ALABAMUS INDIAN SURVIVAL SKILLS
HOW YOU CAN SURVIVE TODAY
How and why did I learn to survive?
When I was growing up I stayed with my grandparents on the mountain.My job when I got up in the morning was to take the two buckets down the side of the mountain to a spring, called Princess Spring.My Grandmother’s ancestors had been Alabamus Indians. She showed me how to make a call out of the stem of a squash, so that the end flopped when you blew on the whistle.This made the call of the Indian Hen or Pileated woodpecker. My grandpa showed me how to build and set a trap to catch quail.You made the trap by putting cedar slats together and taking a hickory bow to hold the slats together.You put the trap in a sand bed, dug out on one end and put some corn around and inside. After a while, you could go get your supper.My grandma loved me because I was the smallest and went to get the water any way.
That is what happened to me. If you have the will to survive, I have tried to give you the way in this book. If you use the suggestions in this book, you will survive.
I will tell you ten things in this book that I have used to survive that you have never seen in print in any survival book. I will share each of them with you as I come to them. I will make sure that you know what they are.
This is number one of the things never before written down in a survival book
I do not know how much you know about nature, but if you are trying to survive the end of times, it will take you a very long time and a lot of money to do that.
This is the first of the things that you have not seen in a survival book.If right now, today, you had to survive what should you do. We have to assume that you are not sitting in your living room but somewhere in the wild. Walk down hill, all the while you looking for water. Make sure that you do not walk over a cliff or into a swamp! When you find water walk down stream until you get to where the water is running; the more water the better. If you see anything that will hold water pick it up and carry it with you for you will need water today.
As you walk along this stream you are looking for a downed tree if the downed tree is an oak then you are in luck.
If you see any rocks while walking, they may come in handy later for helping you to cook some food. Just remember where they are you may can come back for them later.
Remember this. If you take 4 Bic lighters with you, they will give you enough lights and help you live long enough to build a lot of other things. Deep Woods off will keep some of the ticks off you.In Missouri, you can get ticks on you in McDonalds.
In the South, you will find cottonmouth snakes along all streams. They are guarding the fish in the water and they will bite you so you need to find a stick to use for a snake stick. The best one to use is a beaver stick.If you intend to eat the snake, this will not bother you.
Remember that if you are truly surviving, then you will not worry about the law coming to your smoke. However, any smoke will draw the law. They do not want you to set the world on fire.
This is number two of the things never before written down in a survival book
You can use the bank of the steam where a tree is down.You should dig a hole straight down in the bank, just about a hand span away from the edge. Then take a stick and measure the depth of your hole. Holding the stick at the top of your hole, take another stick and push into the bank where it comes into the bottom of your hole.You can use wet clay to dress the inside later. This is called a Dakota hole and putting this along the bank will allow you to use the light from the fire to fish at night.If you stick a long stick down in the hole, it will keep the ground around you lit for more than a few minutes. Remember that this will also attract snakes to where you are.
A caution on Dakota holes: while they are used because they make the least smoke, are easy to make, and can be used to cook any food, they have one drawback.They are hard to see at night if the fire goes down. If you stick a stick on both sides, at least you will be able to see the sticks. A rock, stone, or wood chip can be used to control the airflow into the bottom of the hole.Stones can explode when heated in a fire so be careful. If you stopped at a downed tree, and used a Dakota hole, the wood should a long time.
I need to tell you that if you do not eat fish then you will have a hard time surviving and if you do eat fish you will have a better chance of surviving.
This is number three of the things never before written down in a survival book
I caught fish for two years like this. I fished every day. You can find string and hooks. All you have to do is look. During the winter, if you walk along the banks of any lake you will see string, and at the end of the string are usually hooks. If you see a cork in a tree or hanging on a limb, it usually has a line and sometimes a hook.You can go around in the fall of the year, collect these, and trade them for knives. I did. Just like bringing the Bic lighters along will give you time to catch the fish that you will need to eat, where you will live long enough to do all the work that it will take for you to survive. None of this is easy and you will have to cook every meal.
This is number four of the things never before written down in a survival book
A lot of surviving in the wild is to find the bait you can use to catch the fish. Most of the creeks and all the rivers have mussels in the water.If you go to a bank where you can see down into the water, where the water is just above the sandy bottom, in the early morning you can see lines or trails left in the sand during the night.Where the trail ends is a mussel and they can be either big ones or small ones.Walk into the water and reach down into the sand bottom, and you will find a mussel just under the sand.Pull the mussel up and it will close its shell. If you stab a knife in where the water is coming out, if you hurry you will not have any problem getting to the mussel inside. So, what you are looking for on the bottom is the trail left by the mussel at night.
If you are starving, cook and eat the muscle. If not, you will take the mussel and make thin slices the long way and these you will use for bait.You know where all the artificial lures you see for sale. I wonder why they look that way. This bait is best fished on top of the water in a flowing stream; the bigger the stream the better.
Use as little weight as you can in getting this bait into the water. When it floats along the surface is when the fish will hit it.If you are careful and make sure that you have your hook running through the cut mussel, you can use this bait repeatedly. when you catch a fish on it, put the hook back in it and use it again.
No, I do not want you to go down to the stream tomorrow and harvest the mussels there for fishing.If you want to try it to see if it will work, that is fine.Remember, someone might need it to survive and you just ate his or her food. That also goes for collecting the lines, hooks, and corks someone else may need to survive.
This is number five of the things never before written down in a survival book
I carried a few extra stringers with me, and when I caught more fish that I needed, I would put them on the extra stringer. If there were someone there that was not as good at fishing as I was, I would say, “Hey, look I will sell you these catfish, and you do not even have to bring the stringer back.” The most I ever got was about five dollars, but some brought the stringers back any way.
Four commercial fishermen the same landing, and I caught enough fish that they would take them off my hands.They brought me coffee and sugar and when I knew they were coming, I would have a fresh pot of coffee made.I had bought a tube of plastic cups, and always gave them their coffee hot. Sometimes these fishermen would bring me eggs, and once in a while they would bring a pork roast, which I cooked for all of us. The commercial fisherman that lived closest to me brought me water sometimes, too.
This is number six of the things never before written down in a survival book
You have to gather sticks with which to start fires. However, while I was living on the river for two years, I never let my fire go out.That was 26 cords of wood, dragged in, broken up by hand,