Indigenous Ability

  “ You can tell a Southerner by the knife-fight scars .”—Roy Blount, Jr. Pre-Civil War, the southern Border States from Virginia through Tennessee southward to the Gulf and westward to the Mississippi was considered the original Wild West. A rough unruly legion noted for dense trackless forest, seemingly endless mountains that would break into numerous rivers, gorges, vast canebrakes and, at last, endless miles of cypress forests, swamp regions and all the hazards that entails. The land was settled by rough and rugged people who would rather hack out a harsh existence in unforgiving territory than co-exist in the relatively peaceable environs of New England and the Atlantic Border States. [For a deeper dive on this see our article The Real Josey Wales .] These rugged people were a rough n tumble culture. Rough n tumble in living. Rough n tumble in surviving. Rough n tumble in fighting. Rough n tumble even in the sportive ways. Let’s allow this iteration of The Mo