Native American Indians across the Americas were undisputed World Class wilderness survival experts in their respective environments. Most Indian tribes are gone now and the ones that remain don’t live the wilderness lives of past. –
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All Indians tribes possessed an enormous arsenal of proven survival applications, techniques and tricks. And one of them was evasion from man and beast.
One Indian tribe I’ll briefly talk about is the Yahi tribe out of northern California. The Yahi tribe went extinct when their last member, Ishi, died in March 1916. I’ll also briefly talk about the famous Apaches. These 02 Indian tribes reflect the superior expertise in wilderness survival skills from all the other Indian tribes across the Americas.
During the goldrush, the Yahi land (northern California) was invaded by hordes of white men seeking gold nuggets in mines and gold dust in waterways. The Yahi Indians battled the whites but were eventually overwhelmed and in some cases massacred. Here are a few Yahi evasion and hiding tricks you need to know:
a) Motionless: On unexpected and deliberate close contact with whites, Yahi Indians went face-down to the ground and went absolutely motionless. It’s not as easy as you might think. Many Native American tribes throughout North America went motionless to go undetected by rival tribes, white men and even attacking big game (bears,…). It was also used as a stalking technique to hunt small game, big game and rival Indians. This technique was practiced by young Indians boys to perfection. See Item F – Rocks
b) Trees: If time permitted, they climbed trees. Like deer, white men – even in these modern times rarely searched up in the trees while travelling through the woods.
Note: Several problems using trees as hiding spots; if you’re discovered, you have no escape route.
c) Water Shadows: The Yahi Indians were very good swimmers and able to hold their breath underwater for a long time if needed. An evasion technique was to seek the sanctuary of water. And to better hide in the water, they swam (surface or underwater) to locations where shadows were cast on the water to better hide the evader.
d) Go Where Nobody Wants To Go: In the 2003 AASN, I gave you Item 247 – America’s Elite In Vietnam – e) Go Where Nobody Wants To Go. And the Yahi used this same tactic to evade and hide. They evaded through and hid in a patch of spiny manzanita (evergreen shrub) or a patch of poison oak.
Note: Manzanita provides edible berries that taste like jelly.
e) Caves: Caves were abundant in that area. They went into the dark caves, hid in the rear most darkest section of the cave. They burrowed under any available debris within cave.
Pre-selected caves were also used as cache sites. Cache items included food, furs,… Caves offered great protection from the elements except may be scavenging critters and returning bears to hibernate. See Caches throughout the A-Z Index.
Note: Severe problem using caves as hiding spots, most caves were a cul de sac (French for dead end). If you were discovered, you had no escape route.
f) Rocks: If available, Yahi Indians hid behind and under rocks. And depending on the area of the Earth, there are hide sites, even GIGANTIC hide sites under rocks.
Like their counterparts in the southwest (Apaches and Comanches), their evading and hiding techniques were so good, even when horses or white men passed next to them or on top of them, they still went undetected.
g) Hidden Tunnels: To come and go as they pleased without being detected by animal or white man, the savvy Yahi burrowed tunnels through the thickest of vegetation like rabbits. The tunnels were barely big enough to accommodate a crawling Yahi. Did they copy this survival tactic from rabbits? Probably so.
1st Note: Taking advantage of thick vegetation and the cover & concealment, and the early warning it offers is taught from the get go to Army Special Forces candidates and it may be your life-saver when pursued by an angry critter, enemy pursuers, or some coward scumbag in a wilderness environment. See Military POW Survival Tricks – Hide N Seek, Hiding Like Rabbits, and Geology on pages 09 & 10 in the July 2001 AASN.
2nd Note: Unknown to the gold seekers and other white men, the Yahi hid right under their noses absolutely undetected. The surviving Yahis lived unseen for decades in the canyons of Mill Creek and Deer Creek.
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Apache Invisible Camouflage!
Between 1858 and 1873 Geronimo led raids in Arizona and Mexico and in 1876 he started raiding American pioneers who invaded his homeland. In 1882 after being hounded by US troops of General Crook, Geronimo surrendered. Put on a reservation, in 1884 Geronimo led a war party killing soldiers fleeing to the south into Mexico. Geronimo raided back and forth between Mexico and the United States and had thousands of troops (Mexico & US) after him and his warring party.
The camouflage of Geronimo’s evading warriors was so good that they could be on the side of the trail and not be seen by anyone. This camouflage technique has the Apache Indian(s) laying in a depression. He takes dirt and places it on himself to match the surrounding colors making him almost invisible. To compliment his blending camouflage, the Apache remain absolutely motionless. And it worked very very well.
And here’s my take on going MOTIONLESS!
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Holy Sh!+!
While attending the US Army SERE School, among other evading teams, myself and 05 other SERE candidates were executing the evasion part of the course. During the day our team would evade through the very humid and hot jungle environment of Panama. Our mission was to evade several hours away to predesignated coordinates while AVOIDING all contact with 02 platoons of searching infantry soldiers (80).
If they captured even 01 member of the evading team, the entire team was terminated from the SERE course. Exact pinpoint navigation was part of the grading system. None of us had ever ventured through the large jungle area before during those days of evasion. If our navigation was off, we missed our link-ups which was automatic termination.
Once at these coordinates the team constructed a hide site for overnight use. Once the sun came up, a 02-man team would patrol to predesignated coordinates to link-up with a cadre member. The cadre member executed the following criteria:
a) Look for and grade link-up evaders
b) Go to hide site area and try to identify and grade hide site concealment
c) Give new coordinates for next evasion corridor and hide site area
The morning it was my turn. I was assigned to link-up with the cadre member. My job was to be within 50-meters of the cadre link-up site. My fellow evader was in an overwatch position. In case I was captured, his job was to evade back to the remaining evaders and alert them. Once the cadre arrived if he could find my position the entire team was docked points.
I low crawled to my position in the smelly swamp dragging some vegetation with me I was going to use as a natural blind. I was in 02-feet of black swamp water with the blackest of soil. I got into position and smeared the sticky black soil on all parts of my face, hands, head gear and camouflage fatigues. I pulled the vegetation over on top of me and lay still completely submerged underwater except for my face which was sideways barely out of the water to breathe. The cadre arrived, and I lay motionless. I mean ABSOLUTELY MOTIONLESS cause I knew even the smallest movement would cause ripples in the water all around me which would alert his experienced searching eyes. If I was detected our whole team was gigged (faulted).
After searching for me for about 05-minutes, the cadre yelled out “Come on out.” I lay still. Again, he yelled out again “Come on out.” Well I wasn’t 50-meters from the SERE cadre which is a lot in a jungle environment, I was as close as 15-meters from the cadre and he never saw me. When I stood up almost in front of him, I came up out of the black swamp water like a monster, throwing aside my “natural blind” with that black mud still sticking to me like glue even while submerged underwater (best camouflage I ever used).
The cadre was SURPRISED I was so close and he was impressed with my blind and the black mud smeared all over me including my fatigues. I could see the surprise in his eyes. He said “Holy Sh!+” with a smile on his face. I know we got max points on our link-up! That sticky black mud was such a good camouflage, it stayed with me the remaining portion of the SERE course. I never had to apply a cammy stick to my face, hands again, or anything again. And I think the bugs didn’t nag as much either.
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US Army SERE School – Playing Hide N Seek!
The only time the Army let me play hide n’ seek like a kid and pay me for it was while attending the Army SERE Course (Survival Evasion Resistance & Escape) in Panama. While attending the Army SERE Instructor Course in Panama, the instructors were covering classes on evasion and on-the-run hide sites. One aspect of evasion was taking advantage of cover & concealment that vegetation offered for a quick ready-to-go hide site.
So we broke up in small groups of 06 evaders. 06 evaders would get a 03-minute headstart and the remaining class of about 50 SERE candidates would look for the evaders. Evaders would look for the thickest vegetation they could find and hunker down real close together. And more times than not for only a 03-minute headstart, most evading groups were not found.
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Hide N’ Seek Geology Lesson!
Plus, we got a real quick class in geology (structure of Earth). We were taught what to look for boulders on the surface so to hide underground! And sure enough, some evading groups found underground shelters that could fit 20 or so people! We couldn’t find them even if they gave us several hours! You just have to find the indicators for an underground shelter and shimmy through the giant rocks to get to the underground shelter. Great hide sites! Now let me carry-on with the Evasion and Isolation Phases of SERE School.
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Evading 02 Platoons Of Infantry Soldiers!
The last several days of the SERE course we were put in teams of 06 – 07 evaders where we were evading 02 infantry platoons (80 soldiers) by day and making a hide site and hiding at night. We had no food, no water supplied to us. Any food or water was grabbed on-the-go. We made our own home-made rucksacks and each of us had a map and compass to evade within the wide corridor they gave us beforehand. We also had one PRC-77 radio for emergency use only.
The instructors told us we would lose weight and once the fat reserves were gone, our bodies would start eating itself and there would be a different odor. They stated we would feel real hungry at first but after a few days the hunger pangs would go away and “we wouldn’t care.” They also stated dehydration would take place and they repeatedly stated “DEHYDRATION DULLS THE MIND.” The brain is composed of mostly water.
There were several other evading teams and some were caught by the members of the 02 platoons of infantry (80 soldiers). Those evaders (entire teams) were terminated from the course. Some evaders broke from their teams and seeked-out civilians for a hand-out. They were also terminated from the course and they took their entire team with them.
The Special Forces cadre weren’t stupid. I’m sure they already alerted the Panamanian civilians near the E & E Corridors of any SERE candidate evaders looking for assistance. And they would appreciate any detailed information on any SERE candidate seeking assistance. I’m guessing, but I bet there was a money reward paid out for their assistance.
Anyway, the 1st day as we evaded we found a plant that was very edible and tasty. We grabbed em’ on the run and handed them back to a Navy guy (02 Navy guys attended the course – no, they weren’t SEALs) who put them in his home-made pack. After evading all day long we came to our assigned coordinates where we built a hide site. We were all dripping soaking wet from the perspiration.
As we huddled in our hide we shivered from the drop in temperature. We dare not build a fire. We had no matches, no flint, no dry tinder, no nothing anyway. It was time to eat out tasty vittles. We turned to the Navy guy. Turns out he ate everything we gathered on-the-run! We worked as a team but we carried this Navy guy through the evasion phase – we were a team no matter what. I remember during the evasion phase, he wanted to quit – he wanted to go home to his wife & family. We just told him to hang in there and he graduated with the remaining class of “survivors.” Maybe he was told to say this from the SERE cadre and this was a test. I’m just guessing on this.
The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th day were the same. We evaded in the humid 100-degree jungle. On one occasion we were almost captured. It was broad daylight. We were hugging the ground for all we were worth.
A few infantry soldiers were so close we saw their headgear as they roamed right next to us. They were only 15-feet away, just 15-feet away from us. We were laying down taking a break during our evasion and these infantry soldiers walked nearly on top of us.
Maybe we all fell asleep at the same time, I don’t know, but there they were right next to us. Only the thick jungle vegetation hid us. We knew where there were 03 infantry soldiers, the other 37 soldiers were close by! Through our silent arm and hand signals we decided we were not going to get captured. That was the only time we moved.
Even though we were getting weak, we decided if those few infantry soldiers caught us we were going gang-up on the 03 soldiers AND vagus strike them on the side of the neck and put our sleeper holds on them and leave em’ where they lay. They came within 15-feet of us.
The only thing that saved us was our FREEZING IN PLACE – WE ALL WENT MOTIONLESS and the jungle’s vegetation that concealed us. Plus, we never looked directly at them, especially at the back of their neck or down their spinal column. This would alert their 6th sense as taught to us in this SERE Course.
As soon as they were out of sight, we s l o w l y slithered away in the opposite direction being aware there might be more infantry in the area (MOVEMENT ATTRACTS THE EYES). We didn’t know it then but we were all losing a lot of weight real quick.
We were getting severely dehydrated. We constantly sweated all day, shivered all night and ate no food and drank unfiltered, unpurified water where we could find it. We passed the evasion part of the course. We were all in bad shape. The last phase was isolation and field-craft!
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