Not all US Marshals wear Stetsons and cowboy boots
Published: Wed, 08/20/14
The other American instructor at Fightcamp this year was a
gentleman my the name of Allen Reed. He looked a bit like a
retired senior librarian or bank manager. In fact he was a retired
US Marshal who had been based in Chicago for many years. (A US
Marshal is a policeman who works for the Federal Government as
opposed to being employed by the state, city or county. But has
nothing directly to do with the FBI. The American system of law
enforcement is a bit strange to say the least.) Anyway, Allen is a
martial arts teacher with an interest in Ju-Jitsu, Historical
European Martial Arts generally and indigenous American fighting
systems, both Native American and as adopted and developed by
European immigrants.
Apparently the US Marshals were the original law enforcers
initially appointed by George Washington after the colonies gained
their independence. Their weapon of choice for self-defence and
close quarter combat was the knife and tomahawk, which is
effectively a hatchet. The Europeans had brought steel knives and
axes with them and the Native Americans had a highly advanced
warrior tradition even though their weapons were wooden, or perhaps
flint tipped, clubs. The Native Americans quickly adopted the
steel tools as close quarter weapons and throughout the colonial
period and until the first half of the nineteenth century the
'Hawk' and knife (possibly similar to the famous 'Bowie
knife') were the weapons most likely to be used in combat of any
kind, certainly both sides carried and used such weapons in the war
of independence.
Allen's workshop attempted to teach the use of these weapons
both against each other and for defending against a sword of the
kind officers would have carried in the 18th century. It was an
interesting session but as Allen readily admitted it was all based
on educated guesswork. In the 1830s the percussion cap was
invented and firearms went from being awkward, unreliable and
single shot to the development of the revolver for personal
defence. After that no one could expect to defend themselves with
hawk and knife against an opponent armed with a colt 45 or similar.
There doesn't seem to have been a systematic approach to
training with the hawk and knife and very little has been recorded
about how they were actually used. Long sword training by
contrast is described in detail in many existing manuals and I will
suggest what I think is the reason for that tomorrow.
What I was shown in Allen's workshop made sense to me and I
will be happy to show some of it at the Stav Camp this weekend. In
fact it would translate really well to hand axe and sax, so
something to experiment with there. Ivar will be teaching so we
can find out what he thinks would work according to Stav
principles. If you are still making your mind up whether or not to
come this weekend there will be plenty of space, if the weather is
bad we have a hall to train indoors and I haven't been shopping
yet for food yet so why not give it a go? http://www.stavcamp.org
regards
Graham
PS Allen's martial arts school is linked here
http://www.gallowglassacademy.org/Home_Page.html you may need to
follow the link to facebook for the interesting stuff.