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Are you Prepared to Get Out and Play this Winter?

We encourage everyone to get out and enjoy the outdoors during the winter time.  However everyone responds to cold temperatures differently. Keeping feet, hands, and clothing dry is very important because toes and fingers are most susceptible to damage from the cold. Whenever possible carry an extra pair of socks in case your feet get wet and a couple plastic shopping bags to put over the dry socks to avoid the boots saturating the dry socks. Wet feet, hands, and clothing need to be addressed in a timely fashion because wet clothing will cause you to lose warmth. If you get wet its best to get indoors or change those layers. If that’s not possible build a fire to warm up and dry out those wet clothes.  Being prepared and dressing properly will allow for hours of winter fun and exploration!

The follow descriptions will help you dress for various cold weather conditions.

The Base Layers – The first layer of clothing closest to the skin should be a type of long underwear or base layer. They should be lightweight, comfortable and cozy. Try to avoid cotton because it holds moisture and can become heavy and cold if wet. Wool or synthetic blends of clothing are the best materials. You’ll find long underwear available at various prices and styles. One trick is to use synthetic sweat pants or tights if you don’t have a base layer available.

The Extra Insulation Layers – The insulated layer of clothing is worn over long underwear for extra warmth. Materials such as a fleece jackets or wool sweaters are great. Again avoid cotton if you can because its fibers soak up water and become heavy making you feel wet and cold. During the coldest temperatures multiple layers may be necessary.  The best thing about layering is that you can add or shed a layer depending on your comfort level.

The Outer Layer (Outer winter coats and Snow pants) – The outer layer or shell should be waterproof, providing protection from wind, rain and snow. Waterproof shells typically have minimal insulation so they can be worn over the inner layers without being too balky . You’ll find outer shells in both jackets and pants, making them ideal for a number of cold-weather activities. Your winter coat should have a hood, be wind-resistant, water-repellent and breathable. Down jackets, filled with goose feathers, are excellent for warmth but need to be protected in wet weather with a rain jacket.  Fleece-lined ski jackets are excellent also. One-piece snowsuits might be appropriate for kids who spend all day outdoors in the winter. Snowsuits are highly water-resistant and provide the maximum protection from the wet snow.

Winter Hats, Neck warmers, and Face-masks – Half of your body heat is lost through your head. Traditional scarves, neck warmers, hats and face masks help keep your face and body warmer by stopping valuable heat loss from the head and neck. Wool, synthetic or fur are the preferred materials.

Gloves and Mittens – Cold hands can ruin a day. It best to have water-resistant mittens, which keeps hands warmer than gloves.   Gloves, however allow for more dexterity. In wet snow or rain water resistant material is important. Fleece and wool mittens become useless when wet.  Wet gloves don’t keep hands warm unless you dry them out.  Insulating your wrists aids dramatically in keeping you hands warm. Old wool socks with the toes cut out and a thumb hole added make great wrist gators.  Wearing water proof mittens with a glove liner gives you the ability to have both warmth and mobility when needed.

Socks and Boots – Instead of cotton socks opt for polyester and wool-blended socks that keep toes insulated even when damp with sweat or wet from snow. You want waterproof or resistant boots. Make sure they are not too snug. Go up a size when buying winter boots to compensate for thick wool socks.

REI has a good reference page on layering.

Most of these items can be found at thrift stores. If you wish to purchase new items, REI, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hudson Outdoor, Gander Mountain, and other outdoor and camping stores all sell these items. Target sells poly-pro long underwear in kids sizes.

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Spirit of the Hunt Apprenticeship

The bow making is underway.  We are running at maximum capacity in both the Spirit of the Hunt Apprenticeship and the upcoming Self Bow Making workshop.

There is a great group of guys in the apprenticeship program who are eager to learn and working really hard at finding and following a single growth ring on their hickory bow staves. Several have moved onto the bow layout and everyone else isn’t too far behind.

We will start to focus on making primitive arrows.  We will start with harvesting arrow shafts and moving into the proper way to straighten each shaft for the truest flight.  In the end each participant should have three arrows in their quiver.

I am looking forward to getting the crew out into the woods and immersing them into the ebb and flow of the natural world. We will be tracking, trailing, and getting to know the deer we will eventually be hunting come the fall.

This is the first year of this program, so far so good.  The Spirit of the Hunt was created after running our pilot apprenticeship in 2010.  Starting in 2012 a youth version called the Hunters Rites of Passage program will be added to the schedule.  I feel this program will help our youth form a mutual respect for life and nature via the spirit of the hunt.  The life lessons found during the hunt are profound and endless.  Each journey into the forest awakens the deep connections we have to the web of life that are embedded in our DNA.

 

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Wilderness Survival Weekend

We just finished our largest ever Wilderness Survival Weekend class, and from my point of view as an instructor it was a resounding success.  Our goal as instructors is always for our students to learn and practice physical skills, but also to find or recover new parts of themselves, and to develop new relationships with other people and the Earth.  On both counts this class was outstanding.

The large size of this group (16 students, 4 instructors) really pushed us to fit everything into the class, but also created a higher level of intensity and a more dynamic learning community.  In the end we covered the primary skills we set out to teach including nature awareness, shelter building and firemaking, and still had time to cover elements of water purification, trapping, hunting, edible wild plants and cordage.

Friday night as we sat around the fire several students asked about skinning and processing animals, and whether they would have the opportunity to learn that skill.  I dutifully scanned the highway for roadkills on the way to class but didn’t find any good ones, so assumed we would not.  Earth Mother, it seems, had other plans, as Saturday afternoon two students in the class discovered a young spike buck dead in the woods, from whom we subsequently harvested a beautiful hide that Hannah and I will be tanning this week.

Every student worked diligently all day Saturday on their debris huts, which were built in threes to share insulation on adjoining walls.  This was the first time most students had tried to build their own shelter and sleep in it, and impressively everyone did.  Shelter may seem like a simple skill, but those who have “slept” in a poorly designed one know otherwise.  Nonetheless, sleeping in your own debris hut is simply one of the most rewarding and empowering things a person can experience, and one of the very best ways to experience truly being close to Earth Mother.  Before bed the instructors shared a few stories of their successes and many failures, prepared some pine needle tea, and the group headed out to greet the night.

Sunday morning we cooked on the fire again and then focused on bow drill.  Quite a few people succeeded in getting a bow drill fire started, including several first timers.  More importantly, everyone learned and got several steps closer to the skill level they desire, which in the end is far better than any specific end result.

Finally, I want to commend the students in this class again on their outstanding attitude and spirit of teamwork and cooperation.  Working in small groups can be challenging, but I saw many friendships started and lots of laughter as I wandered between the debris hut sites.  When you’re used to living in a house with electricity, a toilet and refrigerator, being in the woods can always produce a little discomfort, but this class had an overwhelmingly positive attitude, which always makes for a better experience.  Can’t wait to do it again!

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Ancestral Knowledge Battles Against Nature Deficit Disorder

Our main goal here at Ancestral Knowledge is to bring the inner-city youth back to nature through programs like the ancient skills demonstrations we have held at the Washington D.C.’s Capital Hill Day School and other youth focused programs.  In addition, we help maintain connections to nature with adults through our partnership with the Wilderness Survival program a Georgetown University.  And, have provided experiences to adults who have lost touch with their childhood memories of the outdoors and want to regain that healthy relationship. Our youth and adult programs are helping reduce Nature Deficit Disorder.  We have seen some of the results with the kids we have continual contact with and it is encouraging.

Nature Deficit Disorder?

Almost two years ago the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, hosted the National Dialogue on Children and Nature Conference. The focus of the conference was on saving our children from nature deficit disorder. You may have heard of this phrase before, it is the title of a book by Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder.  Louv in his acclaimed book argues that today’s children have lost their connection to the natural world because of the addictive character that the modern world of television, computers and video games has on our children.

Some of the actions, solutions, and opportunities that the conference participants suggested are still useful, but we have not seen much progress in making them reality other than limited research on the benefits of exposing children to nature.

Health-related actions: Conduct research on the benefits of exposing children to nature instead of pharmaceuticals; incorporate the health benefits of nature into medical and nursing school curricula; and encourage pediatricians to prescribe nature time for stress reduction and as an antidote to child obesity.

Education actions: Assure that every school utilizes nearby; offer students in-nature time during teacher in-service days; create new partnerships between schools, farms, ranches and public parks; establish a national Nature Bee; and ask each student to be personally responsible for one living thing.

Societal actions: Create a “Take a Child to Nature” day; persuade AARP to create a nature-mentor program; establish a child-nature impact assessment for all built environments; and engage religious organizations.

Locally, AK has been fruitful in establishing at least one of the possible solutions–ancient skills educational and nature programs–to local schools and universities. Parents can have a voice too by calling teachers, school boards, and congressional representatives to encourage more funding and focus on getting our children out in nature and, of course, signing up their children for outdoor experiences.

Let’s work together for a better future.

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Skills Showcase: Wilderness Survival – Snow Shelter

This year has brought to the Mid-Atlantic Region what some would say is a “treat” and others a say its a “curse”.  I say its great if you know how to enjoy it.  Depending on where you live, we have been blessed with 18-30″ of snow.  Unfortunately with a broken leg I am limited to what I can do in this much snow.   Whether in the suburbs or the deep woods, it doesn’t matter what time of year it is,  you can practice, use, and test all sorts of wilderness survival and primitive skills.   Now its time for some winter survival skills.

I wasn’t about to miss out on the fun of a DC metro area blizzard, broken leg or not.  As the snow had reached a level of knee high it was time for the first winter survival test, “travel”.  My goal was to test out the snow shoes that my buddy made.  Andrew Pinger hand crafted these using ash splints and rawhide.  Having an air cast on my leg and no longer needing crutches gave me the courage to attempt a trudge across the tundra mile after mile.  Around 2am I decided to strap myself in to these handmade beauties and set out on my 1st winter adventure.

The streets were silent and the snow was gentle as I explored the vast and unpredictable concrete jungle.   As I made my way down the road I noticed that I was sinking in to the light fluffy snow about 8 – 10 inches.  Travel was a bit difficult but I knew it was better then sinking in 18 inches, which was proven later as I fell over and one of the shoes came loose making me plant a foot.  Another benefit of snow shoes is they keep snow from filling up your boots when you walk in the deep snow.  My short trek of 100 yards made it obvious that there must be different ways to make snowshoes for different types of snow types and conditions whether its fluffy, wet, or settled snow on which you are traveling.

As the storm continued I began shoveling my walks to avoid having to move copious amounts of snow all at once when the storm was over.  As I piled the snow in the corner of the front yard I knew I would be able to build a snow shelter using the piled up snow.   By the end of the storm I had collected a pile of snow that was about 12′ long 8-10′ wide and 5′ tall.  The next morning we would start to make the shelter complete.

How to safely build a snow shelter

  1. After piling up the snow let it settle for about and hour or so.  Settling time will depend on what type of snow you have and the location where you are building it.  You can pack the snow down to help the process along but its not necessary.  Once your pile is made, shape or sculpt the structure to have a nice even surface.  This will aid in keeping your wall thickness consistent throughout the construction.
  2. Once you have let the pile settle it is recommended that you push 10″-12″ sticks into the pile.  Make sure sticks are perpendicular to the surface of the pile.  I placed them every 14″ in all directions .
  3. Starting in the door way area begin to dig.  To avoid a cave in, work from the ceiling down.  Continue digging until you hit the ends of the sticks.  When when you are shaping the inside of the shelter make the sleeping area higher then the entrance.   The higher the better.
  4. once you get about half way through, go to the opposite side and start digging another small entrance.  This helps avoid moving snow twice as far.
  5. Once the inside is dug out, seal off the second opening leaving an arm sized air  hole.

When the shelter is complete you will need is a door.  If you can make the sleeping area higher then the ceiling of the entrance way, you will create an air lock, and you won’t need a door.  You will have to get creative on keeping the wind out and the warmth in.  I used a blanket as my door.  The temperature was 22 degrees outside and 40 degrees inside with one person inside.  With more people  inside it will be much warmer.

I will be adding an elk hide with the fur still on as the floor mat.  With a couple of soapstone oil lamps and my family kicking it inside, we are sure to be warm and toasty for our blizzard of 2010 abo family scrabble game.  I will let you know how it goes.

With another 15 inches of snow coming I will be able make it a more comfortable size inside for the family while increasing the height of the sleeping platform.