Tom Brown Jr. (born January 29, 1950) is an American
naturalist,
tracker,
survivalist, and author from
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, where he runs the Tom Brown Jr. Tracker School.
In his books, Brown claims that, from the age of seven, he and his childhood friend Rick were trained in tracking and wilderness survival by Rick's grandfather, "Stalking Wolf" (whom Brown claims was
Lipan Apache
Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and ...
).
[ King, Thomas,]
Dead Indians: Too Heavy to Lift
in ''Hazlitt'', November 30, 2012. Accessed April 3, 2016. "A quick trip to the Internet will turn up an outfit offering a one-week “Canyon Quest and Spiritual Warrior Training” course for $850 and an eight-night program called “Vision Quest,” in the tradition of someone called Stalking Wolf, “a Lipan Apache elder” who has “removed all the differences” of the vision quest, “leaving only the simple, pure format that works for everyone.” There is no fee for this workshop, though a $300-$350 donation is recommended. Stalking Wolf, by the way, was supposedly born in 1873, wandered the Americas in search of spiritual truths, and finally passed all his knowledge on to Tom Brown Jr., a seven- year-old white boy whom he met in New Jersey. Evidently, Tom Brown Jr., or his protégés, run the workshops, having turned Stalking Wolf’s teachings into a Dead Indian franchise." There is no evidence that "Stalking Wolf" ever existed.
[James Osborne,]
Tracker gains big following even as some say tales stray
(''Phillynews'', June 26, 2011) Brown writes that Stalking Wolf died when Brown was 17, and that Rick was killed in an accident in Europe shortly thereafter.
Brown spent the next ten years working odd jobs to support his wilderness adventures.
[ Rakoff, David, ''Fraud'' (Doubleday, 2001) p.188] He then set out to find other people in New Jersey who were interested in his experiences. Initially Brown met with little success, but was eventually called on to help locate a crime suspect.
Though the case won him national attention, he was subsequently sued for 5 million dollars for finding the wrong person.
[ Despite this failure, he was able to build on this exposure to develop a profession as a full-time tracker, advertising his services for locating lost persons, dangerous animals, and fugitives from the law.][Terry Krautwurst,]
The Tom Brown School Wilderness Training
(''Mother Earth News
''Mother Earth News'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 500,520 . It is published in Topeka, Kansas.
Since its founding, ''Mother Earth News'' has promoted renewable energy, recycling, family farms, good agricultural p ...
'', Mar-Apr 1988) According to ''People'' magazine, "He stalks men and animals, mostly in New Jersey."[
]
The Tracker School
Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker School is located in New Jersey. Most classes offered by Tracker School are held in "Primitive Camp", which is located in the Pine Barrens
Pine barrens, pine plains, sand plains, or pineland areas occur throughout the U.S. from Florida to Maine (see Atlantic coastal pine barrens) as well as the Midwest, West, and Canada and parts of Eurasia. Perhaps the most well known pine-barre ...
of New Jersey. However, classes are also offered in California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. Workshops involve Brown's versions
Version may refer to:
Computing
* Software version, a set of numbers that identify a unique evolution of a computer program
* VERSION (CONFIG.SYS directive), a configuration directive in FreeDOS
Music
* Cover version
* Dub version
* Remix
* ''Ve ...
of Plains Indian
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of N ...
ceremonies, including the sweat lodge
A sweat lodge is a low profile hut, typically dome-shaped or oblong, and made with natural materials. The structure is the ''lodge'', and the ceremony performed within the structure may be called by some cultures a purification ceremony or simply ...
and vision quest
A vision quest is a rite of passage in some Native American cultures. It is usually only undertaken by young males entering adulthood.
Individual Indigenous cultures have their own names for their rites of passage. "Vision quest" is an English- ...
.[
]
Personal life
In July 1977 Tom Brown Jr. married Judy Duck Ford, 33. At the time Judy had a daughter Kerry, 15, and a son Paul, 11, from a previous marriage. The two had one child, Tom Brown III, together.[ Brown later married Debbie Brown and had two children with her, Coty Tracker Brown and River Scout Brown. ][Tom Brown Jr.,]
Science and the Art of Tracking
('' Berkley'', 1999) Brown is currently married to his third wife, Celeste Brown.[
]
Publications and media
Brown has written 18 books to date. His first book ''The Tracker'', in 1978, chronicled his coming of age. ''Reader's Digest
''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...
'' printed a condensed version of the story and provided information about Brown's new Tracker School. Tom Brown's books are published by Penguin Books
Penguin Books is a British publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.[Mother Earth News
''Mother Earth News'' is a bi-monthly American magazine that has a circulation of 500,520 . It is published in Topeka, Kansas.
Since its founding, ''Mother Earth News'' has promoted renewable energy, recycling, family farms, good agricultural p ...]
'' website provides these articles by Tom Brown Jr.:
* Issue 71, Sep-Oct 1981: &nbs
Wilderness Shelter
* Issue 72, Nov-Dec 1981: &nbs
Finding Water
* Issue 73, Jan-Feb 1982: &nbs
Fire Starting
* Issue 74, Mar-Apr 1982: &nbs
Hunting & Traps
* Issue 75, May-Jun 1982: &nbs
Edible Plants
* Issue 76, Jul-Aug 1982: &nbs
Survival Cooking
* Issue 77, Sep-Oct 1982: &nbs
Animal Tracking
* Issue 79, Jan-Feb 1983: &nbs
Natural Cordage
* Issue 87, May-Jun 1984: &nbs
Bow Making
* Issue 93, May-Jun 1985: &nbs
Survival Skills
* Issue 95, Sep-Oct 1985: &nbs
Advanced Shelters
* CBS News reports:
24 June 2005
nbsp;
6 December 2006
See also
*Ernest Thompson Seton
Ernest Thompson Seton (born Ernest Evan Thompson August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was an English-born Canadian-American author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 (renamed Woodcraft League of America), and one of ...
References
External links
A 6-Day Experience at Tom Brown Jr.'s Tracker School
The Tracker Trail
The Tracker School
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Tom Jr.
1950 births
American naturalists
Living people
People from Toms River, New Jersey
Pine Barrens (New Jersey)
Wilderness
Survivalists