Richard Waters

Richard is the founder of the White Rock Traditional Skills and Crafts Gathering. He has been a yurt maker for over 15 years and made his living selling and renting yurts through his website CampingYurts.com.
He may or may not be teaching a yurt class as it will depend on how crazy it gets organizing the gathering, but if not he’s always available to chat and talk yurts!
Originally from England, where he attended events similar to Primitive Skills Gatherings. There, they are called Green Woodworking or Traditional Woodland Crafts which is a more contemporary version dealing with skills and crafts from the Middle Ages up to the industrial revolution.
Richard lives with his family in Summer Lake, Oregon.

Hari Heath

Hari, a longtime primitive enthusiast, is from Santa, Idaho where he lives and works in the woods. He teaches bow making, paddle carving and making “diddley bows” which is a primitive musical instrument from the plantations.

Jake Hartner

Jake has a bachelor’s Degree in Recreation management from BYUI where he developed his love for the outdoors and the peace it brings. This grew into a career when he started working for the Anasazi foundation in 2009. Since then he has worked as a professional desert guide teaching Ancestral living skills in a therapeutic setting to teens and Adults off and on for the last 10 years. Jake is an accomplished potter and basket maker.    
You can see Jake on season 1 episode 6 of Discovery Chanel’s “Bushcraft Build-Off.”
Jake currently lives in Kanab, Utah with his wife and 3 children where he teaches classes in ancestral skills and works as a Canyoneering guide.

Daniel Giddings

Daniel originally hails from California’s North Bay Area. He’s a self-confessed general survivalist, and has done everything from firearms/martial arts instruction, EMS and machining to permaculture, wilderness medicine and singing. He works when necessary in the knife industry as a professional sharpener.

He will be running the knife safety and sharpening class (while peddling sharp and shiny things on the side).

He will also be teaching the “Try Stick” which is a simple carving exercise made popular by Mors Kochanski, the father of modern bushcraft. It teaches the major cuts and notches that would be used in building a primitive bushcrafting camp, as well as building practical knife and carving skills. Anyone can make one in a few hours with a simple Mora style carving knife.

Sofia

Sofia is constantly curious with a background in Biology (MSc), art and nature connection (2 year program with Wisdom of the Earth). She loves to make all manner of useful beautiful things with material harvested directly from the earth. She brings with her a wonder for all things alive and a depth to her teaching.

Estabon Fire

Estabon Fire lives in Oregon. He is a potter and ceramic instructor, specializing in primitively fire pottery and raku pottery. He regularly attends Winter Count and Rabbitstick skill gatherings where he specializes in forming and firing ceramic cooking pots.

Joshua Sage

Primitive skills and outdoor and environmental education has been a part of my life since the mid 70’s. I was fortunate enough to attend the Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Colorado, become a NOLS instructor and work for BOSS (Boulder Outdoor Survival School).
My main area of teaching at this point is yurt building and hide tanning but I am a good generalist with never having a knack for knapping. I am a teacher of group facilitation, leadership and communication and have done this for much of my life.
With my wife Kirsten and my sons Kiyota and Tomoki, we host the Winter Count and Sky Earth gatherings. This too is a great privilege.

Dave Dye

David is more at home in nature than in a building. It could come from his valued Native American ancestry (Walla Walla & Umatilla tribes) or his adventurous Irish / Scottish roots. Or it may simply be that the Spirit of the Ancient Ones is so much more clear amongst the trees of the forest and the red rock deserts; the Spirit which fills his soul.
Born and raised in Montana, he traded the Bitterroots for higher education. Two bachelors, one masters and two doctorates later, it is still the life in the rustic outdoors that offers the better part of living.  With his large family, of course.

Outdoor-related interests include homesteading and primitive living, the atlatl, wooden longbows, kolrosing, the sweat lodge, some metal pounding, and so much more. A hundred lifetimes wouldn’t be enough time to cover the areas of exploration that he has in mind. 
“The more I learn, the more I love being a student.”

Tyler Doyle

Tyler Doyle is a survival skills and primitive skills instructor from Bend, OR. He co founded and teaches at Nighthawk naturalist school and has been teaching wildlife tracking and reading the land for over 10 years. He looks forward to nerding out over animal track and sign with everyone at white rock gathering.

Chelsea Ernst

Chelsea Ernst is a cofounder of Nighthawk Naturalist School in Bend, OR. She teaches wilderness survival and ecology classes for adults and youth. She has enjoyed studying plants and their wonders for all of her life and especially loves diving into their ethnobotanical uses. She loves that no matter how much you learn about the natural world, it can always teach you more and surprise you; shifting your paradigms when you least expect it. She looks forward to teaching and learning with you all at White Rock Gathering!

Sam Farnworth

Hey, Sam here! I’ll be teaching blacksmithing/bladesmithing.
I’ve taught at various gatherings, and professionally do metal work, specifically crafting knives and axes. I’ll be offering several more beginner focused classes, as well as taking a small group to do a more time intensive and advanced class.

Amy Lusson

I’m a holistic health practitioner; farmer and maker. I work on a 26 acre farm in southern Oregon growing, cultivating and seed saving natural and organic produce to feed my community and have a particular love for medicinal herbs. I own an organic cosmetics company with my focus on highly effective and nutritive products.
I love spending my time being in the forest gathering wild plants, needle felting and serving my community in non profits to improve our quality of life. I look forward to walking with you, laughing heartily and learning from each other! 

Jason Jermain

Born and raised in beautiful southern Oregon, Jason has been living off grid for 15+ years learning and experimenting with all kinds of primitive skills, including yurt building, alternative structures, felting, solar ovens and cookers, water heaters, and other fun older technologies.

“Wet felting is my passion and what I would like to to share with those interested in an ancient, fun and creative skill that can bring a sense of great achievement by making something that is both functional and artistic
I can also share some alternative cooking stoves and techniques for those interested.”

Tula

Originally I’m from Israel. I’ve traveled the world and love learning tribal art, plant medicine, local music, and traditional food everywhere I go.
I’ll be teaching old Appalachian style broom making.

Kurt Phillips

I am a long time resident of Klamath Falls, OR, I have been Flintknapping for 30+ years, percussion and pressure. This will be my first Primitive Skills experience but I’ve been demonstrating and teaching for 15 years at numerous varied events.
In addition to Flintknapping I make and compete with traditional bows and flintlock rifles and pistols. I am also a reasonably accomplished in metal crafting, wood crafting, stone work and leather work.

Brian Deglow

My name is Brian Deglow and am a member of the American Mountain Men. I have been interested in Native American Plains history as well as the Mountain Men pre 1840 period for over 30 years. My experience to share is traditional hide painting with primitive materials and application. The paints I use are earth pigments with hide glue to make paint and various primitive tools used such as sticks and bone pain brushes. I will be demonstrating painting on tanned hides as well as the rawhide containers known as parflech and the preparation of the primitive paints.

Ross Westgate

1820’s Fir Trade Era Camp
I will be demonstrating primitive fire making with flint and steel and the bow drill. I will also show my primitive gear and camp items used for my primitive camps, and answer questions about my mountain man camping experiences.

John VanPaepeghem

I am a member of the American Mountain Men. My interest in the pre-1840’s fur trade and Native American Plains history and artwork has been a learning experience for over 40 years. Along with my good friend Brian Deglow, I will share my knowledge in painting on tanned hides and rawhide parfleche containers. We will be using traditional earth pigments and hide glue to make our paint. Also offering talks on tipi furnishings and mountain man lifestyles.

Lily Chau

Originally from Vermont but a Northern California transplant since 2014. Lily is an herbalist, botanical plant dyer, medicine maker and crafter of many things. She will be offering a hands on Intro to Plant Dye and/or talks about Herbal Medicine Making 101 + Intermediary Methods to boost your apothecary with.

Dulcimer Doug

Class: Making a Rocky Mountain Dulcimer
Learn to build your own musical instrument in a day

Aaron Gutierrez

Aaron is a sailing and bushcraft enthusiast fond of teaching young and old tricks with rope and string. When not tangled up with teaching, he is spinning a yarn online or around a fire.

Paul Wagner (#redyetiforge)

I have been practicing and teaching blacksmithing for over 20 years. My focus is on traditional blacksmithing, relying more on hand tools and hammering skill than on elaborate machinery.  I like the feel of hot steel moving under the hammer and I like to make practical items to be enjoyed in daily use that show good craftmanship and graceful design.  I enjoy doing living history demonstrations of blacksmithing practices of the 19^th century and before and introducing people to the craft. 
My 3-4 hour class will cover:
How to use a coal forge; and properly heat steel for work;  Blacksmithing tools and their use; basic methods for hammering and shaping steel such as drawing, bending, twisting and cutting as well as finishing; safety and a bit of lore and history of the Smith. Participants will make an item such as a hook, candleholder or similar. Edged tools and knives are beyond the scope of this class. 
I will also plan to do some demonstration forging in the evenings of larger items where folks can watch and discuss blacksmithing practices. 

Ken Peek

Ken is a flintknapping instructor who has been practicing the art of knapping for over 30 years. He was instrumental in organizing the Coyote Hills Knap-In which recently celebrated its 30 anniversary. He has studied under a number of stellar knappers including Craig Ratzat, Larry Kinsella and Greg Nunn, and has taught knapping classes at numerous traditional skill gatherings including Rabbitstick, WinterCount, Buckeye and Acorn. He has made arrowheads, spear points, knives and blades from many types of stone, primarily those found in the West such as obsidian and various cherts. Ken lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a fifth generation Californian. 

Sydnee Galstaun

Natural fiber artist and keeper of traditional skills, Sydnee Galstaun, dwells on the Oregon coast within the bustling convergence of coastal wetlands and dense coniferous forest. She is passionate about connecting others with skills that allow for co-creation with one’s local ecosystem. Her main craft is wet feltmaking, but she also leads classes in plant ID and wild foraging as well as a variety of plant fiber crafts. She loves building community, cooking nourishing meals for her loved ones, and weaving her handspun yarns.

Dr. Dennis L. Jenkins

Dennis Jenkins recently retired as a Senior Research Archaeologist for the Museum of Natural and Cultural History at the University of Oregon where he received his PhD in 1991. He taught and directed the UO’s Northern Great Basin archaeological field school in the Fort Rock, Chewaucan, and Harney basins of Oregon and the Snake River Plain in Idaho from 1989 to 2022.

Michael “Clutch” Lambert

Clutch will be working with the youth as he does at various gatherings. He loves all things traditional and primitive but focuses on skills to do hunting, trapping and fishing. Clutch has a background in conservation and in wilderness therapy. He is the owner of Thunderstone Wilderness Ventures where he and his wife instruct, make videos and sell primitive inspired shirts and stickers. He lives with his family off grid near Mount Lassen in Northern California.

Audie Trautman

I have been interested in basic living skills since I was about thirteen years old. I got a little more serious in Highschool when I read some inspirational books. I took my first real classes when I was twenty, and have continued learning and improving my skills/knowledge ever since. I am working on being able to make everything I need to survive in wild places.
Looking forward to passing on some knowledge at White Rock, in the form of shoe and leather water bottle making (see photo), I hope to see you there.

Scott Neal

Scott began his journey in traditional skills 3 years ago. During this time, he has been a student at Night Hawk Naturalist School in Bend, Oregon. The ancient skills he learned have become his passion. Some of Scott’s favorite crafts are flint knapping, bow and arrow making, atlatl and friction fire. In his free time you will find him in his shop crafting, hiking in the desert looking for tracks and identifying plants or furthering his education taking many classes. This will be Scott’s first year at the White Rock Gathering and he is looking forward to sharing and learning skills with new friends.

Nicole Apelian, Ph.D.

Dr. Nicole Apelian is an herbalist, a biologist, an author, an anthropologist, a wilderness skills instructor, and a mother. Nicole was a challenger on the second and fifth seasons of the History Channel’s TV series “Alone”, where she thrived in the wilderness totally solo with little more than her knife and her wits, and was also on the UK Channel 4 documentary series “Surviving the Stone Age”. She is the author of five books, including “The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies: The Healing Power of Plant Medicine”, The Wilderness Long-Term Survival Guide, Forgotten Skills to Make the Wild Your Home, “The Forager’s Guide to Wild Foods: Edible Plants, Lichens, Mushrooms, and Seaweeds” and The Holistic Guide to Wellness; Herbal Protocols for Common Ailments.

Hailu Gabriel

Hailu fondly fools with flora for food, fiber, and fire. You’ll often find him on his lawn harvesting cat’s ear, in the kitchen processing stinging nettles from a permissive neighbor, or in the garden munching on a fresh pulled weed.  He’s made functioning bowdrills with yucca and elm fibers, passed the time in European airports cording dogbane, and repeatedly demonstrated to his girls how to tie clove hitches with ivy and willow bark for backyard forts. He’s that guy who points out suitable fire spindles like horseweed driving at highway speeds, keeps a hand-drill set in each vehicle, and often pulls a forgotten tinder bundle out of a coat pocket instead of a pen. Regardless of what he is up to, you can be sure he’s getting distracted by all the useful plants. While Hailu teaches a variety of subjects, he is known primarily for hand carving wooden spoons. As a civil engineer with experience in timber design and construction, Hailu is happy to nerd out regarding wood properties, strength characteristics, and failure modes. When teaching Hailu emphasizes the value of skill-building over end products.

Bo Earls

Background in Wilderness Therapy & Health Education. Bo has extensive experience with Wilderness Skills, primarily focusing on Flintknapping. He loves spending time outdoors anywhere in the 4 Corners Area. He resides in American Fork, Utah with his Wife & 2 Children.

Chris Wujek

I’m Chris, I like to demonstrate animal processing and rudimentary crafts including felting, cordage, and friction fire. I live with a group of mostly goats and love talking about animal life. Come find me by the fire or join me for milking in the morning.

Diane Carrico

Diane grew up in the greater Pacific Northwest and traveled extensively through the United States as well as travel outside of the country.
She earned an associate’s degree in geology from Austin Community College, a bachelor’s degree in geography and geology at The University of Texas at Austin, and completed the Geographic Information Science Certificate and Master of Science in Environmental Science program at Oregon State University.
Her work manifests in engaging with community-oriented projects and outreach, including technical geospatial assessments, wilderness and primitive skills, citizen science programs, and other endeavors that connect both ecosystem and human well-being. Diane’s work in primitive skills focused on developing practical skill sets and incorporated her professional and academic background into lesson plans.
Diane will be helping and teaching in the Kids program.

Joe Van Der Loon

Joel was born and raised in Africa and sailed over to the USA when he was 20 years old. He now resides in Central Oregon where he owns and runs a bushcraft school. Joel was a participant on History channels ALONE show and Discovery channels bushcraft build-off. Joel has been visiting the Hadzabe Hunter gatherers in Africa every year for the last decade where he guides group tours. Joel is an avid traditional bowhunter and primitive skills enthusiast and enjoys teaching hunting skills, trapping, tracking, fire-making and nature connection.  

Carola Gutierrez

Carola has been attending skills gatherings with her husband and two daughters for several years. She was so excited to learn the art of loom beading bracelets at a gathering and has since expanded her skills to making hat bands and bead weaving earrings. She is passionate about passing on the knowledge of beading to others, especially in the setting of skills gatherings.

Catie Lowder

Catie grew up near Cleveland, Ohio.  After about twenty years in the San Francisco bay area, now she is travelling to find herself a new home with more mountains, silence, stars, and nature-adoring friends.  She has been a practicing acupuncturist and herbalist for over 12 years.
Catie loves many kinds of slow practical handcrafts, from handsewing a fine pair of undies to twining baskets from foraged materials.  She has a special affection for making brooms since they are such a mundane but powerful tool for clearing and honoring your space.  At White Rock she will be teaching how to make turkey wing whisks and perhaps a woven whisk or a cobweb sweeper as time and materials permit. 

Ron “Moses”

Background
Ancient skills instruction focused on universal and multicultural first technologies that are the bedrock of our modern lifeways. I have spent several years exploring the what, how, and why of what I call original tools. My recent teaching and learning experiences have been in and around the Sonoran Desert of Arizona with local museums, cultural sites, and affiliated organizations. I am also a board member and ancient skills instructor at the Phoenix based S.A.L.T. organization (Study of Ancient Lifeways and Technologies). The S.A.L.T. mission is to understand, practice, and share all life skills and arts of the ancient world. We accomplished this through a combination of public meetings, workshops, demonstrations, and participation at events.

Mike Tari

Mike has a BS in Plant Ecology, a Certificate in Geographic Information Systems, and a MS in Resource and Environmental Management. With a passion for nature, Ancestral Skills, and spiritual traditions, Mike has been practicing and teaching ancestral skills for most of his life.
While his interest and experience in the primitive skills is extensive, he primarily focuses his teaching on a wide variety of friction fire methods, shelter crafting, hide tanning, flint knapping, fiber footwear, rawhide painting, and the Try Stick.

Carolyn Wagner

Carolyn has a passion for traditional hand crafts of fabric, yarn and thread and loves teaching these skills to others. The history of cloth, garments, and useful textiles is woven throughout human history and has shaped who we are, where we can travel and has knit far flung communities together by trade. Basic mending and hand sewing skills are essential to caring for our first and primary shelter – our clothes. Classes include projects where you can learn basic sewing and mending or help you to advance your skills.

Dino Labiste

Dino’s love of nature came from growing up in Hawai’i. Surrounded by the lush maulukua (forest) and the deep blue moana (ocean), he enjoyed hiking in the mountains as well as surfing and canoeing in the ocean swells. He learned to respect the power of the ocean and to be sensitive to her many gifts of seafood.

Emily

Hey, I’m Emily! I’ve been taking a deep dive into hide tanning these past couple years, exploring as many methods as I can from bark, extract, alum, and fat tanning hair on hides, to grain on leather and brain tanned buckskin. Along with my passion for hide tanning, my background also includes wild foraging plants and mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest, permaculture, horsemanship, archery, and nature connection. I spent 4 years working as a forest school teacher year round and am looking forward to coming back to a teaching role, working with people of all ages, to share this fascinating work of dedication and respect for these animals who feed and clothe us. 

Madeline Wettig

Hiya, I’m Madeline. For the last decade, I’ve had my nose to the Sage and heart to the great, green world of plants. It’s my life’s blessing to conversate and create with the regional food and medicine plants of Central Oregon. I’m self-employed and my work follows each season; I teach classes on seasonal remedy making, basket weaving, foraging and wild cooking, and soon will offer giant puppet construction and mask making workshops. I’m drawn to the Old, to the handmade and slow-crafted, and therefore am thrilled to attend the White Rock Gathering this year and be with many kindred folks.

Aaron Webster

Aaron Webster lives in Ilwaco, WA, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific ocean. He has been interested in ancestral skills from an early age, but really got started when he met Jim Riggs, Goode Jones, Dennis Torresdal and others at the Glass Buttes Knap-in in the 1990s. Since then he has taught at other gatherings including Echoes-in-Time, Sea Stone and Rabbitstick. Past classes have included bow making, fish tanning, rabbit sticks, atl-atls and more.

Eric Castle

Eric is a serial hobbyist who enjoys teaching. He has taught folks how to make sandals and knife sheaths at various gatherings across the country.