Be The Change — She’om Rose

“Some people,” says She’om Rose, “are guided to go to Mars, create AI or become world leaders. My path is a lot simpler. My part is to anchor the old ways and help people connect with nature, ancient knowledge, ancestral skills and natural connections.”
The word “simple” may be a matter of debate; the ancestral skills She’om teaches in Shasta County – such as making fire with two sticks, tanning deer skins, building shelters, weaving baskets and making string out of plant and animal fibers – come as second nature to him after decades of practice. His students, meanwhile, may find surviving in the woods, starting a fire on a wet day or discerning an edible plant from a poison plant rather challenging.

Beginning in the big city, nesting into nature

Thankfully, She’om can relate. Although he and his wife raised their six daughters on a homestead, growing their own food and living off the land, She’om himself grew up in the suburbs of Los Angeles. At the age of 14, he discovered Topanga Canyon and began meeting people he lovingly describes as “wild hippies,” who lived off the land and enjoyed nature in a way that awakened something within She’om. After graduating high school, he answered the call to move out of the city and into the woods, where he began learning the traditional survival skills that have slipped to the wayside of our fast-paced, technologically immersed society.
These ancestral skills have sustained generations of humans across the globe. Now, as a community member, mentor, father, grandfather and nearly-great-grandfather, She’om has a mission to pass these skills into the hands of generations to come.

Ancestral skills for the outdoors and the inner self

Nine-year-old James McCarty has been taking She’om’s Ancestral Skills and Nature Connection class for a few years. His mom, Naomi Luster, describes She’om as kind, patient, forgiving, good at engaging children, knowledgeable and passionate. “He lives what he teaches,” Naomi says, “which is so important because children learn more from examples than what is said.” Through a variety of skill-based games, She’om teaches students how to slow down and interact with nature. A blindfolded game, for example, helps students hone their awareness of their surroundings through their other senses.
Naomi lists tangible skills She’om has directly taught James, like friction fire, water safety and plant identification. But through the way he approaches life and nature, She’om indirectly teaches many more lessons. “He focuses most on passing along the basis of being comfortable out in nature, feeling safe and capable enough that you’ll go adventure on your own,” Naomi says. “He’s passing along a passion and a stewardship of the land.”

Navigating streams, not screens

She’om started teaching in 1987, when he began a school of natural living for adults. Now, he mostly teaches kids ages 8-17, recruiting the older students to help teach the younger ones and has served school and service groups in Shasta and Trinity Counties. He teaches ancestral and simple living adult classes by appointment on at his family homestead in Oak Run and ancestral skills and nature connection classes to homeschool groups and local public school.
Over the years, he has seen his students, accustomed to a steady diet of fast-paced digital stimulation, increasingly struggle to have the attention span required for learning. He also sees more dissociation from reality. When, during his weekly classes, She’om asks his students to share about a nature moment from their week, he finds his students sometimes report nature experiences that they actually observed in videos.
She’om isn’t opposed to technology. He notes the benefits of limited, intentional use of technology. His motto, however, is “streams, not screens!” He hopes that by teaching ancestral skills he can help his students remain connected to reality and not just their devices.

Nurturing relationships with the earth, students and family

Ira Christian grew up with She’om as something of an adopted uncle. He speaks to She’om’s skill as a homesteader and agriculturalist and describes the “impulsive generosity and welcome” She’om and his wife demonstrate with all of their homegrown goods. He highlights She’om’s deep involvement with the Native American community and his intentionality to mentor younger men. Ira also admires seeing She’om make personal sacrifices for the good of his family.
As She’om describes it, nurturing family relationships is “one of the most important ancestral skills,” and Ira attests to She’om’s commitment to exercising that skill with great intention.
As She’om teaches weekly classes for homeschool families and adapts his curriculum for use at Oak Run Elementary School, his goal is to “encourage kids to be good people and have good connections, not only with nature, but with each other – the tribe or community – and the great mystery of life. When people have that connection, no matter what they do, they’re more likely to do something that will be good.”
Perhaps the good thing some of these students do one day will be to pass along their ancestral knowledge to the next generation – just like She’om is doing for the North State today.
To learn more about She’om’s Ancestral Skills courses, visit the Ancestral Skills and Deep Nature Connection Facebook page, or message him directly on Facebook.