Doug Meyer is one of the foremost experts on primitive survival skills in the world. In this book, Meyer leans upon years of research, mentoring, trial and error, and expert instruction to deliver a historical and instructional guide for building a blowgun likely utilized by the Native Americans of the American Southeast. This volume of work is the culmination of Doug's life's work and research, and the knowledge within it is something not easily found in other primitive skills books on the market today.
In his historical approach, Meyer relays his understanding from years of pouring over historical documentation of world-renowned ethnographers and learning from the primitive skills experts who mentored him. The Native American blowguns of the American Southeast are largely a mystery because they would have only been constructed from natural elements, and time has eroded all evidence of them away. However, there are clues to their existence, and part of that lives on in the heritage of many of the Native American tribes in the American Southeast who still practice the skills that were passed down from their ancestors. Meyer takes his best-educated guess to unlock the mystery surrounding this famous, primitive weapon.
Another facet of this body of work is that it delivers a masterclass to the reader on building their own blowgun from natural elements, just as Meyer surmises the Early Native Americans would have done. From start to finish, you can see the years of learning and working with this primitive weapon come to life from off the page. The instruction within will shave years off one's learning curve with these simple, yet complex hunting instruments.
It's not often you are able to really see the heart in a book containing subject matter like this, but Doug Meyer is the rare exception. His love of learning, history, and primitive skills are apparent, and his legacy will be this book, as he hopes it preserves and inspires interest in learning primitive skills that may otherwise, eventually, be lost to time.