Nate Summers, author of Primal: Why We Long to be Wild and Free, has been a survival skills instructor for over 20 years with a background in anthropology, Asian studies, and natural medicine. He taught and directed at the Wilderness Awareness School for over 15 years, and has served as faculty for the Desert Institute of Healing Arts, the Asian Institute of Medical Studies, and as adjunct faculty for Prescott College. Nate's passions include ethnobotany, natural mentoring, hunter-gatherer childhoods, natural movement, herbal medicine, internal martial arts, and all things related to being a ranger, scout, and forest ninja.
Nate holds a Master's degree from NIAOM (Northwest Institute of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine), and B.A.s in both anthropology and Asian studies from the University of Illinois.
AWAKENING FIRE
The Essential Guide to Waking Flame, Wood, and Ignition
About Nate's Latest Book:
In this one-of-a-kind guide, survival skills expert and author Nate Summers unlocks the practical, ancient, and powerful art of making fire. Our modern lives and comforts have removed us from the world of our grandmothers and grandfathers where simple skills like how to make a fire to keep yourself alive are lost or fading rapidly.
​
In this book, you will discover the basic principles of fire-making, plenty of how-to material, different fire-starting methods and structures for almost any conditions, fire safety information, and, perhaps most importantly after safety, a section devoted to the most useful species for each bioregion in North America. After reading, you will be well on your way to successfully making fires for emergency situations; knowing how to build a campfire for cooking, fun, warmth, and comfort; and understanding fire safety-no matter where you live or adventure.
Your Primal Journey
​
Are you curious about exploring your own inner primal nature? Have you read the book Primal and you are inspired and want to take the next step? Do you long for ways to de-stress, deeply connect to nature, and feel peace and at ease within? Are you curious about ancestral skills and your own hunter-gatherer journey? Do you want to know how to make fire? To move wild and free like a wild animal? To forage wild foods and eat off the landscape?
​
PrimalNature training is for you. Click to learn more about classes, online training, events, and workshop immersions!
"We have lost touch with the ancient art of making fire...
This is a sad fact of our modern life, and I believe it's something that we long and crave as part of being a human on this planet.
Fire kept our ancestors alive and helped us become human. Fire helped them cook food, it kept them warm during the winter, it may have helped them survive when they were lost or separated from their village, and it probably helped them make many of the other tools and technologies that helped them live and thrive. If it weren't for fire neither you nor I would be here. "
--Awakening Fire
"A few hours later we sat around a fire we had made with a fire kit."
"Chunks of venison roasted on sticks over the fire, the smell was unbelievable. We were sore and tired, but also lit up. After awhile, we nibbled on some smoky, succulent chunks. I’ve never tasted meat that good, and some sort of energy from the meat hit me hard. I felt wild, alive, and vital."
- Primal: Why We Long to Be Wild and Free