Native American trackers help Moldova

By Aussiegirl

Here's a fascinating article fromRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty about Native American trackers helping Moldovan and other East European and Central Asian countries to track illegal behavior on their borders. Who knew?

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Chisinau, 5 October 2004 (RFE/RL) -- For more than three decades, an elite unit of Native American customs patrol officers has helped stem the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs from Mexico into the southwestern United States.

More recently, members of the group -- known as the Shadow Wolves -- have been taking their unique skills to Eastern European and Central Asian states to train border officers there, using methods based on traditional Native American tracking.

A Shadow Wolves team recently spent a week in Moldova introducing local border guards to their unconventional ways.

Kevin Carlos is a Native American of the Tohono O'odham Nation. He spoke about the program in an interview with RFE/RL in Chisinau.

The Shadow Wolves use the skills many of them learned in childhood -- tracking game or finding free-ranging livestock that may have wandered away.

"The program here I believe was very successful. We worked with the Moldovan border guards. Not only were we here to train them, we were also here to learn from them, as well. This is their area, their terrain. They know what's out in their green forest. We explained we're here not only to teach but to learn -- please give us the information that you know about tracking in your area and we'll tell you our knowledge, and you'll combine the whole effort yourselves," Carlos said.

Moldova faces huge problems with illegal migration, as well as drugs and arms trafficking, via its porous eastern border, which is under the control of its separatist Transdniester region.