To set our stage, a textbook extract: “ Let us begin, then, with the act of walking. For all its apparent simplicity, it is an adaptation as specialized as flying is to a bat or swimming to a seal. True, man is not the only animal able to stand on his hind legs alone; birds, bears and a number of man's primate cousins are bipedal on occasion. But with the exception of a few flightless birds, such as the ostrich, man is the only animal that depends exclusively on two legs for locomotion whether crossing a room or crossing a continent, moving at high speeds or aimlessly strolling, with arms burdened or swinging free. Using his two legs, a man has the endurance to outrun a deer. He can carry heavier loads, pound for pound of body weight, than a donkey the French-Canadian voyageurs who transported Indian trade goods through the North Woods routinely backpacked 180 pounds of bales over nine-mile portages, and a legendary hero among them named La Bonga is said to have portaged 450 po...
Examining & Resurrecting Indigenous Skills and Frontier Rough & Tumble Combat