Native Americans were better at building men

our culture is missing the rituals that can push boys into adulthood

Team —

It’s the mid-1800s in Gainesville, Texas. A party of Comanche warriors swoops down on some lonely farms, steals horses and supplies, and flees. A distress call goes out to a nearby US command post. One hundred soldiers make chase and, on first contact, kill the Comanche general.

Quanah Parker takes charge. Over 100 miles along the Red River, Quanah leads his men, hiding their tracks, switching back on treacherous roads and eventually losing the Americans in the mountains.

And Quanah did this not as a full grown man, but as a teenager.

The modern male teenager is busy with homework and digital raiding parties. Quanah, at that same age, is outwitting the American government. Quanah was capable of this because native tribes had something we don’t: rituals that turned boys into men. They had cultural technology that forcibly pushes males into adulthood.

As our new mini-doc explains, there’s something to be learned from these tribes about what needs to happen to boys to make them truly grow up.

-gkp