Indiana National Guardsmen from the 5-19th Agribusiness Development Team spent last week learning blacksmithing techniques at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park.
“If you look at how agriculture is done in Afghanistan, it’s very much like 18th century America,” said Maj. Greg Motz. “It’s all done by hand tools.”
Training Afghani farmers in both agricultural and blacksmithing skills is important, Motz said, because it eases their reliance onU.S.support and their dependency upon food merchants. For example, Motz said the farmers they have worked with have no means of storing their food, requiring them to sell it all at once, and buy it back at higher prices during the winter months.
Training the guardsmen has been a rare chance to teach 18th century skills to people who’ll use them today in the 21st century, said Nathan Allen, manager of history trades for the museum.
“It’s been a unique challenge, because in the field these, guys are going to have to scrounge and salvage tools to set up shop,” Allen said.
By Jordan Fischer
jordan@youarecurrent.com