JanV Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 In a recent post Coonbo mentions observing a BF "counting coup" by touching a companion of his who was running for the safety of his vehicle. Counting coup was considered an act of bravery by many Indian tribes who actually kept count of this on a "coup stick". I have read other references to this practice that also associated BF with this, speculating that this was part of being considered an adult. This activity could only be associated with a sentient, tribal being, IMHO. One who has culture and at the minimum a proto language. What do you know or think about this? I hope Coonbo will join this thread to tell us more.
Guest DWA Posted January 9, 2014 Posted January 9, 2014 This is one of those anthropomorphic things that I really don't think we know anything about one way or the other. I'd be loath to speculate. Chance contact can just be chance contact.
MIB Posted January 9, 2014 Moderator Posted January 9, 2014 Think? I have experienced behavior I interpret as counting coup because it is a "best fit" on several occasions. I could change my mind someday if I learn something putting it in a different context. MIB
Guest Darrell Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 Well IIRC, "counting Coup" was only a plains indian thing and wasnt generally practiced by coastal, southwest, and eastern tribes.
Guest Darrell Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 This is one of those anthropomorphic things that I really don't think we know anything about one way or the other. I'd be loath to speculate. Chance contact can just be chance contact. I agree. And I would think its best to not assign such conclusions based on a specific cultural behaviour of certain Native Amereican tribes. human behaviour doest equal human behaviour.
Branco Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 (edited) Then they must have picked up that habit while they were passing through the "plains" because they play that game it the South/Southeast. Edited January 10, 2014 by Branco
Guest JiggyPotamus Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 I will agree with you that IF bigfoot were in fact performing such a ritual task, then surely they would have at least a primitive culture, and in my opinion it would definitely mean that they absorbed some Native American culture some time ago. But I have a hard time believing sasquatch have a social order that goes beyond that of other primates who live in the wild, even though their intelligence leaves room for the possibility; and since our understanding is quite limited in this regard, any hunches or hypotheses are not going to be based on accumulated data or evidence in most instances, which leaves even more room for sasquatch to surprise us. I have wrestled with the idea of sasquatch and certain Native American tribes intermingling millennia ago, and in my opinion it must have been thousands of years, as opposed to hundreds, for the specific reason that enough time would be needed for most of the stories of such interactions to have dropped out of existence. So for the later Natives, whose relationship with the sasquatch is similar to what ours is in the present time, they may not have known that their ancestors interacted with the animals. But that would mean that any contact abruptly stopped at some point. It is a strange idea to be sure, and I don't really think it happened. But there are at least some Native American legends that suggest as much, if I remember correctly, but honestly I can't. I just feel that if there was contact between them, the Natives would surely have an oral tradition stating as much. Someone who knows more possibly can comment. But would the two have needed to intermingle to transfer rituals or beliefs from one culture to the other? Maybe not. It seems much more likely that the sasquatch could pick something up by simply observing Native Americans, as opposed to interacting with them, and in fact this fits better with what we know about the animals today...They seem to watch people quite frequently, and the act of counting coup definitely is something that is noticeable, at least if one is not engaged in a large battle, where it is difficult to see most of the people's individual actions. That means the sasquatch would have understood what "enemies" were, and that doing such an act to a non-enemy wasn't something the Indians did. Sasquatch may be intelligent enough to distinguish such things, if they did in fact watch the Natives a lot. But there is another issue as well. The sasquatch would need a system for passing down information, and the only way I can see them doing this is through speech. Because any sasquatch observed counting coup in modern times did not learn it from the Natives, considering it is not practiced anymore, since there are no longer enemies and battles. When one takes all this information in, and analyzes it, it seems that the most logical explanation for an isolated incident that resembled "counting coup" is that it was misinterpreted as such. It was just something a sasquatch did, and not something that a large percentage of sasquatch would do, especially not for the reason that it holds some meaning for them, which they inherited from the Native Americans. At least that is how I see it. I suppose someone could disagree with what I've said, since it is all speculation, but I do believe I am spot on in some of these instances. It is interesting to think about nonetheless, but ultimately it just raises more questions, lol. Lots of questions, but very few answers. Well, there are a lot of answers as well, it is just that we have no clue which are the right answers, and since opinion differs dramatically among the sasquatch community, of course there are going to be many different answers when there is little actual data to go on.
MIB Posted January 10, 2014 Moderator Posted January 10, 2014 (edited) Jiggy - I believe you are mistaken that there is no such tradition. Check into the oral traditions of the Yurok / Karuk / Hoopa peoples of Northern California. They seem to be pretty secretive / noncommittal but some of the younger members have shared such stories with friends of mine. If what they say is true, this was not just in the far past, but the interaction, though infrequent, occurs in present day. I don't really have a way to verify it, besides, you probably should do your own research rather than just accepting my claim. If true, it invalidates a whole lot of folks' assumptions. MIB Edited January 10, 2014 by MIB
Guest Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 It sounds a bit strange, what was the "effect" on your friend who got touched? Did it freak him out to be touched? Was this BF in the open? What were the circumstances? Did they growl or anything before the chase? Info please!
bipedalist Posted January 10, 2014 BFF Patron Posted January 10, 2014 It doesn't matter what we equate the practice to, or what label we or BF give to it. The reality is, they will best you when they feel you are ready. It is as much a test for you as it is for them.
Guest Darrell Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 Humans like to assign human attributes and behaviour to non human species. That doesnt mean the species has human traits or thinks like humans do.
Guest LarryP Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 It doesn't matter what we equate the practice to, or what label we or BF give to it. The reality is, they will best you when they feel you are ready. It is as much a test for you as it is for them. They definitely have a sense of humor.
Branco Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 Humans like to assign human attributes and behaviour to non human species. That doesn't mean the species has human traits or thinks like humans do. Doesn't mean they don't either.
Sasfooty Posted January 10, 2014 Posted January 10, 2014 One night, I observed an adult BF encouraging a very small one to come to the house & hit it with a stick. Apparently the young one was very afraid. He would start running toward the house, but would slide to a stop & run back to the adult before he got close enough. Then they would talk quietly for a few minutes & the young one would try it again. After about four tries, he finally succeeded. I was almost as happy about it as he was. I'm sure the adult knew there was no danger, but it had to have been terribly scary to him. I wondered if it was his first "coup".
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