The Native people whose territory I live in were hunter/gatherers. They had a fairly large territory (but no where near as large as the hoop that Coyote Camp travels in).
From the records and memories that we have, it seems that their cycles were longer than one year. For example, they did not always come back to the same place to winter. It might be two or three years before they would return to a winter camp again.
The one exception to that might be the salmon fishing camp at Kettle Falls, Wa. which people might return to each year. But maybe some years another smaller camp might work out better.
Even in a forested area resources like firewood and game might need more than a year to replenish after a band wintered in a spot.
Likewise with root digging areas.
I dig roots each year but I try not to dig the same spot for two or three years. A band digging for subsistance would have even more of an effect than little ole me.
[quote=“ofthewood, post:8, topic:886”]Pullingforwildflowers is a cool story.
I have been thinking that it would be interesting to try a nomadic lifestyle,
moving in a loop through the seasons.
It seems this would require a lot of knowledge of your particular boiregion.
It would I think, be good to know something about the migration patterns of the past natives in your area.
Of course many habitats have been altered drastically, and one would have to adjust
their migration path to account for that.
And then with so many roads, a bicycle would be handy.
There many dynamics that this modern world factors in.
Anyway, my point is that it could be done with a bit of planning and expiermentation.
Opinions anyone? [/quote]
Finisia (Tr Grny) asked me to respond, as she lives off the grid without web access (unless she goes to the Public Library). You and others who are feeling called to Disengage from modern civilization and are serious about getting “Back to the Hoop” and live in Unison and Harmony with mother earth, you are invited to Join Finisia and Coyote Camp in Arco for Root Camp and Festival June 14 - 28, 2008 (see invitation below.) There you can join other like minded individuals, and learn more about actually Living on the Hoop, get the feel for it… and decide if you are ready, willing and able to join in the Hoop Clan and live according to the Old Ways of the hunter/gatherers.
In her younger years Finisia was mentored in “The Old Ways” by Elders of the Shoshone Tribe in Idaho, and is one of the most knowledgeable and experienced person’s on the Native American Hunter / Gatherer lifestyle of the Great Basin Region, that you will ever meet. For 10+ years Fin has lived in a horse-drawn covered wagon, following the Seasons of the Hoop, planting back the native plants in the Idaho / Nevada deserts, being sustained (fed) by these same plants, teaching and sharing with others who choose to journey with her for awhile. All she requires is the ability to live in truth and harmony, the Desire to learn and live according to the Old Ways, To be strong, hand working, independent, self sufficient, and most importantly the ability to Pull Your Own Weight and then some more for the Clan!!
Jon the Bicylist www.rewild.info/conversations/index.php?action=profile;u=413 photo -> www.pullingforwildflowers.org/images/shurz11.jpg
Jon first joined in at Pinon Camp last fall at Austin NV for a couple weeks, then he rode his bicyle off into the Horizon. In March 2008 he returned on his bicycle and Joined Finisia’s wagon train, setting up his own tent next to the wagons, sometimes riding alongside Finisia up on the wagon, sometimes riding his bike alongside or the road ahead or off into the desert horizon and returning hours later with tonights Supper that he had gathered from the native plants. You might ask him what it is really like to Disengage from civilization and ENGAGE with Life on the Hoop? He is @ 23 years old and Doing It - Living his dreams, Living on the Hoop.
Here is a link to a Wiki Journal Entry Jon wrote about one of his experiences on the Hoop
http://sacredhoop.wikispaces.com/Jon%20the%20Bicyclist%20-%20On%20The%20Hoop
You can remain TRAPPED where you are, bitching, moaning, philosophizing about the Collapse and daydreaming about a better day, a happier, better way… or you can Disengage, walk through the door and begin living your Rewilding Dreams…
It is better to have LESS Thunder in the mouth and MORE Lightning in the Hand - Apache Proverb
… and Here is Your Invitation:
ROOT CAMP AND FESTIVAL - 2008
ARCO, IDAHO JUNE 14-28
You are welcome at other times, if you cannot attend in June
CALLING ALL Spirit Warrior Braves,
Womyn, and Two-Spirited People
Find VISION and HOPE for the Future
Learn the ‘Walks in Beauty Way’
Work and Play in Sacred Space
Dig and Plant Back the Hoop
Deepen your relationship with Mother Earth & Father Sky
There is NO CHARGE; however, you will be expected
to come in the SPIRIT of Potlatch, bringing
and sharing your ABUNDANCE
For more information, registration, directions, etc.
Contact:
Finisia - (208) 406-7818
White Eagle
Timothy Turner
(206) 778-8605
whiteeaglesmail (at) yahoo (dot) com
Spider
David Schuler
(707) 869-1612
aranahombre88 (at) yahoo (dot) com
Visit us at - www.pullingforwildflowers.org
Awesome maybe I’ll get a chance to venture out there that week since I don’t have school
[quote=“ofthewood, post:8, topic:886”]Pullingforwildflowers is a cool story.
I have been thinking that it would be interesting to try a nomadic lifestyle,
moving in a loop through the seasons.
It seems this would require a lot of knowledge of your particular boiregion.
It would I think, be good to know something about the migration patterns of the past natives in your area.
Of course many habitats have been altered drastically, and one would have to adjust
their migration path to account for that.
And then with so many roads, a bicycle would be handy.
There many dynamics that this modern world factors in.
Anyway, my point is that it could be done with a bit of planning and expiermentation.
Opinions anyone? [/quote]
I’ve been learning the great basin hoop with tranny granny since early spring. My mule is a mtn bike and in-line trailer and it does pretty well especially with fin’s horses n buggy as a base camp with water and heavier supplies. A spectacle like the wagon is really important for taking care of those modern factors since gift economics is the way to swim and based on my past bike tours, the public tends to frown on bike culture. Maybe it’s the elitism of it. Others have added sled dogs to the bike and that gets people to pull over and make friends. Pulling a lot of weight up a mountain takes some conditioning, but that leaves you in good enough condition to backpack around pretty easily once you park and camp. I’ve been able to hitchike with the rig but that’s getting tougher with the times. stuff breaks (the bearing shield on my trailer wheel crumbled after 8000 miles - make a kick stand 
) and it’ll lure you back into the city, so my advise with any mule is to go for the long haul - money’s goin out of style and there’s titanium out there! gears and rubber are not a longterm solution of course - just enough to get us out there deconditioning, biulding relationships and planting back a life. It’s absolutely necessary I think to get plenty of miles between the cities and the gardens and to be able to haul more seeds from more places than was aboriginally possible, so while we’ve got these dinosaurs around they oughta be put to good use for once. If I found sacks of money I’d probably be on a motorcycle or a quad maybe. maybe. eh.
j8a4h@hotmail.com
[quote=“jon the bicyclist, post:12, topic:886”][quote author=ofthewood link=topic=938.msg10311#msg10311 date=1211372227]
Pullingforwildflowers is a cool story.
I have been thinking that it would be interesting to try a nomadic lifestyle,
moving in a loop through the seasons…
… And then with so many roads, a bicycle would be handy.
[/quote]
I’ve been learning the great basin hoop with tranny granny since early spring. My mule is a mtn bike and in-line trailer and it does pretty well especially with fin’s horses n buggy as a base camp with water and heavier supplies…
j8a4h@hotmail.com[/quote]
Jon… I was pleased to read your journal entry in the Wiki garden, and now your first post in the RewildINFO Forum - and enjoyed reading your interesting perspectives about your Hoop Experience.
I really admire what you are doing, because when I was your age I think I would have done the same thing. In 1977 when I was in my 20’s I was creating and living my dreams by making my own 20’ Tipi by hand, and living in it with my 2 dogs, on an isolated, arid 12 acres, 25 miles south of Durango CO. During the days I would plant “gardens” in the canyon, work on building an adobe “Sweat Lodge” and cold dip pool, and at night I would drown out the loneliness by getting drunk and stoned around the firepit. If I had met Finisia or someone like her I would have packed up my Tipi and hopped on that covered wagon train and headed off into the Desert… on a real adventure. I still dream about doing it, but I am not as adventuresome, footloose and fancy free now at 57 as I once was at 23.
I look forward to your sharing more of your perspectives on your Hoop Experience. I think that your sharing of “Your Hoop Story” will be an inspiring motivator for those “dying” to make the move “Back to the Garden”, but feeling paralyzed and afraid to take the first step out of the door.
Happy Trails to you,
Orion >>
Hi Fen… One of the organizers, White Eagle (206) 778-8605 lives in Seattle and can tell you more about Root Festival and he can email you the “What to bring, what to expect, and How to get there” package.
Hope you can make it.
Happy Trails,
Orion >>
tranny here i had this chance to see the posts and i appreciate the responses. we are six at camp at this time and we are in the huddles hole taking out the invasive tannsy ragwart. we are preparing for root fest . we hope to gather a whole ton to plant camas and bisquit roots onions and such to the maries river burn in neveda north of elko. this will be daughnting work and illegale too scince alot of the plantings will be on public land and across state lines. i hope to find allies in this lifegiving work and i know you can find your rewilding in it. again thanks and forgive my commputer illiteracy and my clumsy use of the writen word . i do have hope in this forum and the media in general . thanks to my friends who have incouraged me out of the sage ang.d even online in this outreach. thankyou thosehearts out there who long in this direction with me . i have been reading many posts and profiles anb web sites and i would love to meet all of you here in this forum. my prayer is to creator for the things of creator and that is to spend time around the fire getting to know you all. shemaw shicheen 
Late in responding, sorry Willem. Yeah, I do feel out of place, but not alienated or anything, just different. I do realize there are people on here other than myself that are not crash oriented either. The main difference I feel is due to not being invested in human survival if there is a crash. Just know that my feeling out of place is not a negative experience for me, I still enjoy this site greatly.
tranny granny here . i want to thank clyde hall at fort hall for his support in our efforts to put on a winter camp at arco idaho. we had a great dance at wolf creek oregon where clyde handed out seven root diging sticks. my friends and mentors on the warm springs res. in oregon call these sticks cuppen. i would again ask any who feel the need to give life to the native food plants and to a rewilding culture and the seven generations to come out and help us harvest and plant these seeds. i can assure tou that you will learn much about how to sustain the wild that gives to everthing.i know that to be jaded and pesemistic passes for wisdom these days. i ask you to chance being childlike again and learn wisdom from the bisquit root and the sage . time is short to come to this thing now before all that survive are forced to. our inheretance is the hard work of restoration and renewal of the mother. why would any meek want to inherit the shit and bones that is the legacy we leave our children? civilization is that rabid dog that needs shot and dragged off before it kills every living thing . i am asking you to tighten up and become what gives life and make it abundant. civilization is a luxury that nothing of nature can support. if you do not stand to this challeng you need to ask yourself, who is your mother . if it is babylons titty you nurse then there is your mother. in the view from the hoop we dont have to greenwash our way or mitigate this culture of death. thank you all who seek a conscience. cursesto all who seek to excuse themselves from this obvious work. do your own math . what doesnot add up will never add up. shemaw shicheen
tranny granny-
Such exciting and important opportunities for stewarding the land! i celebrate that you hold space for it. 
when you get a chance, could you tell more about what you mean by “curses to all those who seek to excuse themselves from this obvious work”? It hits me funny and I don’t want to assume I understand your meaning. :-\
When your walk is contrary to the truth you know and to know to do good and not then do it, is this not a curse and being one? Are we not all obligated to complete each of our circles as in those willow branches stuck deep into the earth to grow anew the tree you cut? To those who are such a curse- curses! Even if it were me. It could be all the modivation I need to change the face of my own legacy. Those consequences we each choose not to witness. When like a nun I chose to marry Jesus, I became and am Mrs. Finisia Christ. Fine until brothers and sisters had children and myself nephews and neices calling me Auntie Christ. You can see this is why I go by Tranny Granny rather than use my real name and why I say curses to those who do not complete their own circles. They are a curse.
Tranny Granny-
Thanks for responding. I still don’t fully understand your meaning (or feel reluctant to assume I do), but I’d like to take a shot at replying.
I really support the work you do - rewild.info exists to serve exactly people like you, who hold space for the important work that needs doing. Thanks so much for posting here! We need people like you as a new underground railroad!
It sounds like you need people passionate about stewarding and renewing the wild food and land. I definitely want to help you with this.
I ask for help from you also - help to keep people feeling respected and safe here, so they can bare their souls and tell stories about the agony and ecstasy along the path of rewilding, and thus enrich the culture of rewilding for all of us. I worry that in your references to cursing people, you may intend to mean folks here. That this may inspire some folks to feel that what they do doesn’t count as rewilding, or counts less than what others do. I know most rewilders already struggle a lot with feelings of shame, self-hate, and rage, and I want this place to stand as a respite from such pressures. I tell you this just to let you know my concerns, certainly not that you actually intended this.
Does that all sound in line with your values and experience?
Assuming so, perhaps we can figure out together how to get your message out to as many people as possible. You’ve got a Root Camp and Festival in Arco Idaho until June 28th, right?
Who else on the board wants to support this and get as many of the rewilders who need this there as possible?
I think Orion posted a lot more info in this thread: http://www.rewild.info/conversations/index.php?topic=943.0
Hello Willem… I’ll let Finisia speak for herself when she logs on again within a week or two. As her webmeister / messenger and friend… I want to Thank you for your enthusiastic encouragement, support and for your recent Blog entry THE NEW UNDERGROUND RAILROAD http://www.mythic-cartography.org/2008/06/13/the-new-underground-railroad/ I like your comparison of Finisia’s work rewilding the Great Basin area to The Underground Railroad carrying humans out of Slavery.
If I had met Finisia when I was in my idealistic, care-free “foot loose” twenties, living in a teepee with almost nothing to lose, back when I was a Free’er Spirited Young Lad, I probably would have gladly hitched a ride on her covered wagon and headed out into the desert to learn and live a hunter gatherer life… for awhile… just like Jon the Bicylist is doing now. Now 35 years later I am “caught in the devil’s bargain” enslaved in the chains of Material Possessions, 4 acres to mow, a house, "treasures’ to safeguard & insure, a garden to water & harvest, bills to pay, horseless buggy to feed, etc… I am “back to the Vegetable Garden” and living the Retirement I Dreamed of having… and I feel trapped and utterly discontent right now… yearning to feel free. I am free to do almost anything I want to do, go anywhere I want to (all within reason) and I don’t have a clue what it is that I really want to do or where I want to go. Living a simple nomadic life on the land in a covered wagon sounds so wonderful, yet wherever I go and whatever I do “There I am”.
I have told Finisia that I don’t believe she will find many other people who are willing to give up their foothold in the civilized world and step out into the primitive hunter/gatherer nomadic lifestyle that she lives in. For many of us it seems to be more of a hobby or pastime that we engage in while we are also busily engaged as a cog in the gears of civilization. Rewilding is something we talk about and sometimes engage in, like on weekends, on vacation, but we still willingly enslave ourselves in the civilized world and ways, because it offers us comforts and “freedoms” and security that we are not willing to sacrifice for the hardships (and spiritual freedoms) of a full time lifestyle of primitive rewilding / hunting / and gathering in the uncivilized wilderness. Many of us, including myself, are torn between the two worlds, and afraid to cut our “umbilical cord” to the civilized world… so we reluctantly participate in civilization’s destruction of the natural world, while we wait for the “Collapse” and are forced into Survival Mode with 6.8 Billion other screaming, clawing, starving human beings. Very few are willing to actually disengage from civilization and dedicate/commit their life to working to “save mother earth” by planting back native plants in the desert, as she has been doing for 10+ years.
Finisia understands this and speaks of an Inner Circle and an Outer Circle of the life hoop that she follows, inspired from the Native American Round Dances. There are the Dancers on the outer edges of the circle and there are the fire keepers, bundle keepers, water witches, vision caregivers, sitting in the middle of the circle. The Outer Circle are those like herself who are “Dancing the Dance” and the Inner Circle are those who are Supporting the Dance… as I am doing as her Internet messenger, you with rewild.info and anyone else actively contributing something to the “Rewilding Renaissance”.
Part of Finisia and Coyote Camps vision is to create an Inner Circle of privately owned Sanctuaries around the Hoop where the nomadic “Dancers” can find refuge to camp and hold Potlatches as they follow the Hoop and Seasons, replanting and living in unison with the land. You can read more about Finisia’s Vision at http://www.pullingforwildflowers.org/vision.htm
Finisia appreciates the support of the Inner Circle that supports her in her Primitive Rewilding Dance in the Outer Hoop of the Great Basin. She also wishes that she were not so alone in her work and that more supporters would stand up and join her in Dancing the Dance.
Sorry for the long-winded post.
Orion-
Thanks for that! It didn’t feel long winded at all. That helped me understand Finisia’s goals and how she sees her work.
I have a personal story to tell, in response to something that you brought up, the idea of “willing enslavement to civilization”.
I think that putting it that way reveals something interesting about our situation. As they say in the noir movies, “everyone has their price”. What does it mean to “willingly enslave” yourself? This reminds me of addictive relationships. Addiction still plays a big role in my life, but in a topsy-turvy way. I realized something not too long ago, that I don’t shy away from the classic image of the rewilding life (wearing buckskins, living in the mountains, sitting round the campfire, etc.) because of my addictions, I have addictions because I don’t live a holistically rewilded life. My addictions help me to cope with life in civilization, they don’t keep me there (once again, telling just my story here). They dope the anguish of living in the city.
Now, why do I live in the city?
Family. Meaning. Culture. Story. Community.
I can’t imagine abandoning my mother, father, brother (and his fiancee), sister (and her loving boyfriend), my friends Peter, Lisa, Tony (both Tonys), Mike, and so on. Some of these people would consider relocating to a healthier space if I asked them; most wouldn’t. Some would, but can’t do it quite yet, stuck in the cycle of debt and figuring out their own life goals.
I spent two years bumping around from commune to commune, playing at adopting strangers as family, trying to get the same meaning out of relationships with people I’d just met, as with the ones I’d left behind and who, in their own way, know me inside and out.
This didn’t work out at all. Not only that, but the Story we lived together didn’t feel satisfying; the culture we enacted together resembled secular puritanism (good/bad, right/wrong, judgment, blame, shame) just like in the city.
I suspect this happens to a lot of folks, who want to rewild in the way Finisia offers, but simply don’t know how to get their needs met for deep family connections, meaningful story, and satisfying community.
In large part because of these experiences, I went from obsessing over wilderness survival to obsessing over the more invisible aspects of indigenous life, family and story. How do we revitalize them?
Anymore, I see everyone as doing their own unique “rewilding”, because of issues like this; each of us has needs, some unique and others common, that only we know how to address. For some, their inner nature means they may never leave the city (at least not until they figure out how to meet its needs away from the city); for others, they have an inner nature that matches well this generation of rewilding-away-from-the-city. I believe everyone, including you Orion, heroically struggles with discovering themselves and staying honest with what rewilding means for them.
Hmph. Talk about long-winded!
My personal goal: (for those who need it for their rewilding), to help members of the culture of rewilding figure out how to think no longer in terms of “individuals fleeing civilization”, but in terms of “families renewing together”. To me this means a great renewal and rebirthing of nourishing family traditions, so that those of us with family members who don’t rewild, suddenly they may see us in a new light, not as freaks or members of a “counter-culture”, but as loving family, supporting and enlivening them.
I could go on and on about this, but suffice to say: we desperately need Finisia. We desperately need you. We desperately need the gutter punks. And the academics. And the primitivists. All of them! We have a lot of things to put back together. I don’t personally think in terms of “why folks won’t leave civ” anymore, but rather “what nest-building remains so that folks can leave civ and live in a new, nourishing culture?”.
Thanks Willem for your insightful, “more long-winded than mine” reply which I found very interesting. I appreciate your thoughts on addictions, willing enslavement to civilization and your personal story of your past search for “family” in commune settings and your eventual return to the city and your roots in your real family. I agree with you that we can all play our own unique role and make our own important contributions to Rewilding.
Thanks,
Orion >>
I do say I think we need it all, Finisia replanting wildflowers on the Hoop, Willem replanting the invisible technologies, others sharing their more physical technologies, and academic as well. No one can hit all them, how overwhelming, but how would we do without them? Sure it may all lead to a bit of frivolous debate and ‘talk’ instead of ‘walk’ at times, but for me at the moment, I’ve been almost using as a replacement to my past addictions. And like Willem said, my addictions didn’t keep me in civilization, they were actually an escape (mental) from it, as a coping mechanism. So I have replaced my video game addiction with rewilding, and instead of reading strategy guides and studying replays I read rewilding literature and such videos. The difference though comes out in my entire being, and that it aids me in growth and information and stories I can share even with people outside of rewild.info rather than… well yeah… not…
and just to know that what I do and learn now, can and will stay and have use for me the rest of my life (sure it may continue to change and shape and grow) rather than an addiction for the just here and now.
I just got back from Arco with Finisia and Jamie and I had a wonderful time (apart from getting a bit sick possibly from the rapid climate change, cool n wet to hot n dry). I really enjoyed learning from Finisia about completing our circles, and instead of simply taking, giving back at the same time. When I fell sick we made some willow bark tree. I went out and cut a branch off a tree, and then Finisia instructed me on how to replant the stems of the branch so they will grow into more trees. Creating abundance, and giving all things their life. I want to learn more about completing my circles in all things I do, it feels wonderful and sustainable in my relationships to do so.
I also took away with me just how much and the possibility living and rewilding in the arid west. That people can live and thrive in such an environment (though sure it looks different now than before)! Kind of a great mental and morale boost in a way, to see all the wild onions and breadroots and such growing in spite of it all. Though, also hard and sad to see the destruction of it… and the spreading of invasive plants… like feeling continuously robbed and back stabbed.
shemaw shicheen i can say this to willem . i hold only my own vision. i would encourage you . if my words or tone bite try planting wilderness.thanks tranny granny
A little off topic here but what does shemaw shicheen mean?
Tranny Granny, this doesn’t really address my concerns. Please don’t offer unasked-for advice here at rewild.info. Thank you for holding space for what you do. I hope to visit y’all soon at one of your camps.
then i dont understand your concerns or why you have them shemaw shicheen is navaho for my fake grandmother