Eden Cornelius - Program Coordinator and Field Instructor

Growing up homeschooled, Eden first found the primitive skills community in upstate NY through enrollment in a program called Primitive Pursuits at age seven. From that time until her teen years, she participated in Ancestral Knowledges Homeschool program for many years and attended primitive skills gatherings. In her teens, her time was spent hiking, camping, backpacking, cross-country skiing, and filling her journal with detailed sketches and facts about the wildlife around her.

All of her free time was spent outdoors, building debris huts, making cordage, and adventuring in the forest. Schooled by her fiber artist and aspiring naturalist mother, her love of the natural world was fueled by a rich curriculum with a focus on hands-on learning and her intense interest in insects and plants.

Now, Eden is a multimedia artist and painter who continues to share and learn skills, with a particular passion for pottery, wet felting techniques, needle felting, and natural pigments. With a background in youth leadership, she enjoys working with groups and fostering a creative connection with the earth.

Matt Weahterholtz - Guest Instructor

Matt Weatherholtz was born in and raised in the Shenandoah Valley, beginning his passion for primitive skills while in his youth.  Informally educated by a handful of mentors, he began his journey learning how to make bows in his pre-teens. He was tanning hides before he graduated high school, and building Living History exhibits in his twenties.

Matt's handcrafted work can been viewed at Frontier Culture Museum, Henricus Historical Park, Natural Bridge of Virginia's Powhatan Village, Colonial Williamsburg and even Living History Museums in Germany.  He is well versed in all that is primitive; woodwork, flint knapping, peck and ground stone tools, hide tanning, domicile construction, fibers, friction fire, and mat making. Practicing these skills daily, students learn from Matt that a sturdy foundation is important as all these skills overlap and compliment one another.  His passion for education comes from a desire for people to be more sustainable and knowledgeable in utilizing their local resources respectfully.

Keith Grenoble - Instructor

Keith Grenoble has been a product of the Back to the Land movement and developed close ties to Native communities from an early age. Keith started his journey by making stone tools represented in the rich archaeological record of Tidewater, Virginia and has been teaching earth skills since 1987. Over time, Keith has become skilled in a variety of earth skills.  He is very passionate about making simulations of prehistoric cookpots, and enjoys working with people of all experience levels and interests. He can often be seen catching a knap here and there.

Bill Kaczor - Co-Founder/ CEO 2007-Present

Bill is the CEO and co-founder of Ancestral Knowledge. Bill has worked and studied intensively with the masters in the fields of; youth mentoring, naturalist studies, primitive technology and tracking. He has been teaching children and adults in these subjects since 1998 — Bill was a lead instructor at Children of the Earth Foundations- Coyote Tracks summer camps for 5 years, and two years as the assistant director. He has instructed students at the University of Maryland, Georgetown University, Rivercane & Falling Leaves Rendezvous, Mid-Atlantic Primitive Skills Gathering (MAPS Meet), Bill can often be found instructing at Tom Brown Jr.’s Tracker School teaching primitive traps, bow making, flint knapping, pottery and hide tanning. In 1999 after 11 years, Bill chose to leave his skateboard/snowboard business and dedicate his life to helping people connect with the Earth through ancient skills. Shortly afterwards, Bill designed and was granted an after school and summer program for the 21st Century Learning Community in Public School District 150 of 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 is a specialist in bow making, stone tool technologies, hide tanning, fire by friction and hunting and experienced in many more skills.

A letter from Tom Brown Jr