Shadow Wolves: the Native American trackers using ancient skills to fight modern crimes

Clients range from companies and Family Offices to high-profile figures. Usually, they are keen to enhance their risk intelligence and personal safety; occasionally, they are staring down a complex threat that requires deep investigative work.

Depending on the nature of the security matter, I have highly specialised assets I can deploy. Other times, security companies will utilise me particularly for surveillance and counter-surveillance. Here you must either blend into the environment or be that elusive presence on the move, gliding through urban streets with light, ethereal steps.

Clues in the Past:

The target could be someone who has committed serious financial fraud or an individual who poses a threat to the client. There are all kinds of factors that can make this type of assignment challenging. Sometimes, you don't have the luxury of knowing the target's set location at any given time. In which case, one has to embody the attributes of a tracker.

While the majority of my assignments are in urban environments, I've always found it invaluable to study those specialists and cultures who have perfected these skills in the wild. Indeed, the foundational elements of tracking field craft were developed by indigenous cultures and ancient hunter-gatherer societies.

Similarly, various martial and warrior traditions provide a seasoned practitioner with vital attributes. These include heightened intuition, an enhanced awareness of one's environment, and the persistence required to keep on the case. Such training develops the ability to move with maximum efficiency and minimal signature. One learns techniques to merge seamlessly into the background, steady the heart rate, and drastically reduce presence indicators. Crucially, it refines the craft of reading the terrain, allowing an operator to spot subtle patterns or, conversely, pattern disruption. This is a concept we will explore in my own tactical training system, Tri-Tier, which I recently discussed on The Martial Podcast.

Living Legacy:

My research into these fascinating areas of field craft involved following breadcrumbs into various distinct cultures. This included investigating old Cossack martial traditions, the methods of the Shinobi, who were the intelligence gatherers of feudal Japan, and the Native American tribes whose tracking skills made them both respected and feared on the frontier. Yet, as this piece will explore, these Native American tracking skills are not confined to faded history books about the Wild West. Their legacy lives on in a remarkably modern capacity.

From Urban Tracking to Cyber:

Before exploring that legacy, it is worth categorising the different types of tracking. Primarily, there is tracking for survival. This is the traditional discipline used by indigenous tribes when hunting for sustenance, which involves observing animal tracks and signs of recent activity and identifying critical survival points, such as watering holes.

Then, there is tracking to observe. Here, the objective is to locate the target without making contact, a discipline central to military intelligence units and surveillance teams. In this arena, distance and stealth are paramount. In the modern era, these tasks are heavily augmented by defence technology and advanced monitoring detection systems. Furthermore, given how much of our lives are now spent in the digital space, law enforcement and corporate investigation teams routinely utilise Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) to garner a vast amount of information regarding a target's location and lifestyle patterns.

As I noted in a recent LBC piece on crypto-related kidnappings, organised criminals have also made use of the digital realm. Syndicates systematically probe social media profiles, identifying wealthy targets based on their digital footprint before orchestrating physical attacks, whether that involves a street robbery for a high-value watch or a targeted residential burglary. Consequently, when working with clients on personal safety, our training must comprehensively encompass anti-surveillance measures, discreet detection tactics, and clear disengagement principles.

Inevitably, we must also consider the discipline of cyber tracking. Professionals in the cybersecurity field employ sophisticated forensic techniques and specialised software to trace the origin of a hacking attempt or network breach. For those looking to understand these modern threats, the Seeline Cyber Substack is an excellent resource. It provides essential, asymmetric insights into cybersecurity and digital agility, written by a seasoned threat intelligence professional who truly understands the landscape.

A Unique Tactical Unit:

In law enforcement circles, tracking can evolve into a discipline known as tracking-to-intercept. In this context, specialists are deployed to assist agencies in actively apprehending fugitives or serious criminals. A notable pioneer in this field was Tom Brown Jr, an experienced American wilderness survival expert who ran renowned tracking courses in the New Jersey Pine Barrens for many years. Mentored by an Apache tracker, he regularly assisted law enforcement agencies in locating missing persons, lost children, and fugitives. He was also widely known for designing a highly versatile survival tool, the Tom Brown Tracker Knife, before his passing in 2024.

To this day, specialised tracking units remain an indispensable asset to law enforcement. In the United States, significant focus has been directed over recent years toward disrupting the operations of transnational drug cartels. A more dynamic enforcement strategy has proved vital in dismantling human trafficking networks and illicit smuggling rings. At the absolute spearhead of this effort is an elite tactical patrol unit operating under Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a core branch of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They are known as the Shadow Wolves...

The Shadow Wolves are masterful trackers operating in wilder, relentless border terrain of the American Southwest. What makes them unique is that they are a Department of Homeland Security unit made up exclusively of Native American officers. Their ancestral skills and modern training are leveraged to track, locate, and intercept drug smugglers, dangerous fugitives, and illicit actors across the vast desert expanse where Arizona meets Mexico.

Cutting for Sign:

The unit was established in 1974 to address smuggling across a sprawling reservation known as the Tohono O'odham Nation, and to this day it recruits from tribes including the Lakota, the Tohono O'odham, the Navajo, the Yaqui, and others. While their moniker carries a certain dramatic flair, it is entirely earned; they operate precisely like a pack, deploying tracking methods handed down through generations.

They refer to their craft as Cutting for Sign. This involves studying even the micro forms of disruption that fugitives may cause to the environment.

Whether navigating an urban sprawl or a barren wilderness, humans invariably leave a trail. The disturbances these eagle-eyed operators are trained to detect include the precise depth and pacing of footprints, fibres from clothing snagged on desert brush or cacti, broken branches, and carelessly discarded refuse. Even shifting scents or distant sounds carried on the wind can help them step onto the target's trail.

Even in an era dominated by technological warfare and drone surveillance, the acutely tuned, lupine senses of the Shadow Wolves remain highly revered within international security circles. Their expertise is in demand globally. The unit has deployed to Eastern Europe to train local law enforcement, and has instructed border guards tasked with interdicting terrorist networks along the volatile Afghanistan/Pakistan border.

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Aran Dharmeratnam is an internationally known security consultant involved in risk intelligence and private investigations. He is also the founder of Tri-Tier, which provides high-profile figures and organisations with specialised self-protection and resilience training. His commentary has appeared in numerous media publications, and he recently appeared on The Martial Podcast.

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