Survival Skills of Native California [Paperback]

Paul Campbell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2000

In the most comprehensive work of its kind, author Paul Campbell reveals the knowledge he has spent twenty years learning and reproducing from California's Natives. Included are sections on basic skills, the tools for gathering and preparing food, implements for household and personal necessity, as well as the arts of hunting and fishing.
Topics Include:
-Shelter: A Continuum of Simplicity
-Greens, Beans, Flowers and Other Vegetables
-Meat Preparation
-How to Make and Shoot a Bow and scores more
Survival skills is astounding in the breadth of skills taught, and contains more than 400 pages with 2,000 skills and nearly 1,000 instructional illustrations. With a variety of Native Californians, young and old, as his sources of information, the author delves into the practices they used to successfully live on a land that is often seemingly poor in life's essentials. This book offers the opportunity to see beyond the apparent, to overcome modernbred helplessness in the wild, and to capably employ the varied resources of earth's bounty that make survival possible.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Contents Preface: The Wisdom of the California Hunter-Gatherer Introduction: Secrets of Indian Survival Part One: Basic Skills, Tools of Gathering and Food Preparation, Implements of Household and Personal Necessity Part Two: Hunting and Fishing

From the Back Cover

In the most comprehensive work of its kind, author Paul Campbell reveals the knowledge he has spent twenty years learning and reproducing from California's Natives. Included are sections on basic skills, the tools for gathering and preparing food, implements for household and personal necessity, as well as the arts of hunting and fishing.
Topics Include:
-Shelter: A Continuum of Simplicity
-Greens, Beans, Flowers and Other Vegetables
-Meat Preparation
-How to Make and Shoot a Bow and scores more
Survival skills is astounding in the breadth of skills taught, and contains more than 400 pages with 2,000 skills and nearly 1,000 instructional illustrations. With a variety of Native Californians, young and old, as his sources of information, the author delves into the practices they used to successfully live on a land that is often seemingly poor in life's essentials. This book offers the opportunity to see beyond the apparent, to overcome modernbred helplessness in the wild, and to capably employ the varied resources of earth's bounty that make survival possible.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 474 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith (January 19, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879059214
• ISBN-13: 978-0879059217
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique, invaluable contribution to Native American studies., April 6, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Survival Skills of Native California (Paperback)

Pual Campbell's Survival Skills Of Native California is an impressive, scholarly, exhaustive, detailed compendium surveying more than 2000 California-based Native American tribal skills. Survival Skills Of Native California is superbly enhanced for readers, students, researchers, and scholars with almost one thousand instructional illustrations. Included are informative sections on all the basic survival skills, the tools of gathering and food preparation, the implements of household and personal necessity, as well as the arts of hunting and fishing. Survival Skills Of Native California offers the reader comprehensive, authentic, detailed information and instruction on how to live off the land and capably employ all of the varied resources of earth's bounty that enabled the survival of California's native population for millennia. Survival Skills Of Native California is a unique and invaluable acquisition for personal, academic, and community library Native American studies collections reference collections.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive review of Native California Life Ways, November 2, 2004

By 

B. Gallagher "realcog" (Ramona, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Survival Skills of Native California (Paperback)

The author covers a wide range of survival skill subjects from the use of an atlatl to how a boat was made from tules. The book is filled with detailed information with cited sources. The table of contents is hefty and an excellent bibliography is provided. A must for anyone interested in survival skills of Native Californians from the past.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thorough look at California Indian life, August 14, 2001

By 

J. Elkind "eetunes" (San Francisco, CA 94110) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Survival Skills of Native California (Paperback)

This book provides a fascinating and comprehensive glimpse into the daily lives of pre-contact California Indians. It is laid out in easy to use chapters that provide just enough information to be complete, but still include local examples and myths to add flavor to the narrative. My only complaint is that some of the skills are a bit complicated and are confusing to read. I guess you just have to go out to the wilderness and try it out! This is a must-read for anyone interested in California Indians and their history.