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Bigfoot & Native Americans...


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Guest wudewasa

Native Americans generally thought that bigfoot was non-physical.

Sometimes people refer to indigenous beliefs in the past tense. A far as I know, native people are alive and surviving, with many who are still connected to traditional ways.

It's important not to group all tribes into a single belief system. They are and always have been a diverse lot. A Cayuga once told me that there are tribal traditions, clan traditions and family traditions, so cultural diversity thrives on many levels of native society.

As far as beliefs in bigfoot, native stories are pretty diverse. The experience that my Hupa friend had was of a physical creature. To this person, it lived in the forest, just as bears, squirrels and owls do. No magical powers and paranormal abilities were included!

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Guest Tsalagi

Thanks Wudewasa. Folks please stop grouping all Native people into one category. At one time there were over 500 tribes all with their own set of beliefs and life experiences. We Native people still are alive and still speak of Bigfoot. There are many stories from various tribes of a physical Bigfoot. There are several threads going currently speaking of Native Americans in ways I take quite insulting especially with how non-Natives, especially those living outside of North America and have no experience around Natives, claim to have such expert knowledge about us. Just an FYI if you are getting your info from books written by non-Natives much of it is not accurate. Thanks.

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Guest wudewasa

There are several threads going currently speaking of Native Americans in ways I take quite insulting especially with how non-Natives, especially those living outside of North America and have no experience around Natives, claim to have such expert knowledge about us. Just an FYI if you are getting your info from books written by non-Natives much of it is not accurate. Thanks.

RIP Floyd Red Crow Westerman, we will always miss your genuis!

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BFF Patron

Native Americans generally thought that bigfoot was non-physical.

Here is some info here

http://www.unknown-creatures.com/bigfoot.html

http://hdbrp.110mb.com/Bigfoot-and-Native-Americans-Attitudes.htm

I don't believe the source of the information in these links does justice to the subject matter whatsoever, even if you

may believe there is a paranormal slant or manifestation to BF this info. does not do justice to the variety of native people's

beliefs in either the spiritual or BF in particular.

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Guest Tsalagi

If you really want to know the Native view on Bigfoot why not go to the source? The tribes in Alaska, WA, OR, OK, AZ and NC along with tribes in Canada are all currently reporting Bigfoot in their area. I'd believe what they have to say about it now more than what was written in a book from a long time ago.

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Guest BAGWAJININI

Bagwajinini and their relationship to the Anishinaabeg.

I remember when I was a child picking blueberries with my grandmother. Her and her friends talked about all sorts of things. They would talk about ricing (harvesting wild rice). They would talk about how small or large the berries were in a particular patch this or that year. They talked about the bears, the eagles and the beaver. Once in a great while, they talked about Bagwajinini. When they did so, they only spoke the Anishinaabeg language.

"tibikong ingii wabamaa bagwajinini jiigibiig"=Last night I saw the wild man by the lake shore.

"Sheaaah ingii waabamaa bagwajinini pigiiweyaan"=I saw the wild man on the way home.

"Gi-daa miizhaa Zhiimagak apii waabamad owe bagwajinini Ikaye piindaakawad" You should offer something sweet and some tobacco if/when you see him. (not meaning directly to him but as one would offer a prayer to a spirit.)

Anyways, nobody will understand my language so I'll translate some things I've heard through time and listening to elders as well as my own experiences. When they talked about him it was a sacred and honored manner as though they were honored to have met up with him. Other times, Near Seine River reservation in Ontario Canada, I was told to never look him in the eye or I would go crazy. That if we come across him were were to bow our heads and remain quiet and stay to the path were are on so that we do not interfere with his path.

I was out deer hunting once like a white man hunts. My wife laughed but it looked fun to sit and wait in silence and lure them. I did so. I bought all kinds of camo clothes and deer grunt hoses and the fox pee and the doe pee and the buck pee and pretty much the whole shabang. I sat in a clearing for close to 3 hours one morning on my reservation. I would blow through the little grunt tool. keep quiet. Finally, a small 6 point buck came from behind me into the clear cut. He ran into the cut more or less. In the middle of the cut he stopped and put his head down to graze. I shot him. He jumped fairly high and ran about ten yards into some poplar saplings. I shot him again in the chest with my little 22 magnum and he ran a little ways again. I watched him lay down and I hear him kicking and breathing. I knew he would die soon so I walked slowly over to him with my buck knife drawn ready to slit his throat and gut him. While walking toward him I'd misjudge his strength because that deer struggle to his feet and ran to the thick pines behind the tree line.

That was when I heard Bagwajinini for the first time. Not his voice, but his foot steps. It was a deep thumping that moved fast. No crashing through the brush. Just the deep thumps of his feet on the forest floor. I didn't know it was him though. I thought it was the deer jumping. I ran toward the treeline after my deer to try and get another shot because I didn't want him to get away. That was when I watch Bagwajinini snap a large branch from a tree and hit the deer. He hit it once in the head killing it. I put my head down and closed my eyes. I heard him breathing and I knew that he was so real and I was so scared I honestly peed my pants. My eyes were shut and I heard him walking away. When I opened my eyes he was walking away dragging my deer by the neck.

I ran straight to my grandma. I didn't go home. I went straight to grandmas house and told her what happened. She told me to put tobacco on the east side of a tree and give thanks. I was dumbfounded though. "Ogii kimoodwaa niwaawaashkeshii!" (He stole my deer!) She laughed at me and told me in a calm, collective voice; "ganabaj igo gii noodeshkade." (perhaps he was hungry.)

She told me to go visit my Uncle Earl in White Earth who was the family medicine man. I was told that I would have a special relationship with Bagwajinini someday. When I tried to get more details and asked what he meant he simply told me that I had the rest of my life to find out.

That was my first encounter with Bagwajinini. Since then they've appeared in my dreams and I've heard them close to me when I'm in the woods.

Oh yeah. To the fanatics who want to catch and study the older brothers. Don't come to my Area. Free country or not. We will NOT tolerate our woods with a bunch of screaming white people with infrared cameras and hand held radios.

We call him and all animals older brothers because we "humans" were the very last creation on this Earth. They were all here before us. We are the younger brothers.

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Guest BAGWAJININI

There was an excellent thread started on another forum a couple of years ago. The general conclusion of the postings was that Bigfoot was never a part of Native American mythology/culture. Sasquatch was a term invented in the 1920's somewhere in Canada by a white educator/writer if I remember correctly. That isn't to say that the Native Americans didn't have a mythology of an alternate race of bipedal beings. However a good internet search will reveal that most of that alternate bipedal being's existence was tied to spiritual/non physical manifestation. It seems that the big apelike biped we refer to as Sasquatch/Bigfoot is far more an invention of the white man then the Native Americans. But mythology is like that it tends to meld and blur between cultures.

To say that we do not have mythology is correct. All of our stories, the "Anishinaabe", are oral traditions passed down 1000 year+. Bagwajinini was not mentions to my tribe in the 1920's and spread through the moccossin telegraph like wildfire. Sometimes, people need to sit back and listen to elders. These stories have guts. We are told what to do when approached by others in these stories. The Midewewin Lodge was a part of our Culture for 1400 years and Bagwajinini is a big teaching in that lodge. The Shaking tent dates longer then 10,000 years of oral history and Bagwajinini is a big part of that. He is called upon for healing ceremonies. Bagwajinini IS a woodland spirit/being and not a prairie or desert being. You're from the crow tribe who are a prairie people. Speak for YOUR tribe not everyone's tribe!

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Guest Biggie

Who knows it could have been the other way around. Maybe it thought you were trying to steal it's deer and it wasn't going to let you have it.

There are a lot of people who have admitted they soiled themselves during their bf sighting so you are not alone in that regard.

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Guest Kronprinz Adam

I'm curious about the bigfoot/native American connection. What do they know? And why won't they share their information? Seems to me if they did share their info, it might lead to a deeper understanding of the creatures & better relations for all involved. I certainly don't wish to offend anyone. But I am curious, confused & a little frustrated.

Can anyone shed some light on the subject for me?

Hi Bucket!! I think such creatures are really embededed into some traditional cultures (native american, himalayan sherpas, people from South-Asia and Philippines) but it takes some time to make a distinction between myth and solid reality.

The reality (I hope) is there. People encountered the creature in the past, and created a folklore, which allowed them to give an explanation to these creatures in both the spiritual and the physical world. In some cases, their traditional teachings showed them either to show respect for the creatures, or to simply to stay sway from them. So, the teachings had a function: survival.

But I think for some westeners in the past, they believe these traditional beliefs are fairy tales, or tales to scare the children, and therefore, reject them. This is a more materialistic point of view. Some other people have even tried to make pranks with bigfoot fake feet and costumes, just to make fun of the others.

Anyway, the whole Bigfoot-Yeti and tropical apemen issue is a very complex one. I think we have to listen carefully what local people have to say about the creatures. Yetis, for example, are part of the traditional folklore of Tibet, Nepal, Buthan and other nearby parts. Why not to listen more carefully to the sherpas? They have many tales and stories about Yetis, which most of the time went "lost in translation". For example, I saw an spanish TV program some years ago. A mountaneer called Jesús Calleja became close with the sherpas, but he just could not believe all the Yeti folklore and so on. He just realized that the sherpas which went with him, became really scared with all the Yeti stuff. Why to become scared with a non-existant legend? B

He finally went to a very isolated region in Nepal and started an expedition there. Local people people adviced him, that this was a Yeti territory, therefore, it was not wise. (Ok, western montaneers search for a Yeti but go to the Everest and the highest peaks instead, zoologists and hunters and all the Western science cannot find one specimen but local nepalese people seems to know exactly where to find one in one isolated corner of the world!!)

He later tells that his expedition found one very curious hairy creature, which escaped from them by climbing the hills in a very curious way. The creature was dark brown. it walked sometimes in 2 legs, sometimes in 4. The creature was very fast, Calleja described it as some kind of "humanoid bear". He was puzzled. His sherpa companions became scared and wanted to leave the place immediately. For them, this was a "Yeti". My question is, could all this be possible?

Greetings.

K. Adam.

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To say that we do not have mythology is correct. All of our stories, the "Anishinaabe", are oral traditions passed down 1000 year+. Bagwajinini was not mentions to my tribe in the 1920's and spread through the moccossin telegraph like wildfire. Sometimes, people need to sit back and listen to elders. These stories have guts. We are told what to do when approached by others in these stories. The Midewewin Lodge was a part of our Culture for 1400 years and Bagwajinini is a big teaching in that lodge. The Shaking tent dates longer then 10,000 years of oral history and Bagwajinini is a big part of that. He is called upon for healing ceremonies. Bagwajinini IS a woodland spirit/being and not a prairie or desert being. You're from the crow tribe who are a prairie people. Speak for YOUR tribe not everyone's tribe!

I just want to ask to make sure this is very clear. Your tribe was NOT introducted to the concept of bigfoot (Bagwajinini) in the 1920s - it has always been a part of your teachings, correct? Bagwajinini stories are very old, passed down through oral traditions, correct?

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Hello Bagwajinini,

Welcome.

Here is more information on the reference Crowlogic mentions about the name Sasquatch beginning in the 1920's which comes from J.W. Burns as previously mentioned in the thread. Namely that the term Sasquatch was coined by a teacher & writer. Here is a Link to a more thorough explanation of that. Essentially the now popular term was an amalgamation of one or more (similar sounding) native names for the creature in British Columbia. I don't understand how their existence can be construed by any forum as only beginning in the 20's however. Sounds like history was again misinterpreted.

Hairyman, I think Bagwajinini is saying that the 20's isn't when the name originated.

Edited by PragmaticTheorist
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Guest wudewasa

Oh yeah. To the fanatics who want to catch and study the older brothers. Don't come to my Area. Free country or not. We will NOT tolerate our woods with a bunch of screaming white people with infrared cameras and hand held radios.

EPIC warning! Let's hope they heed it!

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Guest BAGWAJININI

I just want to ask to make sure this is very clear. Your tribe was NOT introducted to the concept of bigfoot (Bagwajinini) in the 1920s - it has always been a part of your teachings, correct? Bagwajinini stories are very old, passed down through oral traditions, correct?

That is what I'm saying yes. Bagwajinini is a spirit/being (whatever it chooses to be at any certain time), that was not simply introduced to my tribe in the 1920's and the very thought of him traveled like wild fire through the moccossin telegraph. I'm telling you and anyone else that the wild man has been a part of The Anishinaabe culture for 1000+years as well as the memengwesiwag(little people), the bines (thunderbird) who only appears in dream now, the serpent that travels the underground waterways through the boundry waters, Water babies who you would call mermen, The waabishkiima'ingan (white wolf), etc. Bagwajinini is as common of a teaching to the traditional Anishinaabeg as the Angel is to the average Christian. That's exactly what I'm telling you. We don't use books. Our language has only begun to be documented. They live among our people sometimes. I was at a dance in the deep woods of the Red Lake reservation once when Bagwajinini came right into the Area, spoke with a medicine man named Adam Lussier and then left. A big ceremony was held and we all listened. The message given to us was that we were not taking care of those who take care of us. We have not been keeping our bonds strong with the spirits that guide us and protect us. We were to make food and tobacco offerings more often.

In essence, our medicine folk have communicated with them for a very long time. We don't have many left though. We're losing our language. Many of my people no longer hunt in the woods; instead, they hunt with plastic sporks at the closest KFC. Many of my elders think we should simply let ourselves die out with these teachings. I want to survive though. I will make sure my children know. They will respect and honor the teachings passed down for so long.

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