So, my dad was part Cherokee. He was really good at being aware of and knowledgeable about local weather, plants, animals and so forth. This helped him enormously in his long military career in which he fought in two wars.
He never attributed such talents to being part Native American. He grew up on a farm and he often talked trash about "city boys" and how ill equipped they were for dealing with field time in the military.
But, from what I have read, this awareness of nature and weather is much more associated with local tribes people the world over than with agriculture. Farmers and ranchers have some additional awareness, but not to the degree my father seemed to exhibit.
Prior to being homeless, I never slept in a tent. I was a stranger to camping. But my late father and my ex husband were both career military and I had heard a lot of stories. My sons and I quickly adapted.
The other thing that helped us enormously was paying attention to what local natives said while crossing the country. In New Mexico, a Navajo man gave us a ride. While driving, he made conversation, including commentary about how if he were camping in cold weather, he would stay up against the cliffs. There would be warmth there.
I relied heavily on his comment as something growing out of not only local knowledge, but old cultural wisdom that grew out of the area. When we got snowed on for the first time in Arizona, I used this information to not only save our lives in a bad snow storm but keep us comfy and toasty all night long. We stayed in a little hollow in the side of a cliff.
The difference in temperature between inside the tent and outside was dramatic. We were the opening windows and trying to not overheat in the tent. We kept joking that it can't actually be freezing outside. Then we would get out and pee in the snow and watch the steam rise from our pee before it hit the ground.
When we got to hilly San Diego county, which has a high population and relatively little visual cover from plant life because it is a desert clime, I relied on scenes from the movie "Dances with Wolves" to teach me how to hide our camp site behind a hill. Never mind the limited shrubbery, if there is a hill between you and car traffic/foot traffic and you stay quiet, you will go unnoticed.
Whatever tidbits of wisdom you can come up with from tribal cultures, they can be incredibly helpful for not only surviving, but doing so in relative comfort compared to what most homeless people seem to endure with their citified ideas about how life works.
He never attributed such talents to being part Native American. He grew up on a farm and he often talked trash about "city boys" and how ill equipped they were for dealing with field time in the military.
But, from what I have read, this awareness of nature and weather is much more associated with local tribes people the world over than with agriculture. Farmers and ranchers have some additional awareness, but not to the degree my father seemed to exhibit.
Prior to being homeless, I never slept in a tent. I was a stranger to camping. But my late father and my ex husband were both career military and I had heard a lot of stories. My sons and I quickly adapted.
The other thing that helped us enormously was paying attention to what local natives said while crossing the country. In New Mexico, a Navajo man gave us a ride. While driving, he made conversation, including commentary about how if he were camping in cold weather, he would stay up against the cliffs. There would be warmth there.
I relied heavily on his comment as something growing out of not only local knowledge, but old cultural wisdom that grew out of the area. When we got snowed on for the first time in Arizona, I used this information to not only save our lives in a bad snow storm but keep us comfy and toasty all night long. We stayed in a little hollow in the side of a cliff.
The difference in temperature between inside the tent and outside was dramatic. We were the opening windows and trying to not overheat in the tent. We kept joking that it can't actually be freezing outside. Then we would get out and pee in the snow and watch the steam rise from our pee before it hit the ground.
When we got to hilly San Diego county, which has a high population and relatively little visual cover from plant life because it is a desert clime, I relied on scenes from the movie "Dances with Wolves" to teach me how to hide our camp site behind a hill. Never mind the limited shrubbery, if there is a hill between you and car traffic/foot traffic and you stay quiet, you will go unnoticed.
Whatever tidbits of wisdom you can come up with from tribal cultures, they can be incredibly helpful for not only surviving, but doing so in relative comfort compared to what most homeless people seem to endure with their citified ideas about how life works.