Fernan Vargas is a life long martial artist and
author. He has studied Native American
fighting traditions and is an aficionado and researcher in the field of
Frontier Combatives. Learn more about
Mr. Vargas at www.FernanVargas.com www.TheRavenTribe.com
and www.Raventactical.com
First
things first, thanks for taking the time to chat. We’ve chatted before but the
conversational shoe is on the other foot this time. I’ll grill you. You’re a
man of many hats, but today I want to focus on one particular area—indigenous
arts. In particular, indigenous arts within the United States. Tell us a little
about your influences in that regard, it can be Apache knife-fighting what have
you.
Do
you find that indigenous arts have a different approach to that of modern
combatives, or were modern combatives directly influenced by these earlier
arts?
There is a definite difference in the way things were
taught in the past as to how they are taught now. From my personal experience, European and
Japanese martial arts are examples of highly organized and codified systems of
combat. Arts that I have trained from
other regions seem to be much more fluid and organic. Teachings are drawn from everyday life. They permeate everyday life and are not
necessarily a separate study. By
necessity, due to our goals and our culture I feel that modern combat arts have
become very regimented systems of training.
Combat
arts are less codified, systemized or dogmatic within the Americas. That is,
compared with what we see in Eastern martial arts or the war arts out of Europe
where we have manuals, long visible traditions to draw upon. Here, things get a
little blurry, how do you confront this hurdle?
I have had the blessing of training with several men
who teach the American arts and did the work for me. They all made efforts to translate the old
ways into a digestible system of learning more palatable to our culture.
Do
you think this blurriness is intentional or the historical quirk of not relying
on the written word within some cultures?
I do not believe that the “blurriness” is
intentional. I believe it is a result of
cultural norms and needs. It is also a
result of the type of martial arts that they are. There are Military arts and tribal arts. Military arts are codified, taught in a
particular time frame to a particular group.
Tribal arts, were much more of an extension of everyday life. This is seen not only in the American arts
but also in tribal arts such as Silat and Kali.
There are parts of South east Asia which are still very remote. People rely on these skills daily. They are not for a professional soldier class
but for everyone, all of the time.
I do not believe that these cultures has any need to
write these things down. There was no
nostalgic or ritualized reason to do so.
They were tools. When culture
changes and the need is diminished, these things tend to go away. I laugh when people say that there were no
native fighting arts. They often say,
“where are the books?” I used to have a
beta max player. The technology
evolved. I have no need for the beta max
anymore. I cannot prove to you that my
family owned one, but it was there at one time.
I taught my son to hammer a nail, but I didn’t see the need to go write
a manual on how to hammer a nail. The
important thing was that he has this skill, once that goal was met, there was
nothing left to do.
Has
there been anything in particular about indigenous arts compared with what we
would think of standard arts that you found surprising?
In the indigenous arts that I have studied, I found
several things that are different from “standard modern martial arts”. The first thing is in the practicality. There is nothing there that doesn’t have to
be. There is no “art form”. There is nothing done for the sake of
creative experimentation, nothing done for the sake of creative expression, no
“Look what I can do mom!” moments. It is
just not that type of endeavor.
The second thing that I learned is that historically
these arts were taught throughout daily life.
No one called together the group to stand in a line and practice their
right cross or high block. Games, were
the primary way that the young ones learned these skills. Lacrosse is probably the best known of the
American games played. If you look at
Lacrosse, it basically is a mini skirmish.
All of those useful skills are practiced within its play.
Repetitious use of their weapons in hunting, and
surviving also “perfected the attributes”.
In Puerto Rico, there is a traditional Taino art now known as
Guazabara. There is also African
influenced Kalenda. People in these
areas were field workers. They learned
how to cut with their machete, not by going to machete class but by cutting
sugar cane in the fields for 12 hours a day.
What
aspect of indigenous arts have you found most compelling?
Silat instructor Joel Champ once told me that he loved
the knife fighting that we worked on together because it was so “RAW”. That always stuck with me. It is true.
It is raw. It is not locked into
convention. It is also very primal. Indigenous arts were also very
pragmatic. They adapted much learned
from their battles with other tribes, and Europeans.
Is
there an aspect that you know of only in legend, at least thus far, but would
love to discover more about?
One thing that has proved elusive to me are empty hand
martial arts. Master Peter Brusso once
told me, “There are no combatives without weapons”. That makes sense to me. If you are fighting for your life, you seek
the tactical advantage. I think this may
be why the native empty hand tactics are harder to find.
Do
yo find yourself more influenced by the weapons culture or the empty-handed
aspects of these arts?
I have learned primarily the weapon based aspects of
these arts. The strategy that I learned
from those studies however translate well to any empty hand system.
Are
there aspects of indigenous abilities that aren’t necessarily martial, but you
find of particular value to study?
In recent years, I have grown to appreciate almost all
indigenous skills, particularly hunting, tracking, and wilderness
survival. Our world is comfortable and
safe, for now. Many of us would be dead
within days if a catastrophe occurred that stripped us of those comforts. Knowing the old ways exponentially raises
your survivability and they should all be studied.
Aside
from your own work what resources would you guide indigenous arts enthusiasts
towards. A sort of “You have got to read this if you want to know what this is
all about!”
When speaking of strictly Indigenous combat arts
instructors can be hit or miss. In my experience the men who truly know these
arts and who can teach you the history and applications correctly is a short
list. For Apache skills men like the
Redfeather brothers, Robert and Ralf, Snake Blocker, Alan Tafoya, Blaise Loone,
Thomas Howanic and Chad McBroom will not steer you wrong. For Taino arts Edgardo Perez is the man, and
for Meso American Arts no one has done more in the field than Manuel
Lozano. Carmine Downey also makes the
list as a traditional native knife and tomahawk instructor, as well as Marc
Lawrene. Raven Hawk Cain and Black Hawk Walters have done an amazing job of
presenting a modern approach to native combat arts. German Dominguez in Spain also leads our own
Raven Frontier Combatives program.
When you expand the list to include primitive ways
instructors, men like Tom Brown and Benjamin “Raven” Pressley are just amazing.
As for books, I have written a book on Native American
Blade Craft. Guru Marc Lawrence has also
written a book on native combat arts.
Both are available at www.MartialBooks.com
In addition to these the Warrior Scout series that I have co-authored with
Benjamin Raven Pressley delves into many survival skills drawn from native
traditions. Snake Blocker has several
books available on the Apache traditions.
Thomas Howanic of Patriot martial Arts in Texas has an excellent dvd
series on knife combat, much of which is inspired by the Mesacalero Apache
tradition. Manuel Lozano has what I
consider to be the preeminent book and DVD series on Meso American martial
arts, specifically the Aztec traditions.
What’s
next in the pipeline for you?
I am currently working on a book series called “Way of
the Raven: Warrior Scout” with Benjamin Raven Pressley. The series gives instruction in areas such as
wilderness survival skills, primitive hunting, tracking, philosophy and
combatives using weapons such as the scout staff, knife, tomahawk and
more. The series is an attempt to
present a thorough and comprehensive skill set to those who are interested in
this type of material. The first three
volumes are already available at www.RavenTactical.com
Thanks,
again for taking the time, and I have no doubt that we’ll hit again down the
road!
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