Old Way Tracking
The phone rang.
Lety, one of our Elders, answered it. “I was confused when the person asked for Tamarack,” she said. “Was he drunk or did he have a bad cold? He said his name was Bryan Nez, and asked me to excuse the emotions that were clouding his voice. I immediately knew he was calling about the manuscript of the tracking book we had recently mailed to him. He said the emotions came from recognizing his grandfather’s teachings in the book’s stories, and of his gratitude that these teachings were being passed on.”
Bryan Nez, a full-blooded Navajo Indian, is a retired senior member of the legendary Shadow Wolves, the elite U.S. Immigration and Customs Service unit that apprehends drug smugglers crossing the U.S./Mexican border. The Shadow Wolves unit is comprised entirely of American Indian men and women who use traditional tracking skills. Bryan now trains the tactical tracking units of many nations around the world.
Here is the book that touched Bryan so deeply:
Following are Bryan’s words from the introduction he wrote for the book:
“I have been a tracker in the deserts and mountains of the Southwest for most of my life. In early 2010 I received a mysterious package in the mail. I opened it up. I then couldn’t put it down. It brought me back to the way I learned tracking from my father and grandfather, who taught it the Old Way. It is a bible of sorts—the best tracking manual there is—it is all there. And I value it because it is the Old Way—it holds what I learned. We are quickly forgetting the Old Ways, not just in tracking, but in how we are with the world. I hope you find what I have found here, and I hope you continue to share it—it’s something that we need to keep alive.
“Time and again—even when I pick up this book—I am reminded of something that is easy to forget nowadays, which is keeping connected to the story, community, history, and tradition that are so important in the Old Ways. Many of my students confess before we start tracking: ‘I’ve never done this before,’ ‘I’m not a tracker,’ or ‘I don’t know how to track.’ I tell them, ‘It’s in you already; it’s just that your mind is clouded. You’ve got to open and relax, and you’ll see that your tracking mind is there.’
“Stories and tradition tell us what to do, what not to do. I’d tell any new tracker to begin with tradition and history and stories just like in this book. If they’re going to track, don’t first go out and find tracks. In the Old Days, things were passed on by word of mouth. Go out and find stories—they teach so much more than any tracking manual out there. That’s why this book of stories is a manual on tracking, and one I value. Tracking is story, and all tracks tell one. Once you get good at listening to stories, you’ll be better able to hear the stories of the tracks.
“If you’re looking for tracks, you have to situate yourself to listen. You have to listen to what the footprint is telling you, and that’s not going to be heard by staring straight down into the track. Tamarack’s book reminds us to step back and listen to the story of the being who made the track. This book is like that—the stories are reminders of basics that we need to stay in touch with. The stories are to pass down, to tell around a fire or a meal, or around a track deep in the woods. Read these stories and share them, and tell your own stories and share them often. They will remind you.”
To give you a taste for the traditional way of tracking that Bryan and Tamarack teach, here are excerpts from an online introductory workshop Tamarack gave for a group in Sweden.