More Half-Truths From Tamarack

What Tamarack Song (Dan Konen), our little hunter-gatherer wannabe, whites-can-be-natives propagandist fails to tell his readers in the letter below, is that as a 501c3 non-profit, the Teaching Drum gets tax breaks from the US government. It's how he is able to own Ojibwe land.

He's a purist about his food, but not his blood money. Once again, Tamarack is lying. He does NOT get his tax breaks from hunting and gathering. He gets his tax breaks from the violent, authoritarian, Euro-American, United States government.

To: Teaching_drum@yahoogroups.com
From: "Tamarack Song"
Date: Sat, 22 Dec 2007 10:40:27 -0600
Subject: [Teaching_Drum] The Mother's bounty

------Original message from Roger-------

Remember, oranges, oatmeal, purchased whole grains, bread, pasta all come from farming, unless you harvested the grains and fruit yourself from the wild, also cotton, most wool and silk are from farming. How much of the food at the house area and at the primitive camp area is actually purchased and from farming/agriculture -?

I don't have a problem with that, I am just curious how practical is it to think of living completly off the land, hunter gatherer, all food, clothing and shelter?

------Tamarack' s reply------

Roger, I know you from this group, but unfortunately I can't remember your visit. My guess is that it was a while ago if you saw oatmeal, grains, bread, and pasta here, because the School hasn't purchased any of that stuff for years and years. If you'd like to see what we're like now, you're welcome to come and visit anytime.

You asked how much food is purchased here at the "house," which perhaps shows how loooooong since you've been here. The house has grown and multiplied: we now have a log cabin office, a guest cabin, four staff cabins, and a library-bookstore. We're 20 people altogether, including three children, and we forage all of our meat and fish and purchase almost all of our fruits and vegetables. During the Green Season the year-long seekers hunt and gather all of their own food for a period, and receive food drops of mostly purchased food every three days during the rest of the year.

You asked how practical it is to have food, clothing, and shelter needs met off the land. For those who know what they're doing and have a balanced relationship with the Hoop of Life, it's simple. A couple of weeks ago we were netting Whitefish and Cisco, and in an hour we had over 100 pounds.

Right now we have bushels of black walnuts drying in my living room -- all we had to do was pick them up off the ground. At our camps, shelters are made entirely from gathered materials -- no cost, no mortgage, no taxes, and completely earth friendly. Clothing is just as easy -- skins and furs, and no clothing when it's not necessary. Buckskins are so durable they last decades, rather than years, and furs are the most warm and luxurious White Season clothing I've ever come across. The physical aspects of living natively are seldom the problem -- it's what we carry in our heads. Beliefs, preconceived notions, erroneous information, and defeatist mindsets doom most return-to-the- Old Way ventures before they even start.

Does anyone else have something to add? This could be the beginning of a great discussion.