Paleo Bookstore Story
by Tamara Wilder
Where did all these books come from?
Why are they in the Paleo Store?
In arranging all the books upon the shelf to take these two pictures, I was struck by just how many of them that there are,
especially considering that I have either a personal connection or relational story with most of the authors represented.
Paleotechnics first started selling books after several years of teaching workshops on ancient living skills
and regularly sending participants home with long lists of books that they needed to find.
Keep in mind that this was over 30 years ago in pre-internet existence and that actually being able to locate
such “fringe” publications took a bit of effort, preseverence and either in person attendance at a skills gathering or a lot of hours poring over bookstore shelves.
These books were one of the only ways to find what information was out there.
Some of those old “recommended readings” on our list are not even available in their original forms anymore but such classics as “Camping & Woodcraft” by Horace Kephart, “Outdoor Survival Skills” by Larry Dean Olsen, three different “Medicinal Plant Books” by Michael Moore, “Edible & Useful Plants of California” by Charlotte Bringle Clarke, several titles published by A.R. Harding, “Bows & Arrows of the Native Americans” by Jim Hamm, “Art of Flintknapping” by DC Waldorf and “Blue Mountain Buckskin” by Jim Riggs were always top of the list.
“Plants Used by the Indians of Mendocino Co, CA” by VK Chesnut and “Indian Uses of Plants” by Edith Van Allen Murphey were also favorites and upon moving to Mendocino County the discovery that they were both published and sold by the local historical society in Ukiah made it easy to keep copies on hand to pass on to others.
Many of these old favorites are still in print and have remained the core of the Paleo Bookstore, but most of the others now listed were not even written yet!
Attending several skills gatherings such as the Rabbitstick Rendezvous in Rexburg, ID and becoming friends with such foundational influences as Larry Dean Olsen, Jim Riggs & Mors Kochanski (among others) changed the course of my life. Larry’s & Jim’s books had already been at the center of our personal library and with the discovery of Mors’ book called “Northern Bushcraft”, later republished simply as “Bushcraft”, the obvious next step was to start keeping these publications on hand to sell to whomever else might be interested in reading them.
RABBITSTICK SKILLS GATHERING
Jim Riggs & Larry Dean Olsen
Mors Kochanski
John & Geri McPherson were prolific writers with a series of small handbooks from their company Prairie Wolf, which we would collect each year at Rabbitstick. This collection of works was eventually compiled into two “Naked Into the Wilderness” Books which have now been republished as one book called “Ultimate Guide to Wilderness Living”.
Home videos were a very new medium and some of the first on ancestral skills were “The Tanning Spirit” with Melvin Beattie, “Ancient Art of Braintanning Buckskin” with Robert Earthworm (aka Sonny) and “Caught Knapping” with Craig Ratzat, all originally released on VHS.
Mel’s & Sonny’s videos have now been combined by Tom Elpel of HOPS Press into the Stone Ages Living Skills Braintanning DVD and Caught Knapping is now available for free download by Neolithics on Archive.org.
In that era, many other co-instructors from ancestral skills gatherings were also writing and publishing their own works and one or two titles were added to the catalog each year!
Thomas J. Elpel of Hollowtop Outdoor Primitive School (HOPS Press) wrote “Botany In A Day” and “Participating in Nature”, followed up in later years by “Roadmap to Reality”, “Shanleya’s Quest” Botany Cards and Book and “Foraging the Mountain West”, co-written with Kris Reed, whom I also met at a Winter Count Skills Gathering south of Pheonix, AZ.
In those early years, several compilations gave chances for lots of voices to be heard on a variety of subjects.
Jim Hamm’s iconic book “Bows & Arrows of the Native Americans” published by Bois d’Arc Press had already been an all time favorite and still holds its own as the book to start with. When Jim began collecting chapters from bowyers from around the country to compile them together into “The Traditional Bowyer’s Bible #1” , we were delighted to find that friends Steve Allely & Tim Baker were asked to author chapters. Its release was greeted with great enthusiasm and for “Volume #2”, for which Steven Edholm & I contributed technical support to Tim Baker for his "Strings” chapter.
The series was eventually added to with Volumes #3 and #4 and the entire collection is highly recommended and a “must have” for anyone interested in learning how to make wooden or horn bows.
Richard & Linda Jamison were the creators of the Woodsmoke Magazine and after publishing Richard’s book “Primitive Outdoor Skills” and a “Best of Woodsmoke” compilation, they embarked on a new project of collecting of chapters from friends Steve Watts, Jim Riggs, Margaret Mathewson and Dave Wescott (among others) to create the book “Woodsmoke: Collected Writings on Ancient Living Skills”. Steven Edholm & I were invited to contribute a chapter on “Making Whole Shoot Willow Baskets” and this project was the first time our work was published in book form.
The last Woodsmoke book is no longer in print under that title, but is now being published under the title “Primitive Skills and Crafts”.
Bulletin of Primitive Technology #2
Many regular instructors from different skills gatherings across the country also formed the framework of the Society of Primitive Technology (lovingly called the SPT), either as board members or as contributors of articles to the “Bulletin of Primitive Technology'“ (BPT).
The bulletin was published twice a year and initially edited by John & Geri McPherson who already had experience with layout and design.
Dave Wescott, who was also the organizer of the Rabbitstick & Winter Count gatherings, took over editing the Bulletin after several years and continued in that position for the rest of the 25 years that it was published, with a total of 50 issues, most of which can still be found on the SPT Website!
Gibbs Smith would later publish all three compilations of the Bulletin of Primitive Technology. The first two “Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills” & “Primitive Technology 2: Ancestral Skills” compiled the best of the first 12 issues which are now out of print. “Practicing Primitive” by Steve Watts is a collection of all of his art and illustrations.
Read this recent blog post
to learn more about the SPT
Bulletin of Primitive Technology #49
Gibbs Smith of Peregrine Smith Books aka Gibbs Smith Publishing in Layton, Utah became a regular attendee at Rabbitstick in Rexburg, Idaho and began talking to Cody Lundin and Bart & Robin Blankenship about writing books. Within just a few years “98.6 Degrees: The Art of Keeping Your Ass Alive” and “Earth Knack” were both released.
Gibbs would publish three compilations of the Bulletin of Primitive Technology as well as Paul Campbell’s first book called “Survival Skills of Native California”, and second books by Cody Lundin with “When All Hell Breaks Loose” and Robin Blankenship with “How to Play In The Woods”.
John Kallas attended the first two or three Buckeye Gatherings in Forestville, CA and Gibbs published his “Edible Wild Plants”soon afterwards.
For a small traveling bookstore, being able to order such a collection of works from one place made it easy to keep a nice selection on hand. All of these titles are still favorites which form a veritable compendium on ancestral skills knowledge and wisdom and I feel incredibly fortunate to call all of these authors colleagues and most of them friends.
Paul Campbell began attending gatherings during a small window of time when I was kept from attending by personal responsibilities at home and he unfortunately passed away before I had a chance to meet him in person; but we had several wonderful conversations on the phone and communicated on a regular basis when re-ordering his self published “Earth Pigments and Paint” which was very popular. He was working on his last book called “Universal Toolkit” when he was diagnosed with cancer and we are all fortunate that he found the energy to complete it just before his death, more especially since it has proven to be a critical work. Shortly after he passed, I remember mentioning to a mutual friend that I had not yet seen “Universal Toolkit” but would love to sell it in my store and soon after was delighted when a box of 10 of them arrived on my porch! He is still remembered with reverence by our community and the amount of information to be found in his three tomes is a treasure to be discovered.
Steven Edholm & I co-wrote the first book on wet-scrape braintanning called “Wet-Scrape Braintanned Buckskin” in 1997 (later re-printed as “Buckskin: The Ancient Art of Braintanning”) as well as a series of Paleotechnics Handbooks, which are still being created.
Buckskin: The Ancient Art of Braintanning has been out of print for the past several years due to technological difficulties with transitioning from the older form of printing “flats” to a digital format. Unforeseen issues with this process have repeatedly delayed getting the re-print out, but we have been working on it really hard this past year and it is very near completion. We have a printer lined up, are putting the last finishing touches on making the illustrations look good and are updating much of the text. Hopefully the wait will be worth it and we really appreciate everyone’s patience and support.
To get notified when Buckskin becomes available, please either email us or place a backorder. THANKS!
Soon after our first book on braintanning was released, Matt Richards wrote his book on braintanning called “Deerskins Into Buckskins” which now also includes a DVD of the same name. Matt’s book explores using alkali to soak the hides instead of just water.
Matt’s website Braintan.com and company called Traditional Tanners now also publish Jim Rigg’s “Blue Mountain Buckskin” and sell a variety of tanning tools and materials along with tanned buffalo robes.
Heyday Books also publishes the iconic magazine “News from Native California” and has long played a pivotal role in getting the voices of many Native Californians into print.
Back in California, I taught for many years at a reconstructed Coast Miwok Village in Point Reyes National Seashore called Kule Loklo “aka Bear Valley) as a regular “Old Ways” instructor for an organization called Miwok Archaeological Preserve of Marin (MAPOM). One of the other instructors was Julia Parker, whose class on processing acorns for food would take place across the field from ours, with chances for the two classes to visit and mingle during lunch. Bev Ortiz wrote about her in the book “It Will Live Forever”, published by Heyday Books.
In recent years, they have also published “The California Field Atlas” by Obi Kaufmann, an incredible work by a friend of a friend.
Yampa Harvest at OAEC
photo by Jim Coleman
In the course of teaching around California, I have also had the good fortune to work with many other educators and authors.
Kat Anderson’s groundbreaking book “Tending the Wild” is still extremely high on countless “must-read” lists and soon after it was published I was honored to work with her and members of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria at the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center in Occidental, CA making digging sticks for digging Yampa root and exploring in person many of the concepts that she writes about in the book.
photo by Jim Coleman
photo by Jim Coleman
For the past 16+ years, I have taught a class on Ancient Technologies as part of the two week Permaculture Design Course at Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, whose OAEC Cookbook gives a lot of insight into both the recipes served at the course as well as the history and purpose of the place. This permaculture course is held in very high regard and some instructors have also had books published by Chelsea Green, who seem to have their finger on the pulse of what is new and exciting!
For many years now, it seems that almost every time I come across an interesting book, it is from Chelsea Green and in going through their catalog to place my first order, I was delighted to find that they also publish many titles by other friends and colleagues from the permaculture world and beyond. Toby Hemenway also taught at OAEC and his two highly regarded books “Gaia’s Garden” and “Permaculture City” helped put these concepts into language that was easy to grasp. Having his words in print is even more important now that his physical self has unfortunately left this world far too soon.
Sandor Katz’s two books “Wild Fermentation” and “The Art of Fermentation” are renowned for having started the fermentation revolution and it was an honor to present at the Wise Traditions conference in Santa Clara, CA the same year the he was one of the guest speakers. He was also a keynote speaker one year at our local “Not So Simple Living Fair” in Boonville, CA.
In more recent years, I was shown an incredible book by a friend called “The New Wildcrafted Cuisine” by Pascal Baudar. Although I have never met him in person, a number of friends have taken his classes and his regular posts on Instagram are very informative. He has now also published “Wildcrafting Brewer” and “Wildcrafted Fermentation” and the collection of all three is quite an inspiring compendium of experience being put into action.
Rebecca Burgess’s “Fibershed” book is one of the most recent additions to the Paleo Store.
I have known Rebecca for over a decade now even before the Fibershed movement started when we connected over the wild native fiber plant called Dogbane. We have worked together in the education field several times doing youth programs and even digging Yampa together at OAEC.
Since Fibershed has gotten going, we have done a tanning workshop together and I am a regular presenter at the annual Wool & Fine Fiber Symposium each year. Her book is a collection of stories about this time with numerous cameos on individuals whose work I deeply respect and admire.
More information can be found on several Paleo Blogs about Fibershed.
It is a pleasure to work with Chelsea Green. They are an employee owned company and support small bookstores like mine by giving an option to order mixed titles with free shipping. For this reason, I can offer more and more titles. While I don’t personally know the authors of “Wild Wisdom of Weeds”, “Make Mead Like A Viking”, “Humanure Handbook” or “Defending Beef”, they all have good reputations and have written books that contain important information presented in a very accessible language.
Volume IV of “The New Farmer’s Almanac” contains numerous contributions made by local friends, colleagues and neighbors and I am looking forward to discovering who has contributed to the latest volume which just arrived.
Several years ago, I met an inspiration named Art Ludwig at an event near Santa Barbara, CA called the Acorn Gathering. His books Water Storage and Create an Oasis with Greywater were already longtime favorites and we were delighted to get an in-person tour of his home and projects.
Another groundbreaking title which was recommended by numerous colleagues is The Organic Artist by Nick Neddo. While I have never met him in person, he is part of the eastern community of ancestral skills practitioners and we have now become online friends. Nick’s book is truly a creative endeavor from start to finish, not only giving clear and concise instructions on how to use natural materials to make art, but also how to make containers and brushes and much more! His beautiful drawings created with the same materials that he outlines in the contents take the whole project to a different level and inspire any artist to start making their own supplies…….naturally.
In the course of teaching annual animal processing workshops, I came across the incredible work of Adam Danforth, who now has three titles which cover most anything anyone needs to know about the ancient craft of slaughtering animals and cutting their meat. The encyclopedic Butchering and Butchering Beef are must have resources which have recently been followed up with a more field handbook sized Butchering Chickens.
In putting together the online Paleo Store, I have included lots of graphics of their covers and contents along with background stories, memorials for those authors who have passed on as well as little tidbits that others might find interesting and enjoyable.
Please visit the link for each title
to read and explore more of each topic.
The Paleo Store offers periodic seasonal discounts, FREE shipping on orders over $100 and is now featuring discounted author collections.
We purchase directly from the publishers and authors whenever possible; so buying from us not only helps keep the selection flowing but also puts more of the money directly into the hands of the creators themselves.
