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Tom Brown Jr & Stalking Wolf

Brief biographies

Please Note: Most of the information for these biographies comes from books written by Tom Brown Jr.

 

Tom Brown Jr.

Tom Brown Jr. at the Caretaker class, Nov 2001

Tom Brown Jr. is a renowned outdoorsman, tracker, teacher, and author of 16 books. He was born Jan 29, 1950 in South Tom's River, NJ. Starting when he was only seven Tom was taught by Stalking Wolf (Grandfather), an Apache elder, shaman, and scout. For ten years Tom was mentored in the skills of tracking, wilderness survival, and awareness. After Stalking Wolf's death when Brown was 17, Tom spent the next ten years living in the wilderness throughout the United States with no manufactured tools - in most instances not even a knife - perfecting these skills and teachings. Brown came back to" civilization" looking for people interested in all he had learned. He felt lost and confused until a local sheriff who knew Tom called him in to track a lost person. Tom found the missing person and in the process, found his path in life.

For the next few years, Brown earned his reputation as "The Tracker" finding lost people, and sometimes fugitives from the law. Tom has since worked with many law enforcement agencies throughout the United States and internationally on cases involving abducted children, lost hunters and hikers, and fugitives. He wrote his experiences in a book titled The Tracker which was published in 1978. Soon after, "Reader's Digest" ran a condensed version of his story, and included information on the Tracker School. That was twenty years ago, and today Tom Brown's Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School is the largest school of its kind, teaching people from all over the world in all walks of life who share an interest in learning the simplicity of a natural way of living. 

Tom Brown Jr. at the Caretaker class, Nov 2001
  

The school offers many different week-long courses covering all aspects of living close to nature.  Some courses cover the physical wilderness survival skills. These classes gradually take the student to the point where he or she can enter the woods and live comfortably with no man-made supplies. The student learns how nature provides for all of our physical needs. The other group of courses stress the philosophical and spiritual aspects of living close to the Earth. Traditional Native American ceremonies such as the sweat lodge and medicine pipe ceremony are taught and experienced. In these classes, the student also learns to use and trust their own "inner vision" or sixth sense. All of Tom's courses are attended by both men and women from all over the country.

Although different course tracks are offered, all classes incorporate nature awareness skills and the philosophical overtones of living close to Mother Earth. To quote from Tom's school brochure:  "I believe that to be "one" with the Earth, it is not enough to just have good survival skills, but a more rounded philosophy and skill level. That is why each of my courses cover equally the three major categories of survival: tracking, nature awareness, and the ancient philosophy of the Earth."

Tom is the author of 16 books (for an overview of his books see the Booklist). Seven are field guides for living in nature. The other books are based upon the life and adventures of Tom as a student of Stalking Wolf, tracker of criminals and searcher of spiritual truths. 

The following quote from The Journey, tells us a lot about Tom Brown, Jr.: "Mankind must reach a balance with nature and live in harmony where the quest for spirit is more important than the gods of the flesh. Unless we can change, and change quickly on both a physical and spiritual level, we all soon must face the Final Winter."

Tom Brown Jr. at the Caretaker class, Nov 2001


Photo of Tom Brown, from the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies website
(http://www.eomega.org/omega/faculty/viewProfile/d6f3ecd92788d23d2e4e52cc58d0885f/)

  • Tom speaks of his underlying philosophy in the very moving Preface to his book The Search: "Tom's World".
  • The above photographs were taken at the Nov 2001 Caretaker class. To view more pictures of this class, please visit the Earth Caretaker website - November 2001 Caretaker Class section.
  • To learn more about the Tracker School, visit the Tracker School page on this site, or visit the Tracker School website.

Stalking Wolf (Grandfather)

The following bio has been compiled from Tom's books.

Stalking Wolf was raised free of the reservations in the mountains of northern Mexico. Born in the 1870s during a time of great warfare and violence, he was part of a band of Lipan Apache that never surrendered. He was taught the traditional ways of his people and excelled as a healer and a scout. When he was twenty, a vision sent him away from his own people, and for the next sixty-three years he wandered the Americas, seeking teachers and learning the old ways of many native peoples. Stalking Wolf traveled the height and breadth of the Americas, living on his own as a free man. He never held a job, drove a car, paid taxes, or participated in modern society. 

When he was eighty-three years old, he met his grandson Rick's friend, Tom. He recognized that boy as the person he would spend his final years with, teaching him all he knew. That boy was Tom Brown, and Tom became the recipient of not only all that Stalking Wolf had learned during his travels, but the distillation of hundreds of years of Apache culture as well. These teachings are what Tom teaches at his famous Tracking, Nature, and Wilderness Survival School.

(The above picture appeared in the original Reader's Digest article about Tom Brown in November 1978. You can decide for yourself how authentic it is.)

This website has no official or informal connection to the Tracker School or Tom Brown Jr. whatsoever

 

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