...and it's Macclint's fault!

Codger_64

Codger_64

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I was reading a Tom Brown thread a few days ago, and came to the post by member Macclint. I followed his link to his writeup of his participation, read and enjoyed it, then went on to view his Wandering Ones site. Being a good fellow as I am, I followed his instruction to view "first one", and dayum if I didn't wind up reading night after night, six years worth of his survival related comic strip!

A cross between sci-fi fantasy, NA culture, Mark Trail, and a half dozen other things that don't immediately come to mind, it was an enthrawling read, and profusely illustrated with some great art.

Clint weaves a great story, and uses it as a vehicle to teach the reader a lot of things having to do with woodcrafting skills (no, not woodworking!). I wish now that I had taken notes on the lessons he imparted through his characters, but the scope was quite broad, touching on improvised shelters, weaponcraft, fire building, food gathering, tracking, orientiering, escape and evasion, signaling, self defense, water location and treatment, environmental awareness, well... you get the idea.

One particular statement made by a lead character hit home with me, and I wish I had bookmarked it because now I cannot give you an exact quote. A Master scout told her apprentices that while it was a good thing to gather skills and learn to use their kit, she wanted them to learn how to go with nothing and make, find, use what nature afforded them. This to me is the highest survival skill, and one that will stand one in good stead even when carrying a full kit. Perhaps Clint will see this post and reply with a bookmark, or even better, a copy of that frame!

Codger


Clint Hollingworth
The Wandering Ones webcomic
http://www.wanderingones.com
 
Thanks very much for the kudos, Codger! (I'd be glad to help find the quote, but after 6 years of doing the comic, I have no idea where that would be) :o I sometimes read back through sections and go, "Wow! Did I write that?"

I am less than 20 pages from hitting my 1000th Wandering Ones strip, and to be honest, I've hardly ever stuck with anything else so diligently.

Really glad you liked it!
 
For me at least, it goes a bit beyond entertainment, which is generally just mind candy and nothing more. I had an old man explain coyote to me years ago. And spider, and all the others that made up his tribe's teaching lore. He taught me how to disappear in plain sight, emptying my mind of predator thoughts. Standing on a stump in the woods almost in a trance, I reached out and slapped the rump of a passing deer. Another time, I made a five yard bow kill on a whitetail the same way. The deer stood there mesmerized while I drew and released my bow in plain sight. A lot of good information is written into those stories, intentionally or not. Things that will stand you in good in learning the ways of woodcraft. And yes, Ray, my friend, was an ancient Apache, and made kickazz pruno, though he prefered my home made muscidine wine and tequilla chasers. Would you believe he understood Lakota when buzzed? Hecheto! Wello, wello!

Codger
PS- I'll read it all again and take notes for ya Clint!:D
 
Hi Codger... I would love to learn more about "coyote teachings" - particularly about your real-life experiences. I personally believe that our experience is hugely dependent on our thinking. Can you recommend a decent website or a book maybe?

Thanks in advance.... Stephen Coote, Nelson, New Zealand.
 
http://members.cox.net/academia/coyote.html
http://www.dfanning.com/documents/coyote.html
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bos/bos071.htm
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbi...modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=4&division=div1

These will get you started, and contain many more links. The tribes originally had storytellers as oral teachers of their traditions. A storyteller was held in high honor, and had been apprenticed by an elder storyteller, so the stories were told right as they were passed down from generation to generation. Many contain literal truths, some hidden morals, and much lore centered on the animals, the "first people". Thus they introduce animal spirit helpers, and also examples of the vices, as well as explanations of how this and that came to be, and where do we go from here. The stories were supressed (like the languages and the rest of the culture) from the mid eighteen hundreds on in the American West, earlier in the East. Since the sixties, there has been a resurgence of discovery and reclamation of culture among the People, and storytellers once again are finding an audience.

Codger
 
Iktome is the spider of the lore, one of the reoccuring charactors of many tribe's legends.

AFAR off upon a large level land, a summer sun was shining bright. Here and there over the rolling green were tall bunches of coarse gray weeds. Iktomi in his fringed buckskins walked alone across the prairie with a black bare head glossy in the sunlight. He walked through the grass without following any well-worn footpath.

From one large bunch of coarse weeds to another he wound his way about the great plain. He lifted his foot lightly and placed it gently forward like a wildcat prowling noiselessly through the thick grass. He stopped a few steps away from a very large bunch of wild sage. From shoulder to shoulder he tilted his head. Still farther he bent from side to side, first low over one hip and then over the other. Far forward he stooped, stretching his long thin neck like a duck, to see what lay under a fur coat beyond the bunch of coarse grass.

A sleek gray-faced prairie wolf! his pointed black nose tucked in between his four feet drawn snugly together; his handsome bushy tail wound over his nose and feet; a coyote fast asleep in the shadow of a bunch of grass! -- this is what Iktomi spied. Carefully he raised one foot and cautiously reached out with his toes. Gently, gently he lifted the foot behind and placed it before the other. Thus he came nearer and nearer to the round fur ball lying motionless under the sage grass.

Now Iktomi stood beside it, looking at the closed eyelids that did not quiver the least bit. Pressing his lips into straight lines and nodding his head slowly, he bent over the wolf. He held his ear close to the coyote's nose, but not a breath of air stirred from it.

"Dead!" said he at last. "Dead, but not long since he ran over these plains! See! there in his paw is caught a fresh feather. He is nice fat meat!" Taking hold of the paw with the bird feather fast on it, he exclaimed, "Why, he is still warm! I'll carry him to my dwelling and have a roast for my evening meal. Ah-ha!" he laughed, as he seized the coyote by its two fore paws and its two hind feet and swung him over head across his shoulders. The wolf was large and the teepee was far across the prairie. Iktomi trudged along with his burden, smacking his hungry lips together. He blinked his eyes hard to keep out the salty perspiration streaming down his face.

All the while the coyote on his back lay gazing into the sky with wide open eyes. His long white teeth fairly gleamed as he smiled and smiled.

"To ride on one's own feet is tiresome, but to be carried like a warrior from a brave fight is great fun!" said the coyote in his heart. He had never been borne on any one's back before and the new experience delighted him. He lay there lazily on Iktomi's shoulders, now and then blinking blue winks. Did you never see a birdie blink a blue wink? This is how it first became a saying among the plains people. When a bird stands aloof watching your strange ways, a thin bluish white tissue slips quickly over his eyes and as quickly off again; so quick that you think it was only a mysterious blue wink. Sometimes when children grow drowsy they blink blue winks, while others who are too proud to look with friendly eyes upon people blink in this cold bird-manner.

The coyote was affected by both sleepiness and pride. His winks were almost as blue as the sky. In the midst of his new pleasure the swaying motion ceased. Iktomi had reached his dwelling place. The coyote felt drowsy no longer, for in the next instant he was slipping out of Iktomi's hands. He was falling, falling through space, and then he struck the ground with such a bump he did not wish to breathe for a while. He wondered what Iktomi would do, thus he lay still where he fell. Humming a dance-song, one from his bundle of mystery songs, Iktomi hopped and darted about at an imaginary dance and feast. He gathered dry willow sticks and broke them in two against his knee. He built a large fire out of doors. The flames leaped up high in red and yellow streaks. Now Iktomi returned to the coyote who had been looking on through his eyelashes.

Taking him again by his paws and hind feet, he swung him to and fro. Then as the wolf swung toward the red flames, Iktomi let him go. Once again the coyote fell through space. Hot air smote his nostrils. He saw red dancing fire, and now he struck a bed of cracking embers. With a quick turn he leaped out of the flames. From his heels were scattered a shower of red coals upon Iktomi's bare arms and shoulders. Dumfounded, Iktomi thought he saw a spirit walk out of his fire. His jaws fell apart. He thrust a palm to his face, hard over his mouth! He could scarce keep from shrieking.

Rolling over and over on the grass and rubbing the sides of his head against the ground, the coyote soon put out the fire on his fur. Iktomi's eyes were almost ready to jump out of his head as he stood cooling a burn on his brown arm with his breath.

Sitting on his haunches, on the opposite side of the fire from where Iktomi stood, the coyote began to laugh at him.

"Another day, my friend, do not take too much for granted. Make sure the enemy is stone dead before you make a fire!"

Then off he ran so swiftly that his long bushy tail hung out in a straight line with his back.
 
Codger, thank you very much for your full reply. I appreciate the time you put aside for me.

When I was younger I never gave much thought to things like this, but now I am really hungry to get an insight into the wisdom assimilated by others.

Best wishes... Coote.
 
There was a movie made, I think it's called DreamKeaver, not to be confused with the horror film Dreamcather, made in 2003 as a TV movie. It is a great movie that tells many of the stories. Set in modern day the old grandfather teaches his grandson on their journey. The grandson is late teen, young adult and full of modern res life. With the stories the old man teaches things that still relate. It is a great movie made with many native actors. The stories with Coyote and Spider are hilarious.

Here is a link that will give a little info.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309150/

Codger, I read Tom Brown's, Tracker many years ago. I've also used the "thought" process to blend in. I wish I had my own "Grandfather" to take me out and teach me. It is one thing to read stuff in books and another to actually do it.

While I'm nowhere I need to be in practice, I have always felt that the more you know how do to with little of nothing, the better you are. Then like the old ones you can carry a minimal essentials kit and be of a mind set to get by fine. Going natural doesn't necessarily mean going with nothing. Since arrowheads and knives took time to make, these were generally made ahead of time and taken along. It just helps to know how to do it all again if you get separated from your possibles.

Good stuff.
 
Macclint said:
Wow, Codger! Those are some great links! :D
Click to expand...
I saw your portrayal of Coyote in the Wandering Ones strip, and you weren't far off the mark at all. I liked his rendition of Steppenwolf too! Quite appropriate! I'd like to see this charactor more in the story.

For some good material, and great insight, look up and read "Black Elk Speaks". Black Elk was an Oglala Souix shaman, and his story was transcribed by John Neihardt in 1932. Black Elk was at the Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee. Wallace Black Elk, his grandson I believe, was chanupa bearer and wrote some insightful things as well.

The perception that darts, arrowheads, spears and knives are difficult and timecomsuming to make is wrong. Traditionally, tribal members who had special talents with stones and spirits made them for others (in some societies), but any warrior knew how to fashion points and shafts in short order. Yes, it would be preferable to carry spare points, as quite often they broke when used, whether hit or miss, and a good seasoned shaft was not a thing to be wasted. I can make a stone, bone, or tempered wood point in five minutes or less. All it takes is practice.

Going "naked into the wilderness" is a learning experience, and good practice at true survival skills. You won't die in two or three day's time in most environments if your skills prove to be lacking. No, don't try this as a novice in the desert, deep tropical jungle, or artic conditions. Those extremes call for extreme skills and preparations. But most woodlands in North America at more temperate times of the year are great learning classrooms. Heck, you can practice in your own backyard!

Codger
 
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