9 August 2002
Source:
http://usinfo.state.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/latest&f=02080802.wlt&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml
US Department of State
International Information Programs
Washington File
_________________________________
08 August 2002
("Shadow Wolves" conduct training in Baltics, Central Asia) (1140) By Louise Fenner Washington File Staff Writer Washington -- Native Americans from the state of Arizona have been teaching customs and border officials in the Baltic countries and Central Asia the ancient skill of tracking, in an effort to curb the smuggling of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. They call themselves the Shadow Wolves. They are Customs Patrol Officers (CPOs) on the Tohono Oodham Reservation: 19 men and two women, all Native Americans from nearly a dozen different tribes. Since 1972, under a program created by Congress and headquartered in Sells, Arizona, the Shadow Wolves have been successfully tracking drug smugglers transporting contraband -- mostly marijuana -- on reservation lands, but now they are focusing more on the possibility that the smugglers may be carrying components of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Several Shadow Wolves have traveled to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to train customs officials, border guards, and national police how to detect and follow the tracks of people who may be transporting WMD components across their borders. And three Shadow Wolves are spending the first three weeks of August in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia; they are teaching skills that they learned over many years, often as children on the reservations searching for game or tracking their grandparents free-roaming cattle and horses. In the Baltics, approximately 18 participants in each country will take the one-week course. "The idea is that as their tracking abilities improve, theyll start training their own people," said Officer Kevin Carlos, a member of the Tohono Oodham tribe. He and two fellow Customs Patrol Officers, Jason Garcia and Lambert Cross, were interviewed by the Washington File on August 2 shortly before departing for Latvia, their first stop. The training is conducted under the auspices of the Export Control and Border Security (EXBS) program, a joint effort of the State Department, Customs Service and other agencies to provide non-proliferation training and equipment to over two dozen nations, most of them in the former Soviet bloc. Carlos said the training begins with a classroom lecture on basic tracking techniques, such as how to look for signs of passage by people on foot or horseback or in vehicles -- broken branches, disturbed rocks and groundcover, tracks that can be discerned in the glint of early morning light. They can judge what type of people might be making the tracks based on clues such as foot size, depth of the tracks, and length of the stride. For example, a person carrying a heavy load will have a short stride, deeper heel prints and a broader stance compared with an unburdened traveler. "You look at where they rest and see what they place on the ground, and you can get an idea if theyre carrying something," Officer Garcia pointed out. He is Tohono Oodham and Hopi. Of course the smugglers know they might be tracked and try to hide the traces of their passage or vary their routes. Carlos said that on his first visit to the Baltics it became clear that hunters in the training group knew how to track, so "wed ask them to help us teach the others. The difference is that now were tracking a person whos trying to evade us and avoid detection by all means, so we also discussed a lot of counter-tracking methods. Its different from [tracking] an animal, which is a creature of habit and takes the same path every day." After the classroom lecture, most of the training consists of practical exercises in tracking. "Well set out some sign and show them what to look for," Carlos said. Officer Cross, a member of the Pima tribe, recalled the first training sessions he conducted in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. "The first time, they were kind of leery about us being in their country," he said. "They knew that Indians are good trackers. But they kept saying we use dogs a lot. We told them, what if your dog gets sick, youll have to bring another dog to your area and meanwhile you can start tracking before the dog gets there." "We took them out and they started tracking, and they were amazed at what they could do. When they found a guy ." Here Cross gave a victory yell. Even when tracking doesnt result in finding a particular smuggler, it can provide valuable information, Carlos pointed out. "It helps you in your investigation to basically get an idea whats going on around your area," he said. "Thats what it boils down to, you have an idea whats going on in your backyard or in your country." When possible, the Shadow Wolves live in the barracks with the people they are training, and despite the long grueling workdays they enjoy learning about the local officers experiences and the culture of their countries they visit. "Were all the same," Cross said, "theres just a different language." Officers Cross and Carlos have made two trips to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and feel strongly that return visits are important. "When we came back they welcomed us like family or old friends," Cross said. "They showed us the progress theyve made. They took us out and they did most of the tracking; we were just there as advisors seeing what they were doing. It was something to see." For Carlos, this is also his second training mission to the Baltics. He was eager to see how the "students" were doing, as well as to train new people. In addition to the tracker training, U.S. Customs since the early 1990s has provided non-proliferation training and equipment to some 3,000 border guards and customs officials in 26 nations to counter the spread of WMD and their components. (The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)