For a long time I thought Bushcraft was mostly about forests, carving tools, shelters, and fire making. I kept thinking I needed to travel somewhere far away to learn the deeper skills I was searching for.
What I did not realize was that I was already standing in the middle of another form of Bushcraft here in the Southwest.
Over the last few days I have been working closely with Mildred from the Tiwa language and culture program at the Taos Day School. She has spent years teaching youth and helping build hornos, passing on knowledge through direct experience instead of books or videos. Working beside her has changed how I think about Bushcraft completely.
Bushcraft is not just about wood.
It is about learning to work with the materials of your environment. Here in the Southwest that means clay, dirt, straw, stone, water, and heat. Earth itself becomes shelter, cookware, insulation, and community.
While helping repair and shape hornos, something obvious finally clicked in my brain. I have spent years fascinated by primitive pottery and survival skills, yet never fully connected the fact that if you need bowls and you have clay, then you can simply make your own bowls.
That is Bushcraft.
Not fantasy. Not gear obsession. Not consuming endless videos online. Real Bushcraft is solving human problems with the materials around you.
The Southwest has its own ancient technology and wisdom. Hornos, pottery, earth building, and clay work are just as much Bushcraft as carving a spoon in a northern forest. Maybe more, because these skills fed and connected entire communities for generations.
Sometimes the knowledge you are searching for is not somewhere far away.
Sometimes it is already beneath your feet. In another post, I will specifically write about the genius of hornos.
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