History & Founders

Wilderness Awareness School's approach to nature education draws upon the vast experiences of naturalists and indigenous peoples from around the world.

Jon Young officially founded the school in 1983, and “re-founded” it upon meeting Ingwe in 1984. They are considered our co-founders. Several other individuals have made profound contributions to our philosophy and perspectives on naturalist mentoring. We honor these people as "Significant Contributors" of the school.

Our Complete History

For a more complete story of Wilderness Awareness School's evolution, please see our booklet, Songline. (Available with Kamana Two, our Naturalist Training Program Level Two, or download the booklet in pdf file format).

Our Original Founders

Jon Young

Inspired by his childhood mentoring with tracker and author Tom Brown, Jr., Jon has pioneered blending Native mentoring techniques from around the world with the tools of modern field ecology. Under Jon's guidance, Wilderness Awareness School, which was originally founded as a high school nature club, has grown to reach students all around the world with its programs that help people reconnect with their native environments.

Jon has created several popular audio training series which can be purchased through the products section of this website, he is the principal author of both The Kamana Naturalist Training Program and Animal Tracking Basics, and is co-author with Ellen Haas and Evan McGown of the forthcoming Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature - for Kids of All Ages and Their Mentors, a book about our curriculum.

He is also the director and founder of OWLink Media and the Shikari Tracking Guild, and serves as a guest expert instructor for the Residential Program and certain other Wilderness Awareness School programs

Jon Young currently lives in California and teaches a variety of programs in California and around the U.S. and Europe. Visit Jon Young's information site.

Ingwe

Born M. Norman Powell in 1914 of British ancestry, Ingwe spent his childhood running barefoot through the plains of Kenya with the young warriors of the neighboring Akamba tribe. Adopted into their tribe, Ingwe learned how to live close to the Earth.

In 1984, Ingwe joined Jon and Wilderness Awareness School to share the lessons of his Akamba people of holding and seeking positive Visions for the children of the future. For this and his wonderful storytelling, Ingwe will always be known as the Grandfather of Wilderness Awareness School.

You can read and listen to the dynamic stories and poems of Ingwe by purchasing them through the products section of this website.

Significant Contributors

Jake & Judy Swamp

On Earth Day in 1990, Jon met Tekaronieneken Jake Swamp, a sub-chief of the Wolf Clan of the Iroquois Confederacy. We consider the Peacemaker Principles and Thanksgiving Address teachings of the Iroquois that Jake and his wife Judy have shared with us to be fundamental to both our teaching philosophy and the way we operate as an organization. Over the years, these teachings have also grown to form the backbone of our community at Wilderness Awareness School, and have helped us learn to reconnect people with each other as they reconnect with the natural world.

To this day, Jake travels the world, meeting with world leaders and sharing his people's messages of peace and community through the non-profit organization he founded, The Tree of Peace Society.

Gilbert Walking Bull

Born in the distant hills of South Dakota, Gilbert was the grandson of Moves Camp, a Sioux Sacred Man, and the great grandson of Sitting Bull. On his mother's side he was also related to Crazy Horse and Black Elk. Selected from a young age to help carry on the spiritual teachings of his people, Gilbert was raised largely by his grandparent's generation, and educated in the traditional healing ceremonies, songs and culture of the Lakota. He was kept out of government schools and did not even begin to learn about the ways of modern American society and the English language until he was 16 years old. Gilbert's knowledge of the traditional aspects of the Lakota was pure and true, and represented an unbroken cultural lineage possessed by very few others. Gilbert was the author of four definitive books on authentic traditional Lakota culture.

From 1999 until his passing in 2007, Gilbert shared the intact traditional ways of his upbringing with Wilderness Awareness School, which has greatly enhanced the forming of our own mentoring culture. In 2000 he founded Tatanka Mani Camp along with his wife Diane Marie, and Marilynn Bradley.

Tom Brown, Jr.

From ages 7 to 18, Tom was closely mentored in the ways of the native scout by Stalking Wolf, an Apache elder who had been raised in the mountains of the Southwest by the last of his traditional people.

Before becoming a world-renowned author and founding his famous tracking and wilderness survival school, Tom mentored Jon Young for almost ten years in the ways of the naturalist and tracker--the only student that he taught in the way that Stalking Wolf had mentored him.