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.
Resilient by Nature
Scoutcraft Volume 2
The Survival Blueprint for the 21st Century
About Nate's Latest Book:
We were never meant to just survive—we were born to be resilient.
In a world of rising chaos, uncertainty, and disconnection, Resilient by Nature offers a radical, grounded path forward. This is more than a survival manual—it's a blueprint for thriving in the 21st century.
Drawing on decades of experience in wilderness skills, deep nature connection, emergency preparedness, and community resilience, Nate Summers and Eli Forest combine ancient scout teachings with cutting-edge modern tactics. Through vivid storytelling, hands-on exercises, and a bold new framework—the Survival-Resilience Matrix—this book helps you develop the practical skills, mindset, and adaptability needed for any crisis, disaster, or disruption.
From shelter-building and firecraft to water purification, food security, intuitive awareness, and community-based resilience, Resilient by Nature guides you to reclaim your agency, reconnect with the land, and become the kind of person others turn to in times of need.
Whether you're a seasoned survival student, a concerned parent, or someone just waking up to the need for real-world preparedness, this book will transform the way you think about survival—and empower you to live with courage, clarity, and connection.
Prepare for the unexpected. Reclaim your resilience. Live like it matters.
We live in an age of escalating disruption—climate instability, grid failures, pandemics, food shortages, and global uncertainty. But in the midst of this, something deeper is awakening: the call to remember who we truly are and what we’re capable of.
Resilient by Nature: The Survival Blueprint for the 21st Century is not just about gear lists and bushcraft techniques—it’s a call to return to the roots of human resilience. Through powerful stories, field-tested skills, and deep reflections, Nate Summers and Eli Forest guide readers on a journey that blends ancestral wisdom with practical, modern preparedness.
This book introduces groundbreaking frameworks that empowers you to respond to any situation—short-term crisis or long-term transformation—with confidence, adaptability, and connection.
Inside, you’ll learn how to:
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Build shelters, make fire, find and purify water
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Prepare food for both emergencies and long-term security
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Cultivate situational awareness and intuitive sensing
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Create personal, family, and community-level resilience
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Shift from fear-based prepping to skill-based thriving
Whether you're a newcomer to preparedness or a seasoned survivalist, this book offers more than just information—it offers transformation. Because the truth is, survival isn’t our end goal. We were born to endure. We were born to connect. We were born to be resilient by nature.
Foreword by Jason Knight, author of The Essential Skills of Wilderness Survival: A Guide to Shelter, Water, Fire, Food, Navigation, and Survival Kits
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 skills that kept our ancestors alive...
"Being still, listening, deep awareness, reading the landscape around you, situational awareness, being invisible, subterfuge, evasion, developing a map in your head, unlocking your intuition, moving without disturbing the world around you, traveling slowly, carefully and safely, stalking, calming the mind and body to find stillness…there's a whole other part of the story."
--Shadow Survival
"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