Alabamus Indian Survival Skills. Charles David Scott

stacked.I took large pieces of thick bark off an oak tree and covered my wood so the rain would not hit the stacks straight down. These large pieces of bark could also be put on the fire to keep the rain off.It rained 52 days that last year.You drag the trees in, break them up with your hands, and stack your firewood and cover it with very large pieces of bark.It should take you a few hours every day to keep your fire wood up.

       This is number seven of the things never before written down in a survival book

      Where I stayed in the woods, there were fire ants. How I got around them took work and dedication. I put a large tarp on the ground, put my tent up, brought the tarp up and tied it open facing east.If you are going to do this, be sure to get a tent you can stand up in. You can bring no food into the tent or on the tarp, or the ants will come. This was a huge tarp, the largest that Wal-Mart sells. I put the tarp down and set my tent up under it. I had the tarp all staked and had the front of the tarp facing east so that the morning sun came in. This tarp I rigged by putting an anchor rope high across the front suspended, from big tree limbs, so that it had a lot of play across the front. My fire that I kept going was just a few feet away, and the whole time that edge of the tarp never got hot enough even to leave smoke marks. When the storms blew from the south, it blew that tarp down on that side of my tent. When the storms came from the west, the tarp was blown tighter against the back side of my tent, but it never blew any rain on my tent, even when it rained hard enough that you could see whitecaps in the water coming down the hill.

      Even though the park was closed, there was one concrete bench and that was between my tent and my fire. I used this when working, and for holding things while I cooked. If you set your tent up like mine, remember your tent has to be big enough to stand up in. If there are no benches you can build your own out of Poplar logs.

       This is number eight of the things never before written down in a survival book

      You can take 2-liter bottles, fill them with hot water, and put them inside a sleeping bag to keep you warm even through the coldest weather.It snowed on the tarp covering my tent and that meant it was very cold in the tent.The smaller the tent, the easier it is to heat this way.You can use a 4-gallon peanut cooking oil container to do the same thing. Put it on a piece of Styrofoam to keep it off the bottom of the tent.You can use any tinfoil as a funnel for the 2-liter bottles, even that in a cigarette pack.

       This is number nine of the things never before written down in a survival book

      If you need to know where north is, it is easy to find. Everyone in North America knows where the Big Dipper is.Look up into the sky until you are sure that this is the Big Dipper, and that will be north tonight, tomorrow night and every other night.

      When the Indians built there fires, they would lay one log pointing north, so if you turn your back to north you are facing south.To your left will be east and on your right will be west.

      So, if you find four logs and line them up and start your fire where they meet, your fire will be easier to keep going. Just move the logs into the fire as they burn.

      Every person living in the wild needs to know from which way the wind is blowing. To find that out, take any feather, tie the feather to some type of weight, like one of the fishing weights you found.Hang this between the front of your tent and the fire.This will show you from which way the wind is blowing.Make sure that you do not use a crane feather, even if you can legally remember the 52 days of rain that year. They were in a row.Hanging a crane feather brings rain.

      Five planets are visible at night, and the easiest one is Venus. Look just above the setting sun to the right and that star is Venus.You have probably never seen this in a survival book.

      Go to any stream and look for crawfish. These can be used for bait, or you can boil them and eat them.The first wild food that I cooked and ate was crawfish.

      This is number ten of the things never before written down in a survival book

      The rest of the book will be in story form and you will have to keep up with what you have learned.If you have a pocketknife, you can make an atl-atl or spear thrower.I brought one of the first ones I made to a friend’s house to show him how it worked. I had wrapped the end of the dart with duct tape very well. He watched me throw the dart. I was trying to throw over his shop building to the field on the other side.The dart stuck into the side of the metal building about a foot of the wrapped tape went into the building.The curator of the Museum wanted to see if she could throw one of the atl-atl and her first throw went over a hundred yards.I tell you this to let you know that these darts work, but it will take you a while to learn to hunt with them. The varmints that come to your camp sometimes will not go away, though.

      I will start my explanation with the darts first. Once you have them made, making the dart thrower will be easier. You will need to find some cane that grows in the hills. It is very small and perfect for your atl-atl darts, and your arrow shafts later. When you find this cane growing in the hill, it will be growing very close together. The cane growing on the outside of the patch can be used for arrow shafts and the very tall canes growing on the inside can be used for your atl-atl darts.These need to be about five or six feet long.Go ahead, when you find the canes, and cut a few more than you think you will need.

      You do not want dead canes or crooked canes, and you want to cut these canes as close to the ground as possible.If you have found the right cane, they will be a little bit larger than a pencil and taper little as they go up.Remember that the knock on your thrower will have to fit into the end of your cane.

      While you are at the site of the hill cane, take a few of the shorter canes on the outside and cut them off as close to the ground as possible. These are for you arrow shafts. Hold the arrow shafts end close to your nose with one hand and lay the other end across the very end of your opposite hand fully extended.Cutting these arrow shafts off while they are still green saves you time later.

      Now you will have to find a hickory tree. This you will have to cut with a limb about the size of a pencil at the small end. The other end will have to have enough wood left to form the knock or nipple.Use the end of one of your darts to show you how large to make your nipple.

      Your atl-atl should be about as long as your arm or maybe a little shorter. Now take one of your darts and fit the nipple into the end of the dart. Let the dart lay up your atl-atl, holding the dart with your fingers while still holding atl-atl with the same hand, having your little finger and ring finger holding the end of your atl-atl and the dart lying across the top of these fingers. Keeping pressure on the dart with your fingers to keep it in the knock or nipple, draw your arm back and bring it forward in a long throwing motion.When you feel the dart is right, let go of the dart while still holding the atl-atl.

      You can take a nail, get it very hot, and burn a hole in the end of your atl-atl. Put a string through it and wrap the string around your wrist to give you more leverage and let you keep up with your atl-atl.

      I once took a lemon wood tree, which has pure white wood inside, and carved an ivory-billed woodpecker. His beak was the knock. It worked fine.I put a braided strap through a hole in the end and that is where I found out about using the strap for leverage in throwing the dart.

      Now I will tell you how to make a bow that will shoot an arrow over a hundred yards. Remember that any arrow fired from this bow will do what all bows do. When throwing the darts, you will have to make sure that the arrows you fire are not going to hit a human, or even go near a human. You must work your hickory wood while it is still green.

      Find you another hickory tree (or a green ash will do), making sure that no limbs come off the tree at the ground. Using your dominant hand, reach out straight from your shoulder level, reaching up or down, placing the fingers of that hand around the tree like you are trying to see how big around the tree is, keeping your arm straight from your body to the handle of your bow. The length of this bow will be right for you no matter how tall or short you are. Remember one more time, do not reach up or down, and stand on the ground beside this tree. You should be able to reach just around the tree with your hand, and your fingers and thumb should just meet.

      You want your fingers