Teaching Drum Outdoor School | Wilderness Guide Program

Experiential learning is the cornerstone of this 11-month wilderness immersion experience. Participants live day-to-day in a native-modeled encampment, learning and practicing the essential qualitative skills of communication and cooperation, along with all the skills needed to build, maintain, and live in a North Woods native camp. This includes first aid, weather forecasting, nutrition, personal hygiene, food procurement, and many other skills. You learn how to drink wild water, how to make your own shelters and skin clothing, and which plants to use for wounds and intestinal cramps. At times, you gather most of your food by foraging, trapping, snaring, and fishing. You'll be walking silently and seeing more than you ever knew existed. You learn first-hand the spiritual life of the native. You'll know, from their direct teaching, the ways of wolf and raven, of the elder trees and healing herbs. (And you'll be gaining evolved skills and deeper awarenesses that are not possible to describe here in this limited space.)

For nearly a year, hours and minutes, weeks and months, cease to exist, as do accustomed standards of measurement. Time is told by the moon and how long it takes to paddle across the lake, and length is determined by finger, hand, and arm. You greatly advance toward being earth-sufficient rather than self-sufficient, toward living rather than just surviving, toward dwelling in attuned immersion rather than merely observing and dreaming.

In this one-of-a-kind program, just as with a native group, the agenda is set by the needs of the camp and individuals involved rather than by a teacher. The teachers (known as guides) work one-on-one with participants to gear the experience specifically to individual needs and interests.

The location is Nishnajida, the school's 80 acre preserve adjacent to the Headwaters Wilderness in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and located 6 miles from Nadmadewining, our administrative center and support community. Participants hike or paddle to Nadmadewining every new moon for a day of research (there are no books at camp) and communicating with family and friends.

What draws someone to take part in such an experience? Imagine you are a Wolf and have lived in a cage all your life. You have yearned to learn the natural ways of your ancestors, of your wild and free kin. One day the cage door is opened and there to meet you is a guide who stays with you for the next turn of the seasons. He helps you get in touch with your deepest self and heal through the pain and numbness of your caged life. You learn how to walk honorably and respectfully on the Earth--how to re-attune your senses, forage, and find shelter. You regain your intuitive knowledge of how to find your way, forecast the weather, and readily adapt to a wide variety of climates. Awakening to your true self, you soon gain the confidence to share your gifts and talents with your campmates.

When it is time for your path and your guide's to separate, you are ready to rejoin your pack and walk in balance with your plant and animal relations. You no longer dwell in your ego, but in your heart-of-hearts: that place of inner balance where senses, intuition, intellect, and feelings meet. Carrying the flame of the Old Way within you, you feel empowered to go and ignite the fire in others.

No prior outdoor experience is required. In fact, previous training could get in the way, as you would likely have to unlearn much of it in order to learn native ways as they are actually lived. The only admission requirement is to come honorably, with hunger (what we call an empty bowl) and an open heart.

For more on the Wilderness Guide Program, we invite you to browse our photo gallery and general information on the Teaching Drum.

2009 - 2010 program

Begins May 1st, 2009. Ends March 31st, 2010.
Tuition: $7,200. Allow up to $1000 for incidental expenses such as craft supplies and canoe rental.

An in-depth information packet is available:

$7 - Electronic Version

$10 - Paper Version

$17.50 - Paper Version w/ Journey to the Ancestral Self