"1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
It is written in the Bible, God created everything. According to native legends from all over North America, including some of the tribal communities of the First Nations of Canada there is a Creator. God. Each tribe may have another name for the Creator. Some believe in the Christian God and some do not. Multiple variations of the creation of earth and their tribe still exist today. This article will give evidence of multiple stories verbatim from tribal elders from around the US. This collection of tribal elder belief's of what Bigfoot maybe has been a long 6 years. Most of these have been collected from over the phone interviews and several are from actual sit down conversations. These are word-for-word nothing has been deleted or added. The Honobia Bigfoot Conference administration stands neutral in the decision of what or who the Bigfoot may or may not be.
#1 Sioux Tribe (North America) Lakota Elder
"The Lakota Sioux do not normally talk about the Big Man. That is what they are called to our people. He is the Big-Brother to us, in the Dakota dialect they are called "chiye-tanka" it means great or big elder brother. He (Bigfoot) knows everything, he is wise of us and the universe. He is also known as a trickster, shapeshifter. They can take on many forms. He is both physical and spiritual being. Today they are not talked about by many people. They are seen up in the mountains, not here down low. I have been told by several other elders that they are here to help us, man, meaning our people to respect what the creator has put for us. We disrespect our blessed giving's and the chiye-tanka is distant from us"
#2 Northwest Tribe (Name requested to be withheld) North America
"I will talk briefly, we do not talk about the Bigfoot. I will share this, "the hairy giant that steals children" it is our legend that the giants, you call Bigfoot or Sasquatch are stealers of children. They have taken and they have given. They live in caves, they are creations different than us. Man has not respected them for a long time. I do not know what they are, other than I am told by the old ones, that they (Bigfoot) are a spirit, but lives in flesh". That is all I will say.
#3 Choctaw Nation (North America-Eastern Oklahoma) Choctaw Elder
"I am 81 years old, my father before he died was 97, when he was a little boy about 7 or 8 years old was told of the giants of the woods. I have heard many names over the years. But traditional Choctaw name is given as "shampe". Meaning he is unpleasant to look at, ugly. He is not good to some, I am told he steals children and women. That is what I am told they use to do, not now, the Bigfoot are wise and know that if they continued to do what they use to white people would hunt them down. We would too. I think the shampe and your Bigfoot are two different beings, the old and what was told. Your Bigfoot is a much more personal being of what is there, they only steal food from people. They keep to themselves and live their lives apart from us. I believe that they have a meaning to be here as we do, I feel they are protectors of something here on Earth. I don't know what, but they watch and listen to us. I feel they are watching everything we do, if you live here in the country, they are there, you just do not know it. People need to understand they are not to be hunted, and people should leave them alone"
#4 Choctaw Nation (NA-Southern Oklahoma) Choctaw Elder introduced to me by Elder #3
"I was born in southern Oklahoma in 1930, I went to a school for indian children, I enisted in the US Army in 1949, was sent to Germany in 1950, where I spent 2 years as a mechanic. I met another indian from Oklahoma, Marty was his name he was from Kellyville, Ok (Northeastern) We became good friends and spent many nights talking about home, one night talked about our tribes history, Marty was Cherokee, he spoke of folklore alot, the"Little People" that were like medicine magicians and would also be very mischievous, but it was the Bigfoot that we talked about for endless hours, Marty would also call them "Giants from the sky" he used Cherokee but I forget how it was spelled or even how to pronounce it.
Marty said his father would tell of great elders of the tribe that would tell of a time when man would converse with the Bigfoot, I asked him about the name he used, all I can remember is he said that the Bigfoot came from above, not like in a space craft or anything like that, he said, they came from heaven, they were not suppose to be here, but they are, we have known about them for many years. My time was up and came back to Oklahoma and started to work in the forestry service as a firefighter, I did that for couple of years and then moved to Arkansas to join the highway department. I lived near Union Town, Arkansas and had 20 acres with a small house. One night in the summer of 1959 I was coming home from work and stepped out of my truck and heard this scream that was so loud it hurt my ears, it came from behind my home, I became concerened it was a mountain lion and ran into my home to retrieve my rifle, I had a old western style 357. cal lever action by the door.
I went to the kitchen window looked around, never saw anything and did not hear another sound the rest of the night. It was 3 days later I heard the sound or scream again this time it was in the early morning just before day light, my bedroom window was slightly open, I had no air conditioning in those days, the scream sounded like it was not to far off and to the north. While laying there I remember the stories from Marty about the Bigfoot screams and noises they make. Later that day I was at work and drinking coffee with two other men about my age, I asked them straight, have any you ever seen a Bigfoot around here, one of them named Steve, didn't say a word and actually just sit looking at his coffee cup, the other one his name was John looked at Steve, looked down and cleared his voice and asked me "Why do you ask that" I said I think I am hearing one at my house, John said "you know the old timers around here, specially indians will not talk about the Bigfoot", Steve looked over at me and said your Indian aren't you, have you not heard about the Bigfoot from your Dad or someone? I didn't know what to say, little embarrassed about not knowing some of my own folklore and culture that related to the Bigfoot, but again more wondering why my own father never told me the things I have learned from Marty. Well I learned why from John, we sat and drank our coffee in silence, several other co-workes came in and sat down, John said we will finish this later.
Two nights later John came over to my home and we sat out front in the yard, John was from Northern Arkansas, he said he grew up in the mountains of the Ozarks and came from a very pour family, he was of german and italian decent, is father came to America in the early 1900s to find work. John lived in a small home (he called it a shack) just outside of what is now Bella Vista. John explained that while he was growing up he heard the strangest and scary sounds coming from the ridgetops of the mountains around his home, his father had a friend that was Indian, he did't remember what tribe or what language he would speak, his father's friend told him and his brother's one night, that (he would point towards the direction the sounds would come from) that is the screams from the old ones, they are people of the forest, they do not speak to us, they are not our enemy, but they are also not our friends, they live in their own world, they walk like we do, but they are not like us, and they do not live in houses like us. John said his father asked his friend where do they come from? All that he remembers hearing is "They came from above" they are not from here. This elder began to gather as much stories and information as he could, he wanted to know more, it wasn't until 1978 when he had conversation with an elder from the Creek Nation that he heard other names for the Bigfoot. It is now after all these years that he has realized that the Bigfoot is not talked about publicly by native people for one reason, "the rest of the world is blind to the truth". what he is referring to is, since we have technology, we have busy lives, and we are always in a hurry, we have not taken the time to see who we are and where we have came from. To this elder, Bigfoot is a sign and a message that we need to realize our world is more than just water, land, and people. The bigger picture we are missing, the Bigfoot is not a monkey or a ape of some kind, it is a breathing, living, and real creation of something God had no intentions of creating, they are here among us to live out their lives til the Lord comes back. I will write what I know and more of what I have heard from others. (I will upload to a new post soon as I have received it)
