Frontier & Tactical Mythbusting: The Buckskin, Parkours, Wyatt Earp Edition by Mark Hatmaker

 

Frontier Myth-Busting #1

·        We often envision the early backwoodsmen, frontiersmen, and indigenous Warriors of the Eastern Woodlands clad in buckskin.

·        This was often the case.

·        In our mind’s eye, we often picture these brain-tanned garments edged with fringe.

·        The fringe was not for decorative purposes.

·        Ponder this, why would a warrior/hunter who desires stealth apply dangling ornamentation to his clothing to snag on brush or catch the eye in movement?

·        So, if it was not a matter of “Look how pretty Hawkeye looks with all his fringe!” why was it employed?

·        It was a rain-channel.

·        In a light brief drizzle or on dewy mornings moisture accumulates on the clothing and begins to seep to the skin.

·        The fringe acted as channels that allowed the majority of the dew to bead and follow the fringe to trail to the ground.

·        Brilliant, huh?

·        Oh, and did there happen to be a few other combat uses of fringe in a pinch?

·        You betcha—Look for it on upcoming RAW/Black Box material, not in this slice of freebie we call social media.

·        RAW/BlackBox Info here. 

Frontier Myth-Busting #2

·        As you can surmise from the utilitarian addition of fringe the buckskin must  not have been quite weather-ready.

·        It was not. As a matter of fact, wet buckskin held water becoming a soppy skin-chilling weight to be endured.

·        At the first sign of rain the buckskin garments were shed and rolled into a bundle and the warrior/huntsman or tribal member continued on their way wearing either nothing or nothing more than a breechclout.

·        This was a common practice by both the Indian and the frontier folk [men and women] in the Great Forests of Early America. Letters from British officers at the time often remark on the “immodesty” of the backwoods women and men. T’s actually an indicator of the soldier’s delicate sensibility. The early frontier folk were more comfortable with the facts of life and the state of nature than these soldiers, and likely more comfy with the sight of the human body than we ourselves are today.

·        As a matter of fact, we get the term “buck naked” from this practice. We have devolved it to simply mean—without clothes. Whereas at the time it was a statement of wise practice, “Rain’s a comin’ go buck naked.” Or, “He must’ve just crossed the river he’s buck naked.”

·        We see this practice pop up in many indigenous tribes worldwide and adopted by those who spend any time in the bush with these tribes.

·        I have more than a few accounts of African explorers who find success “going minimal.”

·        As one is advised when encountering a stretch of ground full of brambles and thorns and asking why everyone strips down, “Memsahib, your skin will heal itself, your trousers will not.”

Tactical Myth-Busting: The Parkour Edition

·        We are familiar with the high-flying exhibitions of Parkour and free-running, that some think is of recent vintage, the wiser know it comes from the early 20^th century and the work of George Hebert that he dubbed “The Natural Method,” and the even wiser know that Hebert was taking his lead from the observation of indigenous ability amongst tribespeople in Africa, where we can assume such practices have an even longer lineage.

·        But…let’s take this tale back to France, during the reign of Francis I [1515-1547.]

·        We’ll come back to that date.

·        During Francis’ reign there was a brief flurry of fashion to engage in Course sur les toits, or «rooftop races. »

·        There would be a wager made  that as one entered the precincts of a town to see who could travel the furthest only over rooftop.

·        The towns of the period did indeed have narrow alleys, but they were of varying height, varying widths between, some with ledges, cornices etc. Some without.

·        The rule was travel the furthest, the fastest using only leaping and climbing.

·        Hebert wrote his 1^st book  L'éducation physique ou l'entrainement complet par la méthode naturelleon on “The Natural Method” in 1912.

·        If my math is correct, this makes Course sur les toits pre-date Hebert by at least 365 years and Parkour by even more.

·        I have in my hands a few referential how-tos from the period regarding this unusual pastime. It differs in approach in some regards and the tips on “preparing the legs” is a mighty useful addition to any old school warrior’s combat conditioning PT. Takes “shock training” to a whole new level. I do it 3 times per week myself.

·        Yep,we’ll cover it exclusively in a RAW/Black Box volume.

Shootist Myth-Busting: The Wyatt Earp Edition

·        Hold your horses, this isn’t a bit about knocking Mr. Earp off his cold-visaged pedestal.

·        Rather it is one about taking only one or two pieces of information and assuming you are near a complete story.

·        As I have confessed, I have a great affinity for old school combat, and that includes shooting styles, tactics, and triggernometry of the folks that did it, really did it.

·        More info on this approach here.

·        I use Mr. Earp as a peek behind the curtain into the wide ground that is truly out there.

·        Historian Bill O’Neal has done a bang-up job tallying and tabulating every gunfight of the period.

·        He breaks down gunfights according to “Number of Killings.”

·        “Number of Gunfights”

·        And “Number of Possible Killings or Assists.”

·        From here he was able to rank the several hundred hombres [good and bad] who engaged in gunhawkery.

·        The well-known Mr. Earp comes in 32 on that list, which is far lower than many of us might have expected.

·        Again, this is not about Earp’s prowess, it is about opening our eyes to the fact that there is much in shooting, pugilism, wrasslin’, frontier rough ‘n’ tumble, old school real PT that is simply forgotten or sitting by the wayside overshadowed by folks repeating the same info over and over.

·        When we dig deep, I mean really deep the story gets far more fascinating and multi-faceted, whether it be the use of fringe, skull-groovin’, street dentistry, shock training for wrestling movement [RAW 216], rooftop racing, snap-shooting with middle-fingers to improve shooting from the hip accuracy, well, hell, there is so much to cogitate on and put back into practice.

·        Again, that is the heart and soul of the new RAW/Black Box Project—Use only the baddest, meanest, most efficient methods of the tried and true old schoolers and not merely sportive re-treads.

One more bit of old-school resurrection, a vocabulary word.

Brawn-Fallen.

·        This was an old-school term to refer to anyone who did more talking than training.

·        More getting ready to train than actually train.

·        More…you get the picture.

Wanna skip the brawn-fallen and get on the Old School Bandwagon?

In The Black Box Project we provide Combination Fighting nitty-gritty straight from the historical record.

For skinny on The Black Box Project

[For techniques, tactics, and strategies of Rough and Tumble Combat, Old-School Boxing, Mean-Ass Wrestling, Street-Ready Frontier Scrapping & Indigenous Ability culled from the historical record see the RAW Subscription Service, or stay on the corral fence with the other dandified dudes and city-slickers. http://www.extremeselfprotection.com