Prepping like the native americans

prepping like the native americans

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Pemmican Bars (12)

Acorns and Eat'em

Rose Pork Brains with Milk Gravy

Nature's Way Activated Charcoal

Happy Preppers site for survivalists + preppers

When the lights to out forever, then what?

If you're looking for a
native american survival
guide, then you'll want a
hardcopy of the book,
Native American Survival
Skills, which is illustrated
beautifully and contains
many photographs.
From making rawhide to
putting the finishing
touches on a pair of
moccasins, beginners and
seasoned woodsmen alike
will enjoy making the
tools and camp equipment
that were used for
centuries, thanks to this
book. Learn how to make
Plains Indian shields, box
traps, coiled baskets,
Iniut snowshoes and
snow goggles, a pump
drill and more.

three sisters stew

How native Americans used Herbs:

Cayenne: Native Americans used cayenne red pepp er as
both a food and a medicine for thousands of years,
recognizing the healing powers of this fiery spice.

Cattail pollen. Loaded with vitamins A, B, C, E, plus
potassium, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium,
iodine, copper, zinc, manganese, and other trace elements,
cattail pollen is nutritious. It has medicinal uses as well ~
the Mescalero Apache used cattail pollen as a general
curative agent.

Dandelion. According to the University of Maryland Medical
Center, "Native Americans also boiled dandelion in water
and took it to treat kidney disease, swelling, skin
problems, heartburn, and upset stomach."

Witch hazel. American Indians used witch hazel primarily
because of the amazing properties for healing swellings
and bruises. Learn to forage for or grow witch hazel.

How native Americans used activated charcoal:
The medicinal use of activated charcoal is documented with
many tribes. Native Americans used activated charcoal in many
ways:

Activated charcoal for healing wounds. Activated
charcoal boiled with the green twigs and needles of white
pine, becomes a poultice sap for blisters and wounds.

Activated charcoal to neutralize stomach acids. Native
Americans would take a charcoal tea to help relieve
stomach ailments. For internal cleansing you can take
activated charcoal capsules for the same effect.

Activated charcoal as an insect repellent. Six sassafras
leaves mixed with o pulverized activated charcoal tablet
can be mixed as an insect repellent in spirit of the
Algonquian tribe of northern Michigan and Canada. Bind the
ingredients with a vegetable oil and place gently on the
forehead, nose, mouth and ears. While black the mixture is
non-staining and will wash away if rubbed onto clothing.

Activated charcoal for purification (protection from
illness and disease). The Delaware tribe of Oklahoma
perceived charcoal to be energizing and purifying. It was a
ritually protective substance for them and charcoal is in
modern times still used to purify and cleanse the air. The
Delaware tribe would tie a small bag of charcoal around a
cat or dog's neck. The pet would be a gift to the newborn's
family and would be encouraged to stay near to protect the
newborn from illness and everyday troubles with the spirit
world.

Happy endings...
It's nice to give credit to the Native Americans for some of the
specialty foods we enjoy regionally (grits and chitlins), and
across America (pancakes). Did you know they also chewed
spruce sap?

Native Americans can teach us much about the power of natural
substances for use medicinally. They consulted nature and not a
pharmacy when they turned ill and as preppers we are always
striving to learn more.

Related articles....

Prepare to live happily ever after with us at happypreppers.com - the emergency
preparedness Web site of prepping, survival, homesteading, and self-reliance.

Seeds and nuts:

Poppy seeds (Eschscholzia Californica). The California
poppy is the state flower of California. It's wide flowers
open in bright sun and close on cloudy days and at night.
Native Americans in California prized them as a source of
food and for the oil that could be extracted from the plant.
Poppy seed oil is also widely used to induce sleep. It's one
of many natural ways to deal with insomnia.

Sunflower seeds. Native Americans propagated sunflower
seeds.

Acorn. Native Americans on the West Coast, the Miwok,
particularly California along the mission route, ate acorns
for breakfast, lunch and dinner as a sort of cornmeal mush.
Acorns are bitter and require extensive processing. The
native Americans would gather the acorns and boil them to
reduce their bitter flavor. From this they would make an
acorn flour. California natives supplemented their acorn
diet with wild roots, bulbs and insects, fruits and berries,
wild game.

Pine cones. Want to know more about how the N ative
Americans used pine? Below is a fascinating documentary
from U.C. Berkeley with complete instructions to study at
length for survival, particularly if your bugout location is in
such territory plentiful with the sacred conical wonder of
the Paiute, Shoshone & Washo. This tutorial covers
harvest, along with processing for a meal:

Native American Survival Skills
Lost skills of the Native Americans

Lost Survival Skills of the Native Americans.
Think like a Native American to survive: "Select what you can
from nature, adapt it for your own use, make our own tools, and
always be aware of the bounty of materials that is part of the
American Indian heritage," says, W. Ben Hunt, in his book,
Native American Survival Skills, pictured right.

In spirit with this universal truth and wisdom brought to us by
the Native Americans, consider that the same elderberry tree
that brought berries for meals also brought medicine, bark for
clothing and wood for a flute! This magnifies all the things
Native Americans can teach preppers - namely to respect
nature. It's how the Native Americans survived.

Consider the Native American Commandment as summary and
your Native American survival guide...

Native American Commandments
The ten commandments of Native Americans helped them
survive socially and is the basis for enjoying nature's gifts and
surviving its perils.

Treat the Earth and all that dwell thereon with respect.
Remain close to the Great Spirit.
Show great respect for your fellow beings.
Work together for the benefit of all Mankind.
Give assistance and kindness wherever needed.
Do what you know to be right.
Look after the well being of mind and body.
Dedicate a share of your efforts to the greater good.
Be truthful and honest at all times.
Take full responsibility for your actions.

Native American Survival Skills
When you understand the Native American Commandments, you
have a good grasp of survival. Below are more skills garnered
from Native Americans.

Skill #1: Respecting nature.
The most important of survival skills to learn from Native
Americans is to respect nature. The Native American ten
commandments state to "never to take from creation's beauty
more than we give."

Sharing in lean times. Native Americans were careful not
to take more from the land than they needed to fill their
bellies, and respected herds so that deer, elk, bison could
reproduce for the next generation. They also shared with
other tribes in lean times.

Living as part of nature. Native Americans blended with
nature by painting their bodies to match the terrain. This
helped them hunt. The lesson is also good for preppers
who may be inclined to wear camouflage in urban areas.
Better to blend with environment. Save the camouflage for
the wilderness!

Using nature for survival healing. Another important
commandment of the Native Americans is to "Look after
the well being of mind and body." In other words, they
take personal responsibility for their own health both
mentally and physically. To look after one's own well being
rather than to have the doctor do it for us. We have much
to learn from Native Americans on healing.

Skill #2: Teamwork in hunting.
Much of the ten commandments, listed above, center around
working together, giving assistance and showing respect for
others. Such a spirit of cooperation is also present among the
Amish for survival as well. Teamwork was also present in
hunting where they worked together to hunt quietly making
stealth moves.

Native Americans also understood the importance of providing
nutrition for hunters on the go and developed pemmican (a
Native American food bar made of meat, grains and dried fruit
and nuts). Pemmican bars left are meatless. See also Epic bison
bars, which are 100% grass fed animal based protein bar
designed as nature intended. Paleo friendly, gluten free, and
low in sugar, we believe that EPIC foods should inspire EPIC
health.

Skill #3: Balancing nature.
Preppers have much to learn from the Native American people,
starting with their diet. They balanced nature as they harvested
from the land. For example:

The three sisters: Corn, beans and squash were among
the staples of Native Americans in the Eastern United
States. Known as the "three sisters." This food trio is
interdependent in the harvest and has a symbiotic
relationship as a domesticated harvest. Beans were grown
next to corn to enable them to grow up the corn stalks.
The corn benefited from the added nutrients of nitrogen.
Squash helped keep the weeds out. In other words, Native
Americans knew how to balance. Right is BackPacker's
Pantry three sister's stew ~ the Native American holy
trinity of corn, beans, and squash, a hearty and high
protein meal that also include brown rice and quinoa.

Wild Turkey and Buffalo: Native Americans introduced
wild turkey and buffalo to the white man, and the
popularity led to a drastic decline numbers. Wild Turkey
have recovered numbers in Alaska of all places. It wasn't
always like this. Native Americans were very respectful of
their supply and knew how to balance their survival needs
with the survival needs of the flock or herd to produce for
future generations. They gained knowledge about an
animal, including its habits, and its environments so they
could both hunt and preserve their source of sustenance.
Native Americas also used the entire animal-hide, meat
and intestines, horns, and hoofs -- not a part wasted. They
had a sustainable relationship, which white man ruined
with the buffalo trade.

Skill #4: Using resources wisely.
Native Americans were resourceful in a variety of ways.

Native Americans used stones in a variety of ways:

to craft arrowheads and spear points (flint, also quartz)
for firestarting (flint)
to grind acorns and wild grains (granite)
for ceremonial purposes (red jasper, alabaster)
to tan hides (flint)
for cave paintings (hematite)
to make jewelry (turquoise, obsidian*)
for medicinal purposes (Rose quartz and azurite for healing)
to mix pottery with clay (pumice)
for silver casting (granite) to craft weapons
to carve peace pipes (Catlinite also called pipestone)

* Obsidian is formed as lava from volcanic eruptions cools
within the earth. The speed at which it cools prevents
crystallization and the rock forms as solid volcanic glass.
Obsidian helps to protect the very sensitive against depression.
It is the stone of the soft hearted and gentle people of the
world. Use obsidian to help block negativity of any kind. As a
black gemstone, it symbolizes self control and resilience. Black
stones have protective energies in the sense that black is the
absence of light, and therefore, can be used to create
invisibility.

American foods rooted in Native American cuisine:
The foods Native Americans foraged, hunted and prepared
helped keep pioneers alive, and it helped shape the American
diet.

Native Americans had a vast knowledge of plant identification
and usage, which benefited their survival. They had to rely
entirely on foods indigenous to the area, until settlers
influenced their diets with cane sugars, white flours, dairy and
farmed meats. Preppers must take this cue to investigate local
foraging.

One of the main reasons preppers should take note of the
Native American diet is because of the simple cooking
techniques they employed, which include drying, stewing,
smoking and putting food in direct contact with fire.

Baking
Drying - jerky, dried salmon sticks, pemmican,
Stewing - succotash
Smoking meats over hickory coals
Food on the fire:

How to eat like a Native American
Native Americans don't often get credit for helping to add to the
cuisine of the United States, but they have some surprising
contributions to our modern-day diet. Many popular American
foods are rooted from Native American origins, but we don't
give much thought to it, when we should.

There are ten foods we can thank the Native
Americans for bringing us...

#1: Beef jerky.
Native Americans made buffalo jerky for thousands of years,
before passing along the idea to the American pioneers. The
Native Americans taught settlers how to cut and prepare the
meat into long strips in which they then smoked and dried.

#2: Chitlins (or chitterlings).
Came from the resourceful native Americans.

#3: Corn bread.
These came from Johnny cakes, which were actually dumplings
boiled of cornmeal mush. Cornmeal was produced by the Native
Americans in grinding dry raw corn grains.

#4: Grits or hominy.
Made by boiling ground maize, grits are served for breakfast in
the Southern United States. It is made of a coarse meal. (Alkali-
treated corn is known as hominy.)

#5: Maple syrup.
We owe Native Americans the pleasure of maple syrup and
maple sugar. Tapping trees helped the settlers survive. Todays
maple syrup is inherently all-natural and usually completely
organically grown. In short, it's a healthy sugar to consume.
Here's how to tap a maple tree.

#6: Pancakes.
In making Johnny cakes, sometimes the pioneers who learned
from the Native Americans, would substitute white flour for the
corn. Eventually, Johnny cakes, became pancakes.

#7: Popcorn.
Native Americans popped corn on the cob. Popcorn is a fine
addition to the prepper's pantry. Read more about how to use
popcorn in prepping.

#8: Quinoa.
Only recently was quinoa introduced to the American table as a
super food. This food we owe to Native Americans as well

#9: Succatash.
Made from corn and beans, succatash is a native American dish
you may recognize. It was a popular American dish at the turn
of the century because it was inexpensive. Combining beans
and corn from the prepper's pantry is easy enough to do and
cheap.

#10: Wild rice.
An aquatic cereal grain, wild rice grows freely in isolated lake
and river beds. As you may know, wild rice isn't really rice. Wild
rice was immensely important to the Native Americans,
particularly the Ojibwe and Menominee who were known as the
"wild rice people." It's interesting to note that wild rice was a
valuable item for barter during the fur trade era, just the same
as rice will be for preppers in an apocalypse.

More Native American Foods

Fry Bread.
Anyone who has visited the American Southwest may be
familiar with Fry Bread. While credited to the Native Americans,
it was out of necessity when the white man relocated Native
Americans to near starvation. To avoid starvation, Native
Americans ate the white man's flour and created fry bread!

How to make Fry bread: (great for Navajo tacos). "The
Long Walk" was an Indian removal project that lasted from
1864-1866 and forced the Arizona Navajo people to walk
300 miles to "relocate" in New Mexico. Their food and
animals were either left behind or destroyed. To keep them
from starving completely, the government offered ration
boxes of cheap commodity foods like lard and flour. From
this comes fry bread.

Could you stomach these native American meals?
Another survival skill preppers can learn from Native Americans
is to never turn down a good source of nutrition.

Eskimo ice cream - tallow and fish with snow.

Pork brains and eggs. Give it a try if you dare! Canned
pork brains is for sale on Amazon.

Staples of the Native American Diet
Native Americans enjoyed a variety of foods that they foraged.
Occasionally they would help nature along, as they did when
they foraged for apples. See the video below under fruits.

Fish

Salmon. Wild caught salmon is healthy. Avoid farm raised.

Meats
Native American's smoked meats over hickory coals. Their diet
included buffalo, rabbits, squirrels, and white tailed deer.

NOTE: Native Americans raised sheep, which they ate
rarely. Instead the abundance proved useful for the wool
and Native Americans used this wool for the beautiful
woven rugs that they are so famous for designing.

Pemmican. Preppers are taking note of pemmican as a
shelf-stable food for the pantry. Pemmican is a protein bar
of dried and pulverized meat, rendered fat with dried
berries and grains, originally made by North American
Indians for getting through the Winter and hunting
expeditions. Traditionally made of bison, elk or deer,
today's version is made with beef or is meatless.