December 9, 2009
Been culling notes from my Mickey Free files on the home computer. Amazing how much stuff one can accumulate in such a short time (granted it's been six years. Ha.). As young Felix Ward (real name Felix Telles, his mother remarried) struggled to learn the ways of the Apache, as mentioned, he participated in the pine cone hunt. Another survival skill was the Turn Around. Young Apaches were taught to study a pass ahead of them, then go through the pass and coming out the other side, stop and turn around, to study the pass from the other side. Often in the heat of a running battle, it is easy to get lost or confused when covering ground, but if a warrior knows the terrain, both front and back, he is able to navigate more intelligently.

Felix also learned these skills:

• Have the women pound enough meat and fat to seven days and nights, and take along water.

• Cross open flats by night and reach a mountain and hide in the brush by day.

• Locate water holes by climbing to a high place and looking for green spots, but do not go to them by day, only at night.

• Never sleep under a tree, it is the first place the enemy will look.

• If you become lost, make a fire and send up a smoke signal, then put it out and run away to a place where you can watch to see if anyone comes. At the same time look for a smoke signal response. Between the two, you will find who is chasing, or tracking you, and you will find friendly tribesmen.

Cool stuff. Can't wait to start laying some of this out. Plan to have something up and online by the end of January. Here's a photo of me and the Top Secret Writer in Bisbee working on this project in the summer of 2007:

About time, eh? Gee, I wonder what ol' Horn has to say about this?

“When you see Apache sign, be mighty careful. When you don’t see Apache
sign, be even more careful.”
—Tom Horn