Bossloper (pronounced baws-loh-per)
Variously,
an inhabitant of the woods; a trapper or hunter; a soldier or irregular
combatant of some sort who operates in the forest.
1600s: From
the Dutch boschlooper (“forest walker”
or “woods walker”), the construct being bosch
+ looper. Bosch
(also as bos) (“forest” or “wood”) was
from the Old Dutch busc, from the Proto-Germanic
buskaz which may in some way be
linked with the Latin boscus (forest). Looper
(latterly more common as loper) was
from the Dutch verb lopen (“walker”
or “runer”), from the Proto-Germanic hlaupaną
(“to leap” or “to run”). Historically, in
Europe, boschloopers (or boslopers) were those individuals
valued by military and paramilitary forces as trackers, scouts, guerrilla
fighters because of their skill in moving undetected through forests. In particular, it was used to describe Dutch
and Flemish soldiers, rebels or other irregulars who hid in and navigated the
woods during conflicts in the Low Countries, most famously during the like the
Eighty Years' War (1566–1648). During
the European colonial period, it was used of those who lived (usually semi-nomadically)
in forests, often connected to indigenous or mixed communities, like those in
Suriname (long an overseas possession of the Dutch Empire). In colonial North America, the form was
Anglicized as “bossloper” and described trapper, hunters and others lived for
extended periods in the wilderness, dependent often for survival on the own
skills and knowledge of their environment.
Bosslope is a noun; the noun plural is bosloper.
The
American Mountain Men (AMM) is an association of individuals dedicated to the
preservation of the traditions and ways of those it describes as “our nation’s
greatest, most daring explorers and pioneers, the Mountain Men” and to the “actual
conservation of our nation’s remaining natural wilderness and wildlife; and to
the ability of our members to survive alone, under any circumstances, using
only what nature has to offer”. The AMM
describes their members primary characteristic as “first and foremost, a
Brotherhood of Men” (and it does appear to enjoy an exclusively male membership).
The core of the AMM’s “fraternal concept”
appears to be to “keep alive the skills of the freest men our great nation ever
birthed; to preserve his abilities and emulate his way of life as historically
accurately as possible.
The AMM has layers of membership and (by invitation only) and new members must be sponsored by two AMM members who hold the Bossloper
degree, or one member who holds the Hiveranno degree (both of these designations
of membership status). To obtain Bossloper
membership, once a prospective candidate has entered the Pilgrim phase (another
layer), within two years it’s necessary to complete any ten of a list of
requirements with (1) & (2) being mandatory and (16) not required (for
technical reasons). During this period,
a candidate will mentored by their sponsor(s) and other “seasoned AMM members”
will provide “guidance”. Upon the minimum
ten requirements being within two years fulfilled, Bossloper status will be
granted and a membership number issued. The
AMM’s twenty requirements ((16) not required) to become a Bossloper are:
(1) Must
have a full set of hand-cut and sewn clothing and handmade accoutrements.
These must be researched for authenticity of the 1800-40 period and be of a
type which would have been seen on men in, or moving to, the Rocky Mountains.
Rifles, saddles, traps, blankets, and other accoutrements that would normally
have required the work of a specialized craftsman need not be handmade, but
must be as authentic as can be purchased today.
(2) Must
have spent at least two days and one night in a primitive camp during each
season of the year.
(3) Must
have spent an accumulative time of two or more weeks in the wilderness under
primitive conditions in the company of no more than one other member. Each stay
must be at least three full days and two full nights.
(4) Must
have spent at least one full week in a primitive encampment in the company of
other members at the territorial AMM Rendezvous (Eastern or Western) and/or the
National (Rocky Mountain) AMM Rendezvous.
(5) Must be
able to demonstrate the skills needed for primitive survival in the wilderness
of his area and must be willing to teach said skills to other members when
requested by a Party Booshway or Director of this Association.
(6) Must be
able to demonstrate trapping ability using steel traps, snares, and traps made
from natural materials found in the area. As many states do not allow the use
of some, or any, of these traps, the actual taking of game is not required,
although it is suggested where possible and legal.
(7) Must be
able to demonstrate ability to track man or animal under natural wilderness
conditions.
(8) Must be
able to demonstrate the ability to properly pack a horse, canoe (or bullboat),
or a man for distance travel under possible adverse conditions.
(9) Must be
able to properly field dress (clean and skin) a game animal under primitive
conditions.
(10) Must
be able to start a fire in wet, as well as dry, weather using flint and steel
or fire drill using tinder and wood found under natural conditions.
(11) Must
be able to show ability to tan or Indian-dress hides.
(12) Must
have spent at least five days traveling on foot, snowshoe, canoe, and/or
horseback: (a) One method or a combination may be used, (b) Bullboat may be
used in place of canoe, (c) You are expected to gain as much distance as
possible, (d) This trip must be under primitive conditions, taking nothing that
would not have been available to the mountain man between 1800-1840. Rifle,
hunting bag, powder horn, and knife must be along.
(13) Must
be able to cook a meal of meat using only the meat, fire, a knife, and
materials found in nature.
(14) Must
be able to converse using Plains Indians hand talk. The 200 words on page 64 of
Tompkin’s book “Indian Sign Language” will be used as a basis for conversation.
To complete this requirement, you must demonstrate your ability to read the
signs for 50 words, as well as to give the signs for 50 words.
(15) Must
have hunted for and killed at least one game or fur animal with a muzzleloading
firearm or primitive bow and must have used the skin and/or meat for food,
clothing and/or accoutrements. The hunt must be made from a strictly primitive
camp, the hunt accomplished under primitive conditions within the limits of
local game laws.
(16) Must
have at least three full years of membership in the AMM.
(17) Must
be able to properly skin an animal and prepare the skin for market.
(18) Must
have served as a Booshway for at least two activities of the AMM.
(19) Must
spend three days and two nights totally alone under primitive conditions and
aux aliments du pays [“off the nourishment of the land”].
(20) Must
have made a study of the life style of the mountain man, frontiersman, or
American Indian before 1840 and must submit a report of this study to the
association.
The
American Mountain Men is a non-profit (501(c)3) organization registered in the
state of Wyoming. In the 2024 presidential
election, effortlessly, Republican Party candidate Donald Trump (b 1946; US
president 2017-2021; president elect 2024) secured Wyoming’s three Electoral
College votes, winning a reported 72.3% of the vote against the 26.1% received by
the Democratic Party’s Kamala Harris (b 1964; US vice president since 2021). Mr Trump improved his vote compared with his
performances in 2020 & 2016 when on each occasion he gained 70% of the vote, Joe Biden (b
1942; US president 2021-2025) in 2020 receiving 27% which was something of an
improvement from 2016 when Wyoming’s voters rejected crooked Hillary Clinton’s
(b 1947; US secretary of state 2009-2013) crooked crookedness, crooked Hillary attracting a derisory 23%
of the count.
Both
Wyoming’s senate seats and its single seat in the House of Representatives (Wyoming
one of six states with only one representative, the others being Alaska,
Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota & Vermont) have for generations been
held by the Republican Party and the last Democratic presidential candidate to
win the state was Lyndon Johnson (LBJ, 1908–1973; US president 1963-1969) in
1964 who in 1964 won the national election with 61.1%, the highest number of any
candidate since the voting system was adopted in 1824. LBJ won Wyoming with 56.56% against
the 43.44% achieved by Senator (Republican-Arizona) Barry Goldwater (1909–1998)
who, despite the disappointing numbers, was in 1964 more popular in the
state than was crooked Hillary in 2016 so there was that. An urban animal whose experience of wilderness
regions has been restricted mostly to “the rough” if he’s hooked a drive off
the fairway, Mr Trump might be granted honorary AMM membership because there’s
some overlap between their values and the ones he professes.
Political scientists describe Wyoming as “solidly Republican” or “deeply red” and while that’s true in terms of the aggregate numbers which matter, there is the anomaly of Teton County which in 2024 voted 66.9% Harris against 31.6% for Trump. Clearly, recalcitrant Teton is a subversively liberal enclave, rather like Austen in “deeply red Texas”, that state capital noted also as the site of one of nation's first mass-shootings at a school when, on 1 August 1966, Charles Whitman (1941-1966) shot 46, killing 15. Although for most of the twentieth century Teton County voted Republican, in the last 20 years it has been “solidly Democratic”. Whether related to the electoral behaviour or not, it’s in Teton County that the annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium is held, a gathering under the auspices of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City which attracts central bankers, finance ministers, academics, and financial market players from around the world. While the city’s inhabitants now refer to the valley as Jackson Hole, Bosslopers and other AMM members probably stick to the original "Jackson's Hole" because the old ways are the best.
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