He Taught Survival, But Now He Lives It

Like most boys, Ken Matney liked stories of the rugged pioneers who settled the West. But Matney, now 42, grew into his dreams, not out of them.

First he made a career teaching survival skills in the Air Force. Then he became an avid buckskinner - a person who re-creates the pre-1840 Rocky Mountain fur trade by living that lifestyle in the present.

A Wallace native, Matney grew up outdoors, hunting, fishing and hiking. He also spent time in history books.

“I was fascinated by Lewis and Clark. And John Coulter - he was an amazing individual,” Matney said. “At one time he was captured by the Blackfoot near Bozeman. His partner was killed, but they stripped Coulter and gave him a chance to run for it. He ran 300 miles cross-country with nothing, and made it back to Fort Union.”

Matney enlisted in the Air Force before graduating from Wallace High. He was chosen in basic training to become a survival instructor and went on to a 20-year career teaching Air Force personnel how to survive if they crashed in the wilderness.

“It’s basically a matter of getting people to stop and think before they act,” he said. “The key to survival is to ask yourself, what’s my biggest need right now?”

The fur traders of the Northwest asked themselves the same question, Matney said.

“They had to. The average person out of St. Louis died within three years - from a horse kick, from a Blackfoot lifting their hair, freezing, starving to death … mountain men were the original survivalists.”

Matney’s work in the Air Force began and ended at Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane. In between those two stints, he served in the Philippines, in South Carolina, and in the Middle East during preparations for Desert Storm.

In South Carolina he was introduced to Longhunter gatherings - meetings of Daniel Boone-era re-enacters. The idea intrigued him. When he retired and friends invited him to a buckskinners’ rendezvous in Thompson Falls, Mont., he was ready.

The typical rendezvous is a period-appropriate gathering complete with tepees, breechcloths and gunpowder.

“If you have the wrong footwear or whatever, people will ask you to take it off. You’re supposed to keep your coolers out of view, so when you walk through camp there’s nothing glaringly modern,” he said.

Events range from tomahawk throwing and black powder shooting to snipe hunts and games for the kids. There may even be seminars on such topics as basket-making, leather-tanning, and Indian sign language.

“It’s really enjoyable. It allows you to do research on clothing and customs, and meet people who share the same interests,” Matney said. “There’s a big group of buckskinners in North Idaho. We see each other at the same events, get to know each other real well. We call it the mountain family.”

He’s still not tired of the survivalist way of life.

“Now there are no students whose lives I’m responsible for,” Matney said. “I’m doing it for fun. I’m doing it for myself.”

Since becoming a buckskinner, Matney has handcrafted everything from moccasins, capes and pouches to period-appropriate chairs. He makes a regular round of rendezvous in the summer, when the weather is warm. But some buckskinners live the life year-round.

“For them it’s less a hobby than a lifestyle,” he said. “I can see why they do it. It could very easily happen to me.”

, DataTimes MEMO: Bekka Rauve is a freelance writer who lives in the Silver Valley. Panhandle Pieces appears every Saturday. The column is shared among several North Idaho writers.