Survivalism for Everyone

Survivalism sometimes reminds me of people who run away from paying taxes or are preparing for apocalypse. Fair or not, this preconception was changed by a recent mention of Tom Brown Jr on the Native Nutrition mailing list.

Tom Brown rocks! We are all avid archers now and have three of his books. Reading his story first ... well, ds is reading ALL books at once, lol. He was out tracking sugar ants and collecting to eat. I asked how such little things would be worth it. He says TB writes that a handful is as nutritious as 1 lb. of beef (or something like that, don't quote me).

and later in the same thread, from Wanita Spears:

A squirrel, rabbit, elk or any other mammal with a fur hide has a brain proportionate in size to the amount needed for a human to tan it's hide. The relationship of brain to hide to human use and need for survival, was likely one of those insights you quoted from Tom, that changed how Tom saw the world.

Tom Brown is a tracker and wilderness survival expert who has written numerous books, including a series of "field guides" such as Nature Observation and Tracking, Living With the Earth and Wilderness Survival. He also runs a school in New Jersey called Trackerschool.

An earlier thread indicates there is some controversy, perhaps rumours spread by professional jealousy:

I asked Dan about the fraud claims you mentioned. He told me he's familiar with a number of such claims, many from competitors at wilderness schools in the west it seems. Tom's school is the most well known, the oldest, and is in NJ, as I imagine you already know. As you said, what Tom Brown knows is not something one could learn from a book. He is a proven masterful tracker...

Further reading in that thread provides some fascinating reading about the abilities of Tom Brown and other wilderness survivalists. At least, for a city dweller like me!