Bigfoot and a Missionary

This next tidbit of Bigfoot history comes to us courtesy of the Holland Library of Washington Sate University and more specifically Dr. Robert Ruby for finding the letter. It is a letter from Elkanah Walker who was a missionary to the Spokane Indians of Northern Washington. It was addressed to Reverend David Green who served as the secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. At the end of the article I will put the letter in its entirety. For Bigfoot purposes I will concentrate on the part that relates.

Elkanah Walker in April of 1840 wrote:

..."I suppose you will bear with me if I trouble you with a little of their superstition, which has recently come to my knowledge. They believe in the existence of a race of giants which inhabit a certain mountain off to the west of us. This mountain is covered with perpetual snow. They inhabit its top. They may be classed with Goldsmith’s nocturnal class and they cannot see in the daytime. They hunt and do all of their work in the night. They are men tealers. They come to the people’s lodges in the night when the people are asleep and take them, and put them under their skins and take them to their place of abode without even waking. When they wake in the morning they are wholly lost, not knowing in what direction their home is. The account that they give of these Giants will in some measure correspond with the Bible account of this race of beings. They say their track is about a foot and a half long. They will carry two or three beams upon their back at once. They frequently come in the night and steal their salmon from their nets and eat the’m raw. If the people are awake they always know when they are coming very near, by their strong smell, which is most intolerable. It is not uncommon for them to come in the night and give three whistles and then the stones will begin to hit their houses. The people believe that they are still troubled with their nocturnal visits.
We need the prayers of the Church at home."

There are a few Bigfoot traits to note in this letter:
First - The reference to the creatures being a race of giants. Furthermore he goes on to compare them to the Biblical race of giants. Not one mention of these creatures being an animal or more animal-like than human.
Second - He refers to them being nocturnal. And not only that but "cannot see in the daytime". This does go along with the common belief that Bigfoot for the most part are nocturnal however there have been many day-time sightings.
Third - The track of the creatures is reportedly about a foot and a half long. 18" has been documented from tracks collected modern day and is a common size of what some believe an adult Bigfoot to be.
Fourth - These giants have incredible strength. "They will carry two or three beams upon their back at once". This super human strength has been credited to Bigfoot since sightings began being documented.
Fifth - They steal salmon from fishing nets and eat them raw. Bigfoot sightings commonly occur along water sources and include things like seeing one attempt to fish, break open mussel shells, etc.
Sixth - There is mention of the smell of the creature being "intolerable". Also a common trait when sightings are reported today.
Seventh - The giants whistle and throw stones at houses. Again both are traits reported to the Sasquatch today

Here is what we know about the actual letter:
     Elkanah Walker was a missionary in the area in 1840. He lived from 1805 to 1877. He and his wife devoted their lives to being missionaries in Western Territories. In 1838 they opened and operated the Tshimakain station for nine years. This was located in the Oregon Territory and more specifically what is now known as Washington State.
     Rev. Green was indeed the secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1840. And was in correspondence with the missionary family before and after this letter.

This letter is not only authentic but very noteworthy. In a time where correspondence was so important Elkanah Walker thought enough about this superstition to not only write about it but to also ask for prayer about the matter.

And that I think is food for thought.

Entire letter:

Dear Sir: I suppose that it is not necessary for me to say much as Mr. Eeles has given you all that is interesting. My health is very poor and I fear I shall be unable to pursue my labours as a missionary. We are, we hope, doing something in the language. It is, if I may be judge, very difficult and will require much hard study before we have much knowledge and are prepared to make any direct or forcible appeal to them. I should not be at all surprised if this mission prove a total failure. How much more confidence I should have in its success if we had had real opposition to encounter from the Indians at its commencement. We, I fear, are destined to experience some opposition from the old chief I named in my letter last fall. He has been absent most of the time since. He soon after went off to Buffalo and has not yet to my knowledge returned. I left our place last Monday for this place (Fort Colville) and shall leave tomorrow for home, “Deo volente” which I expect to reach in two days. It has been very sickly in this region the last part of the winter. Many have died. I do not know what can be done to save them from utter extinction. They seem as fated to fade away before the whites as the game of their country. There seems but one way that they can be saved and that is by settling them and civilizing them and this I fear they cannot bear. I sometimes think that it will be as injurious to them as their superstitions which are carrying them off very fast. Whatever is done for them must be quickly done, for there will soon be nothing to labour for. We need to be placed in such a situation that we can devote all our time and energies to them and when that is done we can do little on account of the few that we have access to. I think that I may safely say that the two tribes, Nez Perces and Flat Heads are as well supplied with ministers as New England, that is, there are as many preachers compared to the number of the people. We can only have access to a few at a time. If we travel and visit with them at their places we can have but little influence over them. I suppose you will bear with me if I trouble you with a little of their superstition, which has recently come to my knowledge. They believe in the existence of a race of giants which inhabit a certain mountain off to the west of us. This mountain is covered with perpetual snow. They inhabit its top. They may be classed with Goldsmith’s nocturnal class and they cannot see in the daytime. They hunt and do all of their work in the night. They are men tealers. They come to the people’s lodges in the night when the people are asleep and take them, and put them under their skins and take them to their place of abode without even waking. When they wake in the morning they are wholly lost, not knowing in what direction their home is. The account that they give of these Giants will in some measure correspond with the Bible account of this race of beings. They say their track is about a foot and a half long. They will carry two or three beams upon their back at once. They frequently come in the night and steal their salmon from their nets and eat the’m raw. If the people are awake they always know when they are coming very near, by their strong smell, which is most intolerable. It is not uncommon for them to come in the night and give three whistles and then the stones will begin to hit their houses. The people believe that they are still troubled with their nocturnal visits. We need the prayers of the Church at home. I am, My Dear Sir, Yours most truly and submissively, E. Walker (Elkanah Walker) Missionary to Spokane Indians.

Bigfoot - Human Oklahoma War 1855

Ever hear a story that has been repeated so much that you don't look into it yourself? You just pass it along. Hey if the story hasn't changed after years of hearing it, must be true right? Advertisers use repetition all the time and we do it to ourselves when a subject fascinates us.

One such story comes from Oklahoma in 1855. It is a tale of Humans vs. Bigfoot. An actual war.

This story has what anyone would want. Action, adventure, real names and places, along with saving the day. The story has been modified throughout the years but the basic facts and characters have remained the same.

The story as it originally appeared on the Internet:

"Hamas Tubbee was an unusually large man, even for a Choctaw Indian. His father, Hanali Tubbee stood two inches over eight feet in height and weighed five hundred forty pounds. Hama and his six sons stood about a foot shorter than Pahlumi, or "father" Tubbee.
They were large, exceedingly strong, fierce warriors. Hamas and his sons were the point riders for a troop of Choctaw cavalry known as the "Lighthorsemen". Many in the Choctaw Nation thought it humorous that such large men, riding draft horses, refered to themselves as "Lighthorsemen". Tubbees men experienced something which none would ever forget.

This day's assignment was to flush out some bandits that had been preying upon the local farmers. A thirty man troop would be going into an area which later in the "state" of Oklahoma became the "McCurtain County Wilderness Area". These bandits had been not only taking large quantities of corn, squash, and beans, but had as well been taking very young children. This thievery had been taking place across the border in Arkansas as well as in Indian Territory. The captain of the troop of Choctaw cavalry was a man named Joshua LeFlore. Captain LeFlore was of mixed blood, part French, part Choctaw. The men deeply respected him. Joshua LeFlore was impeccably honest and wasbrave to a fault.

The men had been traveling horseback non-stop since three o'clock in the morning. They began their assignment at the tribal capital in Tuskaloma and when they finally came to the Clover River, they let their horses eat and the men decided to rest and eat as well. Non-stop riding for eight hours, having to lead their horses across Little River, and the hot July sun were taking a toll on the men and their mounts. When some time had passed, Captain Josh gave the order and the men remounted and they began the last leg of their trip. At or around 4:30 in the afternoon, the troop came to the edge of the area which the bandits were supposed to be inhabiting.

Captain Josh signaled with uplifted hand that the troop should come to a halt. Standing in his stirups, Captain Josh utilized a ship's eyepiece [telescope] and promptly turned to his men and gave the command for a full armed charge. The distance between the suspected bandits and the troopers was about five hundred yards. The Tubbee men and captain Josh were at the front of the charge and as the thirty men and he neared the thick, pine forest where the bandits were, two things took place at once... The stench of death assaulted both men and horses, and the horses became uncontrollable.
Horses were rearing, pitching and throwing riders. Captain Josh and the seven Tubbee men were the only ones in the troop whose mounts were disciplined enough that they continued to obey their riders and continued to charge in the midst of the bandits.
When the eight men met with the "bandits" they were totally unprepared for what greeted them. The clearing behind the inital tree cover was actually a large, earthen mound. Strewn about the mound were numerous corpses of human children in varying stages of decay. Most of the bandits had fled, but three really large, hairy ape-like creatures remained at the mound. Captain Josh drew his sabre and with pistol in hand, sabre in the other, charged the huge monsters.

The nearest monster killed Captain LeFlore's horse with one blow of its massive hand. The monster never flinched as Captain LeFlore poured bullets from his Patterson's Colt revolver into the beasts chest. After emptying the revolver into the monster, Captain Joshua continued to press the attack with his sabre. Many times did the sabre meet with the brute's flesh and many times did blood spew from the gaping wounds on the beasts body. So quickly did this engagement take place that the Tubbee men had barely enough time to take aim at the three monsters before one of the beasts flanked the Captain and literally tore off Captain LeFlore's head.

There was not time for any sort of delay due to shock. The Tubbee men opened fire upon the three man-beasts. Seven 50-caliber Sharp's buffalo rifles impacted the three simian appearing brutes at the same time. From years of routine and practice, all bullets smashed into the three monster's heads. six rounds were fired into the heads of the two monsters which were the culprits that killed their beloved Captain. Only the youngest Tubbee; Robert, had the presence of mind to put a bullet into the head of the third monster.

A legend was born that day. Robert Tubbee, 18 years of age, all six feet eleven inches, three hundred seventy-three pounds of him, chased down a wounded man-beast and finished the beast off with only his hunting knife. By the time the other six Tubbee men caught up with Robert and the monster, Robert had already decapitated the beast. Holding the head aloft with both hands, Robert let out a primal scream which made even the Tubbee mounts panic.

The "light-horsemen" gathered their mounts and surveyed what was before them. Absolute carnage littered about the clearing. The partially consumed bodies of nineteen children lay upon and about the mound. The stench of decaying bodies was bad enough, but the over-powering odor of the man-beasts' urine and feces was more than the strongest stomach could endure.
After retching violently, the men of the troop buried the bodies of the children in nineteen small graves, buried their beloved Captain, and as a matter of respect, gave him a twenty-one gun salute.

They built a large bon-fire, placed the murderous man-beasts upon it, and lit it. As they rode back into Tuskahoma each man struggled with emotions and thoughts he never before imagined."
 Dr. Tuklo Nashoba

OK here is where we need to get back to reality...

1. As this story has been past around bandits have turned to man-beasts and man-beasts have turned to Bigfoot.
2. The place where Joshua Le-Flore was killed means "looking for killers" in Choctaw.
3. The giants from the story as told in Oklahoma and passed down for generations were white. Not hairy bi-pedal apes, but white.
4. The original Oklahoma legend states that these "giants" were actually Viking descendants. And viking presence in the region can be historically traced back to the 1100s.
5. The weapons being used are particularly interesting. Settlers favored muzzle loaders. That is a fact and any antique arms guru can attest to it.
6. The "50-caliber Sharp's buffalo rifles" Which can only be assumed to be the famous buffalo hunting rifles came out in the 1870s. Years after this story.
7. If the guns used were 50 caliber Sharps it seems unlikely Native Americans would posses them. After all the ingredients to make the bullets were not easily obtainable, the guns were only available through the army, and weapons trade at the time were selling out of date weapons to the Indians. The government at the time would not want to give their most prized weapons to Native Americans when there was a chance they could be used to kill settlers.

I think it is important to find the truth in what we are reading. Not just accepting repetition as fact. I love the subject of Bigfoot, and every story about it I can find. But historical facts are equally as important when piecing together their story.

First Documented Ohio Bigfoot Sighting

Article: Fight with a Wild Man

  Date: January 1869
Publisher: Hillsdale Standard, Hillsdale Michigan
                 Minnesota Weekly Record

Gallipolis [Ohio] is excited over a wild man, who is reported to haunt the woods near that city. He goes naked, is covered with hair, is gigantic in height, and "his eyes start from their sockets." A carriage, containing a man and daughter, was attacked by him a few days ago. He is said to have bounded at the father, catch- ing him in a grip like that of a vice, hurling him to the earth, falling on him and endeavoring to bite and to scratch like a wild animal. The struggle was long and fearful, rolling and wallowing in the deep mud, have suffocated, sometimes beneath his adversary, whose burning and maniac eyes glared into his own with murderous and savage intensity. Just as he was about to become exhausted from his exertions, his daughter, taking courage at the imminent danger of her parent, snatched up a rock and hurling it at the head of her father's would be murderer, was fortunate enough to put an end to the struggle by striking him somewhere about the ear. The creature was not stunned, but feeling unequal to further exertion, slowly got up and retired into the neighboring copse that skirted the road.

Great Medicine and Bigfoot

There is an epic tale within the Cheyenne Indian culture. It tells the story of the creation of their people and their early history. It combines many tales and stories into one epic.

It can be read in its entirety here: http://pyramidmesa.com/chey10.htm
However for the purpose of this blog I will highlight the Bigfooty parts.

"The Great Spirit created three kinds of human beings: first, those who had hair all over their bodies; second, white men who had hair all over their heads and faces and on their legs; third, red men who had very long hair on their heads only. The hairy people were strong and active. The white people with the long beards were in a class with the wolf, for both were the trickiest and most cunning creatures in that beautiful world. The red people were good runners, agile and swift, whom the Great Medicine taught to catch and eat fish at a time when none of the other people knew about eating meat".

- - Very interesting that in this epic neither the hairy men nor white men knew of catching and eating fish.

"After a while the hairy people left the north country and went south, where all the land was barren. Then the red people prepared to follow the hairy people into the south. Before they left the beautiful land, however, the Great Medicine called them together. On this occasion, the first time the red people had all assembled in one place, the Great Medicine blessed them and gave them some medicine spirit to awaken their dormant minds. From that time on they seemed to possess intelligence and know what to do".

- - This section appears to indicate that the Great Medicine gave the red man intelligence that he did not give the hairy man, suggesting the hairy man stayed more primitive.

"The hairy people remained naked, but the red people clothed themselves because the Great Medicine had told them to. When the red men arrived in the south, they found that the hairy men had scattered and made homes inside of hills and in caves high up in the mountains. They seldom saw the hairy men, for the hairy ones were afraid and went inside their caves when the red men came. The hairy people had pottery and flint tools like those of the red men, and in the caves they slept on beds made out of leaves and skins". .."For some reason they decreased in numbers until they finally disappeared entirely, and today the red men cannot tell what became of them".

-- Although the hairy people disappeared completely they were smart enough to make tools and pottery.

This can of course be taken several ways:

• Bigfoot
• Neanderthal
• Just a story

Despite many tales of Bigfoot in Native American culture this appears to be a case of very primitive man. While there is scientific evidence of tools and pottery in early humans it is not the case with Bigfoot even now in modern times.

Cannibal Bigfoot

 

In 1847 painter and explorer Paul Kane was in the Pacific Northwest making scetches of both nature and Native Americans to take back home to Toronto and turn into paintings. Kane also kept a journal describing his travels and scetching subjects. It is in this journal that we first learn of the Skookums.

March 27, 1847:
"When we arrived at the mouth of the Kattlepoutal River, 26 miles from Vancouver, I stopped to make a sketch of the volcano, Mt. St. Helens, distant I suppose, about 30 or 40 miles. This mountain has never ben visited by either whites or Indians; the latter assert that it is inhabited by a race of beings of a different species, who are cannibals, and who they hold in great dread...these superstitions are taken from a man they say went in to the mountains with another, and escaped the fate of his companion, who was eaten by the 'skookums', or 'evil genii'. I offered a considerable bribe to any Indian who would accompany me in its exploration but could not find one hardly enough to venture there".

It is very interesting to note that this is the only early reference to Bigfoot being a cannibal. This doesn't mean it is a cute cuddly creature however. In fact, Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest were often afraid to settle  on certain lands because they feared the Bigfoots would attack them. My personal feeling is that this would not be cannibal related but more of a territorial issue. Animals kill others commonly for encroaching onto lands that are "theirs".

This is also the first telling of a Bigfoot story that adds the element of them being more supernatural than a bipedal ape-like creature living in the woods.

The First Bigfoot Track

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Before you start shouting things at your screen like:

• "snow melting distorts prints"
• "you have no idea how long they were there" and
• "the Tooth Fairy isn't real either"!

Just take a deep breath, listen to the story, and take back what you said about the tooth fairy...

In 1811 explorer, fur trader, map maker, and surveyor David Thompson was crossing the Rocky Mountains near what is now known as Jasper, Alberta. He began his life long career of surveyor and map maker when he was 14 years old and left England for the British Columbia region under employment of the Hudson Bay Company.  Throughout his life he kept a journal detailing his travels throughout the region. It is from these journals that we find the first documented footprint in the region.

"I saw the track of a large animal, has four toes about 3 to 4" long, small nail, ball of foot sank in about 3" deeper than his toes, the hinder part of his foot did not mark well, the length 14" by 8" and resembled a large bear track".
David Thompson journal entry: January 7th, 1811

I know that is not the most compelling description of a bigfoot track...but just wait it gets better!

Later on in life, about 40 years later, Thompson penned the "Narrative" a book based on his travels and journals. In this he recounts the track and experience again:

"the Men and Indians would have it to be a young mammouth and I held it to be the track of a large old grizzly bear; yet the shortness of the nails, the ball of the foot, and it's great size was not that of a bear, otherwise that of a very large old bear, his claws worn away, the Indians would not allow".

Later on in the book he tell of another time he and his group came upon similar tracks:

"as the snow was about 6"in depth the track was well defined and we could see it for a full hundred yards from us, the animal was heading north to south. We did not attempt to follow it, we had not time for it, and the hunters, eager as they are to follow and shoot every animal, made no attempt to follow this beast, for what could the balls of our fowling guns do against such an animal?"

 

I know that this is for some, conclusive proof. While there does seem to be discrepancy that this was not the track of a large grizzly bear there is no part of the story that leans toward it being Bigfoot either. After doing some research and discovering a large part of his parties were made up of Native Americans from the region there is not one recording in his journals or books that this was a beast of their legends that dwells in the forests. Given Thompson's descriptions of the lands it seems that if he was told of something with that much significance, especially after viewing a footprint, he would have reported it since he penned descriptions of other legends from the region.

 

 



Matlox was a Bigfoot

José Mariano Mociño was an important guy in Bigfoot history. Although his name isn't highly recognizable he did contriute history to the phenomenon. He was a naturalist from New Spain and in 1792 he was part of an exploration and scientific expedition to the area today we know as the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia. From his travels throughout the region he penned one of the most significant books on nature of his time Noticias de Nutka: An Account of Nootka Sound in 1792.

He noted in his book on exploration that the native people of the Pacific Northwest were scared of a creature who lived in the woods. They referred to it as Matlox.

José states: "I do not know what to say about Matlox, inhabitant of the mountainous district, of who all have an unbelievable terror. They imagine his body as very monstrous, all covered with stiff black bristles; a head similar to a human one, but with much greater, sharper, and stronger fangs than those of the bear; extremely long arms; and toes and fingers armed with long curved claws. His shouts alone (they say) force those who hear them to the ground, and any unfortunate body he slaps is broken into a thousand pieces."

As with any description involving an unknown creature we try to catergorize it and explain it as other "suspects". Lucky for us, in his description José has ruled out several of the usual suspects in Sasquatch sightings. People and bears.

• stronger fangs than those of the bear
• head similar to a human one

It seems what we are left with is a description of an ape-like creature. Long arms, distinct toes and fingers, plus the hair and fangs. Unfortunately this is all we have to go on. José didn't witness the creatures personally nor does he mention them again as part of any other nature descriptions in his book. While this doesn't hurt or take away from his description of the creature, it also provides no clues as to habits or where this creature would have fit in his ideas about the nature systems of the area. From this account the name "Matlox" has been associated with Bigfoots in the Pacific Northwest and more specifically the Nootka Indians also used a variation of "Matlose".

And so the mystery continues....