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Bigfoot
For over a 150 years man has been troubled by one great mystery, a mystery that has baffled all who have witnessed it and all who have tried to solve it. This mystery is commonly known as Bigfoot, a tall hairy man/ape who lurks in the woods in almost every country on this planet. Some say it is just an ape, some believe it is a man in costume, and others are true believers of this hairy phenomenon. For more than a decade and a half this creature of myth has caused enormous contradictions in the field of science, bringing about one question. Does Bigfoot exist?
Throughout the 150 year history of Bigfoot many concerns have raised, the most in number have been from Native Americans. The Karok Indians tell of an “upslope person” who lurks far up in the mountains (Gaffron, 22-24). Some medicine men have told stories of “snow-walkers” that haunt the Forrest depths (Short). The creatures North American habitat covers over 125,000 square miles of forest, contained in the states of Oregon, Washington, and California, constituting a large number of Native American tribes to encounter and frighten (Gaffron, 22). This phenomenon is not just a Native American one told by medicine men, and tribe leaders, Bigfoot plays an enormous role in the ancient folklore of such civilizations as, the Russians, Greeks, and Anglo-Saxons (Brunvand). These civilizations have been around for hundreds of years, and have been telling stories of Bigfoot long before any one; they hold the true key to Bigfoot’s history.
As the environment changes so does the Bigfoot. The Yeti, known as the legendary man of the Himalayas, is the Bigfoot of Nepal, China, and Siberia. Numerous descriptions state the Yeti resembles a primitive humanlike being (Gaffron, 52). Four major types of Bigfoot have been recorded, each one having its own distinct differences.
The Teh-Ima is 4 feet tall, being the smallest of the four and is located in lower mountain regions. The Meh-The, slightly resembling a gorilla, has a big pointed head and large square teeth, it is slightly larger than the Teh-Ima. The Duz-Teh being the third largest resembles a bear and is approximately six to eight feet tall. The largest of the group is the Bigfoot of North America weighing as much as 1,000 pounds, and over eight feet tall (Gaffron, 44-46). These Bigfeet have there own characteristics and traits, each one ad...
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...the footage; if they were to attempt it, it would require a whole new system of artificial muscles and an actor who could walk like a Bigfoot (Gaffron, 72-76). In the thirty-five years since this footage was taken nothing has been able to prove the existence of Bigfoot more than it has.
For thousands of years myths of an upright man/ape have been told in dozens of cultures and for 150 years its sight has baffled science and caused irreversible controversies in its theories. Weather Bigfoot is just another branch of primates or an
early form of humanity which failed to evolve; it is the duty of science to seek truth no matter how controversial the findings may be.
Works Cited
“Abominable Snowman.” Microsoft Encarta 2009 Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Jan Harold Brunvand: Microsoft, 2009.
“California Sightings List.” Bigfoot Encounters. 19 January, 2006.
Fahrenbach, W.H. “Bigfoot Biology.” Bigfoot Encounters. 19 May, 2008.
Gaffron, Norma. Bigfoot: Opposing Viewpoints San Diego: Green Haven Press inc. 2007
The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization. 25 October, 2009.
Thomas, Roger F. “The Patterson – Gimlin Film.” BIGFOOT: Fact or fantasy? 25 June, 2008.
While many theories exist trying to disprove the existence of this elusive beast, many also exist proving its existence. The first reported sighting made by St. Columba, an Irish missionary, in the a.d. 500s. He was from Scotland and came to spread Christianity. He saw the beast attacking a man and saved him by making a cross and ordering the beast to be gone. The Loch Ness Monster is not just a beast from the Medieval mythology. Many people have reported sightings of a creature matching the description “of an ‘extinct’ dinosaur called the Plesiosaur”(“Myths and Legends of the World”). There have been many attempts to find this elusive creature ,but all have turned up unsuccessful neither proving nor disproving the existence of the Loch Ness Monster.
The Kennewick man was a monumental find to further our understanding of the history of the migration patterns of the people that culture sees today. The Kennewick man being a 9200 to 9600 year old skeleton made him one of the oldest nearly whole skeletons found in North or South America. The Kennewick man was found on July 28th 1996 by two college students whose names were Will Thomas and Dave Deacy while they were walking along the Columbia River near Kennewick Washington trying to get a better view into the local hydroplane races (Chatters, 23). These college students stumbled upon something that has caused a series of serious debates that have lasted for over ten years. After the students fell upon “the rock with teeth” (Powell 2005:6) they took it to the local police forces that were in the area.
The experience happens in the middle of the night in Orick, California when the encounter of Bigfoot took place, in the house of two men and their children. The house was surrounded by the forest, woods, and there were not many people around.
There are many stories, both positive and negative, regarding the Bigfoot in Native American culture. How the Bigfoot were viewed varies greatly with each tribe, from a “devil” to a “keeper of the forest.” What is clear though, before the Europeans began to settle the North American continent in mass, the Bigfoot were not reclusive. They interacted with the indigenous tribes and were a known tribe or society.
Corbett, B. (1999). Last call in Pine Ridge For the Lakota’s in White Clay, Nebraska, death is on the house. Retrieved February 6, 2005, from http://ishgooda.org/oglala/whitcla1.htm
This provides powerful insight into the role Bigfoot like creatures played in Native American cultures. Some tribes were not afraid of the creatures, considering them kind and helpful, while peacefully coexisting with them. Other tribes found them to be more violent and dangerous creatures. The fact that these tribes called the animals Stick Indians or Brush Indians seems to suggest that the creatures were simply other tribes they did not get along with opposed to a village of mythical creatures. Some examples of Bigfoot like creatures in Native American tribes include the Chiye – Tanka, the Lofa, the Maxemista, and the popular Sasquatch. The Chiye – Tanka was the Bigfoot like creature of the Sioux Indians (“Native American,” n.d.). This animal
Many discoveries have been made that give more and more clues to the history of life on earth. Paleontologists find artifacts throughout the world that not only answer many questions but also raise many new ones. A topic that is still a mystery today is the origin of man. Scientists often debate over where man originated from and who some of his prehistoric relatives were. Some people think that all men are related, and that there has been inter breeding between different groups of men. (I.e. the Neanderthals from Eurasia at some point bred with the homo sapiens of Africa.) Others believe that certain groups of men evolved in a completely different time period in a completely different place.
Homo floresiensis commonly known as the hobbit, due to their height, is an extinct species of the genus homo. Fossils of this species were discovered in 2003 by a group of Australian researchers on an adventure to a cave called Liang Bua located on Indonesian island of Flores. It is said that the species lived as recently as 13,000 years ago, meaning they were around during the same time as modern humans. Knowing that Homo floresiensis had been living during that period of time made a controversial issue regarding their position in the human evolutionary tree.
One account of Bigfoot occurred in 1871 near Harrison Lake, in British Columbia when a 17 year old girl named Seraphine was snatched and held by Bigfoot for a year (Wickramshingle,2014). According to the article, “Scared and confused she was led by her captor across the Harrison River to a remote part of the wilderness. In the shelter, to her dismay, she found herself in the presence of two older and larger Bigfoot, one male, and one female---apparently her younger abductor was their offspring.” This article leaves the story unclear because they do not know why they let her return (Wickramshingle,2014).
Bigfoot is often considered to be the most argued about hoax. The man-like ape creature catches our attention when brought up in conversation and sparks a fierce debate whether or not the creature is real or just a man cleverly disguised in an ape-like costume. In 1967, Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin filmed what they believe to be was the real Bigfoot. Unfortunately, this doesn’t provide a strong foundation for a new scientific discovery, the film that Patterson and Gimlin shot doesn’t seem to be very convincing. While Patterson and Gimlin swear the footage is authentic, there are many reasons as to why the footage is not as convincing as it seems. The reasons why the footage isn’t convincing is because of the enormous height of the creature, the unconvincing costume, and the hernia that is claimed to be shown in the footage analysis.
Tidwell, James N. "Folklore in the News." Western Folklore 14 (1955): 213-14. Web. 9 Apr. 2014.
Bastien, B. (2011). Blackfoot ways of knowing: The worldview of the siksikaitsitapi. Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press.
Is Bigfoot really a mythical creature roaming the world? Nobody can answer that question, not if our scientist today. Bigfoot is a large, hairy, apelike creature resembling a yeti, there are found in Northwestern America. There is another name that Bigfoot is called and it’s Sasquatch. Some people believe in Bigfoot and try to find it. Others who think it’s a ridiculous idea to be searching for something that no one can find. There are others who are in the middle and others who just don’t care. There are evidence from films, eyewitnesses, photographs, hair sample, and footprints.
legends about those wild half-human beasts who haunt the edges of our forests and lurk in the
Arthur Grant, a veterinary student in 1934, was heading home around 1 A.M. He saw something lurking in the bushes, and it immediately bounded onto the road. He swerved and stepped on the brakes, barely missing contact. The headlight was on the 20 foot long creature that had an eel-like head and large humps on its shoulders. What is this creature? Does it even exist? These are the questions many cryptozoologists ask on a daily basis. Cryptozoology is the search for and study of animals whose existence is disputed. While many disregard cryptids, the term for these mysterious animals, there are scientists committed to finding the truth. Though there are many fascinating creatures in this field, the three most news-worthy are the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot and Dracula.