In some families, parents find themselves unable to enter helpful conversations with a son or daughter. Attempts to talk about concerns result in a conversation of blame through words or silence. The times for teaching and learning together are few and far between, if not at all. For these families, we offer an opportunity to significantly improve their relationship through a “walking” in the wilderness.
Larry Dean Olsen
CO-FOUNDER Yellow Wolf
Larry Dean Olsen was born in 1939 near Jerome, Idaho. His unquenchable curiosity in Native American cultures lured him to the great desert wastelands of the Western United States and their ancient inhabitants. As a boy, Larry trekked into remote canyon areas and became adept at living off the land.
Larry’s training came as he experienced survival at its most primitive level. He emulated the Anasazi or “Ancient Ones” and carefully replicated the lifestyle of the Primitive Paiutes of the Great Basin Plateau areas of the western United States. Using tools and weapons of stone and bone, digging roots and trapping game, suffering cold nights without bedding, and hot days without water or even shoes, Larry gained a unique understanding of man in harmony with nature.
In the 1960s, Larry began teaching classes in outdoor survival in the Division of Continuing Education at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, sponsored by the Department of Youth Leadership. His approach to survival, based on the idea that survival training is best achieved by learning to live off the land without previously manufactured gear, won wide approval.
Over the next several years, thousands of university students field-tested Larry’s concepts. In addition to learning survival skills, Larry’s courses proved to be a vehicle for helping young men and women establish lasting values, exercise courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, and above all, develop compassionate respect for human life and its relationship to nature. While at BYU, Larry developed a primitive living course for adjudicated youth from the courts in Utah County. In 1969, he and his staff won a national award for “Youth Rehabilitation Though Outdoor Survival.”
Larry wrote the first edition of Outdoor Survival Skills for his students. The book created an enthusiasm for outdoor education. Outdoor Survival Skills is also well known to the National Parks Service and is sold in the U.S., England, Canada, and Italy. After reading Larry’s book, Robert Redford invited Larry to serve as the technical director for his movie “Jeremiah Johnson.”
In 1988, Larry founded the ANASAZI Foundation with his long-time friend and partner Ezekiel Sanchez. ANASAZI Foundation was the first program of its kind to be licensed and later nationally accredited as a behavioral healthcare provider. Larry and Ezekiel are often referred to as the grandfathers of the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare field.
Larry completed a bachelor’s degree in Education at BYU with graduate studies in English. He is a Wood Badge trained “Scouter” and has written instructional manuals for the Boy Scouts of America.
Larry was married to Sherrel Eslinger of Twin Falls, Idaho, and they are the parents of ten children.
Ezekiel C. Sanchez, a Totonac Indian from Mexico, is the second oldest of sixteen children. At a young age, Ezekiel learned to work and gather wild edibles from the desert to supplement his family food supply. In his fourteenth year, Ezekiel’s family joined a band of migrant farmworkers. After several years of following the crops in the Western States, his family finally settled in Moapa Valley in Overton, Nevada. Ezekiel started high school at 19 years of age and graduated three years later at the age of 22. He became the first in his family to earn a high school diploma. An art teacher recognized his artistic ability and without Ezekiel’s knowledge submitted a scholarship application to Brigham Young University. He was awarded an art scholarship to BYU in 1966.
After struggling through his first year at the University, Ezekiel received an invitation from the college administration to participate in a wilderness survival course conducted by Larry D. Olsen. Three days into the course, Larry recognized Ezekiel’s obvious skills and talents for the outdoors and invited Ezekiel to help him develop the BYU Survival courses. Ezekiel became a full time teaching staff member for BYU’s Department of Youth Leadership.
At the request of ecclesiastical leaders, Ezekiel left the university to implement a church education program in the remote areas of the Navajo Indian Reservation. A gifted teacher, Ezekiel worked with youth of all ages from the reservation. During the summer months Ezekiel continued to develop his outdoor programs for youth with Larry Olsen.
In 1988, Ezekiel and Larry reunited to establish the ANASAZI Foundation, a non-profit, licensed and nationally accredited outdoor behavioral healthcare program located in Arizona. By applying their many years of wilderness experiences, they developed the ANASAZI Way philosophy. The ANASAZI Way has since become recognized internationally as an effective and nurturing approach to inviting a lasting change in youth and young adults making at-risk choices.
Ezekiel and Pauline SanchezToday, Ezekiel’s knowledge of plants and ancient skills is unparalleled. He is known for his exceptional skill to track (even at night). Stories of his ability to travel through the desert with little or no food and water are told and retold around campfires throughout the West.
Ezekiel is married to Pauline Martin, a beautiful Navajo from The Gap, Arizona. They are the parents of seven children. Ezekiel and Pauline were honored as the 2001 Arizona’s Parents of the Year and in 2002 received the Excellence in Parenting 2002 National Award from The National Parents’ Day Council, A Project of the American Family Coalition and The Washington Times Foundation.
Among the many honors they have received, these two honors are special because Ezekiel and Pauline consider all the young people who have walked or will walk the ANASAZI Trail as part of their family.