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Pre-Columbian and Early American Legends of Bigfoot-like Beings

Siouan-Yuchi

Indian Tribes:

• Yuchi
• Tutelo
• Catawba
• Quapaw
• Osage
• Iowa
• Missouri
• Omaha
• Yankton
• Teton
• Santee
• Ponca
• Yanktonai
• Crow
• Blackfoot
• Assiniboin

Legendary Beings:

Rugaru

References:

"My travels with Indians began some years ago with the discovery that most traditional communities in North America know of a messenger who appears in evil times as a warning from the Creator that man's disrespect for His sacred instructions has upset the harmony and balance of existence; some say that the messenger comes in sign of a great destroying fire that will purify the world of the disruption and pollution of earth air, water, and all living things. He has strong spirit powers and sometimes takes the form of a huge hairy man; in recent years this primordial being has appeared near Indian communities from the northern Plains states to far northern Alberta and throughout the Pacific Northwest.

--Peter Mathiessen, Introduction, p xxiii.

"There's a lot going on up in that country now," said Archie Fire, referring not only to the threat to the Great Plains from widespread mining but to recent appearances of the big hairy man at Little Eagle, on the Standing Rock Reservation, who came in sign, some people said, of those days at the world's end "when the moon will turn red and the sun will turn blue" and the Lakota people will resume their place at the center of existence"

--Archie Fire, Introduction, xxv-xxvi

"Turtle Mountain was among the many Indian communities that had been visited in recent years by the "Rugaru", as the Ojibway call the hairy man who appears in symptom of danger or psychic disruption in the community. Mary's son Richard talked a little about the appearance of these beings in recent years to Lakota people at Little Eagle, South Dakota. "There were just too many sightings down there to ignore. I mean, a lot of people saw it. Around here, we didn't have many reports; most of them were right here where we live now." He waved his hand to indicate the woods outside, where I camped that night along the lake edge."

--Peter Mathiessen, Introduction, p xxvii

"A few weeks before, the big, hairy man had appeared in Little Eagle for the third straight year, and more than forty people had seen him. "I think that the Big Man is kind of the husband of Unk-ksa, the Earth, who is wise in the way of anything with its own natural wisdom. Sometimes we say that this One is a kind of big reptile from the ancient times, who can take a big, hairy form: I also think he can change into a coyote. He is very powerful. Some of the people who saw him did not respect what they were seeing, they did not honor him, and they are already gone."

--Joe Flying By, Introduction, xxix-xxx

"We've come to an age where we should know better what we are doing," Pete Catches resumed softly, in a silence that followed some meditations on the Big Man, who was trying to save mankind, he said, from the great cataclysm the Indian people knew was coming. "We must now try to understand what is wrong with us, why we have to tamper with and change the forests and the land. We have done this too long--not us, but the white man. Let's not walk on the moon, then fail to understand what this Creation is all about. This is life, this is beautiful, everything is the way it should be."

--Ogala Lakota Medicine Man Pete Catches, Introduction, p xxxviii.

"On the early morning of June 25, Jean Bordeaux, Norman Brown, and Jimmy Zimmerman were sitting up late, down by the creek. 'Maybe around three or four o'clock,' Jean says, 'not long before the sun, we heard something very big walking in the creek. It wasn't any animal, either, and it wasn't like somebody tossing in big rocks; it was plunk-plunk-plunk, like that, big steady steps. Zimmerman was so scared he just ran off, he wanted to wake up Joe, because him and Joe was living in one tent. Norman Brown said it was the Big Man, and that his people over in Arizona knew all about it, but we were all too scared to go down there and look.' In the evening of that day huge dark thunderheads gathered over the Black Hills, followed by wild angry winds and lashing rain that caused property damaged all over the western part of South Dakota.

--Mathiessen, The U.S. Puppet Government, p 149.

"Along the creek the pale clay mud was crisscrossed by the sharp prints of raccoons, and near the water was a tree gnawed long ago by a beaver. I told Sam about the big footsteps in the creek heard on the night before the shoot-out by Jean Bordeaux and Jimmy Zimmerman and Norman Brown, and he nodded, saying, "That was a warning."

'There is your Big Man standing there, ever waiting, ever present, like the coming of a new day,' Peter Catches had told me two years earlier, here on Pine Ridge. "He is both spirit and a real being"- he had slapped the iron of his cot for emphasis--"but he can also glide through the forest, like a moose with big antlers, as if the trees weren't there. At Little Eagle, all those people came, and they went out with rifles and long scopes, and they couldn't see him, but all those other people at the bonfire, he came up close to them, they smelled him, heard him breathing: and when they tried to get too close, he went away. He didn't harm no one; I know him as my brother. I wanted to live over there at Little Eagle, go out by myself where he was last seen, and come in contact with him. I want him to touch me, just a touch, a blessing, something I could bring home to my sons and grandchildren, that I was there, that I approached him, and he touched me.

It doesn't matter what you call him; he has many names. I call him Brother, Ci-e, and that's what the Old People would call him, too. We know that he was here with us for a long time; we are fortunate to see him in our generation. We may not see him again for many many generations. But he will come back, just when the next Ice Age comes into being."

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PETER CATCHES

ZINTKALA OYATE

PART 2

 

JL:  In the introduction of your fathers book, The Sacred Fireplace; you mention "this in-between world of worlds", this tangible reality of our known life's and the limits of our comprehension. Were you referring to reincarnation, of past and future existence, or some other realities? 

 Zintkala Oyate: We are beyond this material world that we live in. Within our heart is a place where we can go beyond in the truth of our spirit.  This is the world I'm talking about.

JL: What did you mean about people who do not understand the Red Road of Life, because they crave intellectual knowledge?

 Zintkala Oyate: The symbolism of the sacred tree, the tree of life, on there is a whirlwind of the blood that flows thru you from the beginning of time. And it's essence is the red road.

JL: How important is generosity in terms of ones physical and spiritual well-being?

Zintkala Oyate:  Generosity is a stepping stone to the spirituality which we must eventually attain.

Red Clay Road . Tara Good
 

JL: In Sacred Fireplace, your father also talks about how the world for your people has changed; like the sense of value, honesty and truthfulness and how much of your ways have been lost. What do you believe are some of the reasons behind the change and loss and do you see signs of improvement?

Zintkala Oyate: This Act in 1889 outlawed everything that was Lakota. Although it had to go underground during all those years, the essence of Lakota has remained and it is getting stronger year by year.

JL: Do you also believe, like your father, that religion of whatever denomination was used by the government and churches to divide the Lakota people?  If this is still the case, what is the solution to this problem?

Zintkala Oyate:  In that particular area in time, it had to be that way. We saw that in our prophesy that this was coming. That's why we had that sacred rite, throwing of the sacred ball. And the change is in your spirit is how we want to be in the presence of the Great Mystery and that is imminent in all of us.

JL. Do you think it is impossible for the Lakota to live a traditional life, when they have to wear white men's clothes, eat white men's food and speak their language and live by their rules?

Zintkala Oyate:  Transition is a way of life. Being Lakota is always being Lakota. Those are material aspects that you speak of. Because we know of and love the Great Mystery being that we are the people of peace nothing can ever change that.

 

JL: Does Wakan Tanka and the Lakota spirits recognize and understand English or other languages, or are they limited and only recognize and understand Lakota?  In other words, if you pray to them in English, or Spanish for example, would it be a waste of time and energy?

Zintkala Oyate:  All cultures from the beginning have a way to pray to the Great Mystery. The Great Mystery gave each culture a way to commune that love the Great Mystery has given that culture. The power that culture holds is how ones spirit approaches the Great Mystery. Being Lakota as I am, I can only recognize it in that way.

JL:  What would you say is Hollywood's biggest misconception of a medicine man and what is the difference between a medicine man and a witch doctor?

Zintkala Oyate:  That is a world that I don't belong in. If someone wishes to know this way, they will find it in their spiritual heart to find the real thing.

JL: Why doesn't a medicine man fight, raise his voice in anger, or own a rifle?

 Zintkala Oyate: That is an untruth.

 

Lakota Eagle Dancer. David Michael Kennedy

 

JL:  You said earlier in the interview that anyone can go on a pipe quest. Does that mean anyone can also carry a pipe? Or do you have to be a certain kind of person to be able to do this?

Zintkala Oyate: That is very personal and it belongs to that individual.

JL: When your father said  - what you put out is what you get in return - was he talking about cause and effect, reap what you sow, karma etc.?

Zintkala Oyate:  Apparently that is the case.

JL:  How important is faith for someone who asks for a healing and is it possible to be healed without faith?

Zintkala Oyate:  For instance, my grandfather loved me so much that he would give his whole world away, as a child I laid there dying. Does a child have faith? That love of the grandfather will heal you.

 

JL: What about blood quantum; do you think a full blood is superior or as equal in Wakan Tanka's eyes as, say a mixed blood?

Zintkala Oyate: There is no such thing as blood quantum. What you believe is what you are.

JL:. How should a Lakota pray?

 Zintkala Oyate: As anyone prays.

JL:  Does the great spirit only dwell in sacred places like the Black Hills and why are the Black Hills sacred?

 Zintkala Oyate: This whole world is the Mother of every sentient being and the Black Hills are sacred if you wish it so.
JL:. Lakota means peace. Have your people mostly always been a peaceful people?

:Zintkala Oyate: Yes

JL:  Is it possible for the great spirit to dwell inside someone who is conceited, quarrelsome, angry, deceitful, unkind; or is that an indication of some other kind of spirit etc.?

Zintkala Oyate:  There are levels and categories. That individual will have to go to a spiritual place to find that.

 

JL: Is it ok for the white person to participate in the Sundance?

Zintkala Oyate:  It depends on circumstances.

JL: What are your thoughts on people that eat and drink during the Sundance?

Zintkala Oyate:  Not very good.

JL:  What is a real Sundance as opposed to a fake one?

Zintkala Oyate:  I wouldn't know. I haven't gone to other people's Sundance's.

JL: How important is the leader of the Sundance and why should there be a leader to begin with?

Zintkala Oyate: Would you ask Jesus that question? Or Muhammad that questions? Or the President of the United States that question?

JL: No I would not, but I would ask them this; does a Shepard follow his sheep? In other words - who is this leader for?  For people who can see, or for people that cant see?

Zintkala Oyate: For both, for people that see to become emissaries for those that can't see.
 

  JL. Do you believe in reincarnation and what is the 7th Generation that Crazy Horse spoke of?

Zintkala Oyate:  If you will go to my web site and get the Seven Sacred Rites from the Spotted Eagle Way you will find that answer. www.ocetiwakan.org
JL:. How important is the buffalo to your people today?  Does it still hold the same significance as in the past?

Zintkala Oyate:  Very much so.   JL: Is it true that the Lakota language doesn't have curse words and why can't a medicine man curse, or be critical of others?

Zintkala Oyate:  To go into that endeavor pollutes the essence of the spirit.

Eagle Feather

 

JL: How does one cleanse a polluted spirit?

Zintkala Oyate:  By the first sacred rite of the Inipi; the purification rite.

JL:. Is it ok to buy a pipe?

Zintkala Oyate:  No.

JL:  What is your interpretation of a fake medicine man?

Zintkala Oyate:  Let me say it this way. A medicine man has his own songs, he speaks his cultures' language and I can say more but not at this time.

JL: What does a medicine bundle usually consist of?

Zintkala Oyate: The reality of one's people.

JL:  Where do you get your eagle feathers from?

Zintkala Oyate:  They will come to you.

JL: Is Good Lance the medicine man that could bring the eagles round and have you ever done that or split the clouds etc.?   Zintkala Oyate: That question is for others to answer who have seen my work.

JL: What is agito?

Zintkala Oyate:  Enlightenment.

JL: How would one attain this agito and if one did, would they speak of it?

Zintkala Oyate: You can be a doctorate in literature or any of the other areas of the profession and still not have agito. That agito comes with the wisdom of self. And no university can teach that. Some person may be living in poverty all of his life and may not speak in the English language or any language and yet through the experiential teachings of nature they have agito. No, they can't teach it.

JL: So, if agito cannot be taught, can someone point to the path or a direction to find this wisdom of self?

Zintkala Oyate: If someone is a true seeker, they will find it.

JL: How important is food as medicine?

Zintkala Oyate:  John, you wouldn't even last one day without going to McDonalds.   JL: (Laughs) What does le yatkan yo a nicisni ktalo mean and how is this applied?

 Zintkala Oyate: 'Drink this and you will get well.' It is the thought behind it, the resurrection from someone's illness.

JL: Do you think the throwing of the sacred ball ceremony will be used in the near future?

 Zintkala Oyate: Personally yes I do.

JL: Is the Lakota society still matriarchal?

Zintkala Oyate:  In some cases.

JL: Do you think alcohol is the greatest evil of this time, or is it the love of money?

Zintkala Oyate:  In the greater society money is true. In our life here, on this reservation, alcohol is.

JL: Did your people ever have syphilis or any of the sexually transmitted diseases before the arrival of European colonialism,and can these diseases be cured with traditional medicine?

Zintkala Oyate:  To your first question no. To your second question yes.

JL: Can you please tell me about oceti wakan?

Zintkala Oyate: Visit our web site and I hope it will tell you all about Oceti Wakan.

It is www.ocetiwakan.org  

I remain in Wakan Tanka, Zintkala Oyate

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PART 1  December 6. 2006.

John LeKay: Can you please tell me about your Lakota background and where you are from?

Pete V Catches:  My grandfather was Ribsman, a survivor of the Wounded Knee Massacre. He was nine years old as his brother was throwing him into a dry creek bed to run, as he was being shot. He lived with my family until his death in 1968 and I was 13 years old. He was very important to my life. He never learned to speak English. He taught me my first songs. This is my grandfather from my mother's side. My mother was Amelia. I am Oglala Lakota, one of the bands that is known by many as the Sioux.

We liked to be called Lakota. It means the people of peace. My father was named Pete Catches Sr. and known as Petaga Yuha Mani (He who walks with hot coals). As far as we can count back he was a 37th generation medicine man. In Lakota society, to be a medicine man, it has to be in the blood line, the DNA so to speak. I am the 7th of 8 children.

My father knew before I was born that I was to be the medicine child. So when I was to be born, they prepared the sweat lodge so that he could give me his name and commit me to the Spotted Eagle way of medicine and my grandfather gave me my spiritual name, Zintkala Oyate, which means bird people. The reason for this is that when a medicine child is born, any real medicine person can come and get that child to raise it in the medicine that they do. This happened. A bear medicine man came after me but my father was ready and told them that he had already committed me to the Spotted Eagle way.

My home is on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

 

 John Fire Lame Deer with Pete Catches Sr

JL: At what age did your medicine training begin and did you have to stay on the mountain for 4 days and nights to receive your vision?

Zintkala Oyate:  I was born with it whereas with Dad, it didn't awaken in him till he was in his 40's.

You are talking about hanbleceya, the best way to describe it in English is the pipe fast which is a fast without food or water up to four days (how many days you commit to before you start) which is a 4 year commitment and it is one of the seven sacred rites given to the Lakota. It is a beautiful and powerful prayer. Mainstream society calls it a vision quest. One can have a vision but this is not the purpose as there are many reasons a person will go on a pipe fast.

I have my medicine by birthrite. It was very different for my father. I have done certain things to be able to do the healing that I do but it is not something I would discuss in an interview.

JL: So can any Lakota do this pipe fast or do you have to be a medicine man?

Zintkala Oyate: Any human being who believes this way can do this rite if they get a medicine man or spiritual person to create the space for them. Remember Lakota means the people of peace, there is no color attached to it. Race is something that man made up.

 

 

JL: What does the eagle and the bear represent and why is the eagle feather used?

Zintkala Oyate: They are different clans.... the eagle clan, the bear clan, the elk clan, etc. Each way has its own teachings and understandings of the seven sacred rites and the ceremonies within these seven sacred rites.

The eagle feather is used to cleanse the mind and bring you to a higher state. The eagle symbolically is the closest to the heavens; the highest realm of consciousness.

JL: Were Black Elk, Lame Deer and Fools Crow from the bear society or were they from the eagle society, and what is the difference?

Zintkala Oyate: Black Elk and Lame Deer were heyoka which means that you literally say and do things backwards in a humorous manner but whose spirit helpers are the powerful thunderbeings.

Lame Deer was the last true heyoka. If you look at this world most things flow in a clockwise cycle but you also have that small element in life that goes the opposite direction. There are things that Black Elk and Lame Deer did and said things in a way to divert the tensions at that time when the pipe way was under attack.

This is a way they used their medicine to help the people. At these times our religion was against the law with 10 years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine. Medicine men were being put in jail, pipe and sweat lodges were destroyed, and so on. This law was till 1979. This is one of the reasons that my dad wrote the book that he did. Now that we had more freedom, the Lakota was coming and learning about themselves from books and they started doing everything backwards.

For a ceremony to have the power it was intended to have to help you, it must be done the way that it was given to you. You can't take a little from here and a little from there and have the same results. Although all prayer is good.
 

Peter V Catches

 

Fools Crow was yuwipi. They use black in their ceremonies. In the Spotted Eagle way, we can not use black in our ceremonies. We can only use life colors and can only do good with the use of our power. We can not do something bad in the name of good. Our medicine would be destroyed. It is only to be used to help the people.

JL: What is the reason for the number 405 for Fools Crow's stone white men spirit helpers and also Lame Deer mentions 405 and stones that are used in the the holy rattle?

Zintkala Oyate : A lot of yuwipi use 405 prayer ties. This is not my way so I can not answer your questions about this.

JL: Does that mean that Black Elk's descendents were also heyoka?

Zintkala Oyate: No, that does not mean that Black Elk's descendents would also be heyoka.

JL: Why was Lame Deer the real last heyoka?

Zintkala Oyate: According to my father, Lame Deer told my father that he tried to pass his medicine on but it was refused, so he died without doing this. If it is truly needed, it will become a reality again.

 

 

JL: Does that mean that there are no more thunder beings; or is it because a part of your religion has died, or is of no use any more?

Zintkala Oyate: No, nothing we do here has any affect on the thunder beings or the eagles or any of the spirits that help us. If there was a real heyoka they would show up at a real sundance and do what real heyokas do and I know what they do at a real sundance. They will always show up. It is part of who they are.

JL:  Are you a pejuta wicasa or a wicasa wakan?

Zintkala Oyate: Pejuta wicasa uses herbs, what you would call an herbalist. I am an interpreter to the spirits. I work with the spirits. They gave me four roots that I also sometimes use but it is the spirits that is the source of the healing.

 

 

JL: Was Crazy Horse a Wicasa Wakan and is it true that the medicine he carried made him impervious to bullets?

Zintkala Oyate: Crazy Horse had a power to protect the people. I call him the deity of the brave.

JL:  I have also been told by an apache medicine man that charging can be a very serious and dangerous thing to do; even resulting in death. He said he accepts gifts, 4 to be precise, for his services, but not large sums of money. Is this true with the Lakota medicine man?

Zintkala Oyate:  This charging things is very interesting and not understood by most people today. Of course a medicine man does not charge. But that does not mean that you are not supposed to pay him for what he does. Everyone has a different circumstances so what one would give would be of a different value to the person who is giving, say someone who had a lot, in relationship to someone who has nothing. There needs to be some exchange of energy so to speak or if not it falls back on the medicine man and he becomes sick.

In the old days there was not money so a person gave something of great value to them for them to help them. Just to talk to a medicine man they would bring him a horse. Later on as blankets were of great value to them, they would give a medicine man some blankets, etc. for helping them. So people hear that you gave him a blanket, now everyone gives me blankets. How many blankets can I use. People aren't using their heads or their heart.

Today's form of barter is usually money. What is wrong with that?

In the old days the people made sure that the medicine man had his needs met so that he could do his job. We all have jobs and all jobs should be valued. There is no great mystery about it. It is not my place nor have I ever told someone what value their healing or life is; that is something that has to come from their own spiritual maturity.

 

That is respect. My father always says you get what you give. In the long run I think this is true in most things in life.
 

When you ask a medicine man to help you, there are two responsibilities expected from you. One is to realize in order for a medicine man to be able to do his job; people have some responsibility to help him. Prayer is a good way to find what is right here. The other responsibility is that within a year's time, that person has a responsibility to the spirits. The way they fulfill that is to do something for the people; to help the people. This is how the "giveaway" came about. In the old days, when something happened like a son's life was saved, etc. they gave everything they had away to help the people. There value was the value of family and love; not this material world. It is just that this material world we live in today has things all mixed up. Materialism is a spiritual disease and it affects everything these days. Anyway, the spirits expect this. What a person decides to do is up to them

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Pre-Columbian and Early American Legends of Bigfoot-like Beings

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Introduction

Originally printed in the Western Bigfoot Society Newsletter "The Track Record". Excerpted from "Legends Beyond Psychology", by Henry James Franzoni III. Reprinted with permission from all parties.

"Here in the Northwest, and west of the Rockies generally, Indian people regard Bigfoot with great respect. He is seen as a special kind of being, because of his obvious close relationship with humans. Some elders regard him as standing on the "border" between animal-style consciousness and human-style consciousness, which gives him a special kind of power. (It is not that Bigfoot's relationship to make him "superior" to other animals; in Indian culture, unlike western culture, animals are not regarded as "inferior" to humans but rather as "elder brothers" and "teachers" of humans. But tribal cultures everywhere are based on relationship and kinship; the closer the kinship, the stronger the bond. Man Indian elders in the Northwest refuse to eat bear meat because of the bear's similarity to humans, and Bigfoot is obviously much more similar to humans than is the bear. As beings who blend the "natural knowledge" of animals with something of the distinctive type of consciousness called "intelligence" that humans have, Bigfoot is regarded as a special type of being."

"But, special being as he is, I have never heard anyone from a Northwestern tribe suggest that Bigfoot is anything other than a physical being, living in the same physical dimensions as humans and other animals. He eats, he sleeps, he poops, he cares for his family members. However, among many Indians elsewhere in North America... as widely separated at the Hopi, the Sioux, the Iroquois, and the Northern Athabascan -- Bigfoot is seen more as a sort of supernatural or spirit being, whose appearance to humans is always meant to convey some kind of message."

"The Lakota, or western Sioux, call Bigfoot Chiye-tanka (Chiha-tanka in Dakota or eastern Sioux); "chiye" means "elder brother" and "tanka" means "great" or "big". In English, though, the Sioux usually call him "the big man". In his book "In the Spirit of Crazy Horse," (Viking, 1980), a non-fiction account of the events dramatized by the excellent recent movie "Thunderheart", author Peter Mathiessen recorded some comments about Bigfoot made by traditional Sioux people and some members of other Indian nations. Joe Flying By, a Hunkpapa Lakota, told Mathiessen, "I think the Big Man is a kind of husband of Unk-ksa, the earth, who is wise in the way of anything with its own natural wisdom. Sometimes we say that this One is a kind of reptile from the ancient times who can take a big hairy form; I also think he can change into a coyote. Some of the people who saw him did not respect what they were seeing, and they are already gone."

"There is your Big man standing there, ever waiting, ever present, like the coming of a new day," Oglala Lakota Medicine Man Pete Catches km told Mathiessen. "He is both spirit and real being, but he can also glide through the forest, like a moose with big antlers, as though the trees weren't there... I know him as my brother... I want him to touch me, just a touch, a blessing, something I could bring home to my sons and grandchildren, that I was there, that I approached him, and he touched me."

Map of North American Indian Liguistic and Cultural Area
Click on a region to view that area's legends

[Gulf] [Algonkian] [Keres] [Penutian] [Yukian] [Chimakuan] [Hokan-Coahiltecan] [Tonkawa] [Karankawa] [Kuteni] [Iroquoian] [Wakashan] [Timucua] [Na-Dene] [Aztec-Ianoan] [Caddoan] [Siouan-Yuchi] [Salish]

Ray Owen, son of a Dakota spiritual leader from Prairie Island Reservation in Minnesota, told a reporter from (the) Red Wing (Minnesota) Republican Eagle, "They exist in another dimension from us, but can appear in this dimension whenever they have a reason to. See, it's like there are many levels, many dimensions. When our time in this one is finished, we move on to the next, but the Big Man can go between. The Big Man comes from God. He's our big brother, kind of looks out for us. Two years ago, we were going downhill, really self-destructive. We needed a sign to put us back on track, and that's why the Big Man appeared".

Ralph Gray Wolf, a visiting Athapaskan Indian from Alaska, told the reporter, "In our way of beliefs, they make appearances at troubled times", to help troubled Indian communities "get more in tune with Mother Earth". Bigfoot brings "signs or messages that there is a need to change, a need to cleanse," (Minn. news article, "Giant Footprint Signals a Time to Seek Change," July 23,1988).

Mathiessen reported similar views among the Turtle Mountain Ojibway in North Dakota, that Bigfoot --- whom they call Rugaru -- "appears in symptoms of danger or psychic disruption to the community." When I read this, I wondered if it contradicted my hypothesis that the Ojibways had identified Bigfoot with Windago, the sinister cannibal-giant of their legends (see Track Record #14); I had surmised that because I had never heard of any other names for, or references to Bigfoot in Ojibway culture, even though there must have been sightings in woodlands around the Great lakes, and indeed sightings in that region have been reported by non-Indians. But the Turtle Mountain band is one of the few Ojibway bands to have moved much farther west than most of their nation; and Rugaru is not a native Ojibway word. Nor does it come from the languages of neighboring Indian peoples. However, it has a striking sound similarity to the French word for werewolf, loup-garou, and there is quite a bit of French influence among the Turtle Mountain Ojibway. (French-Canadian trappers and missionaries were the first whites that they dealt with extensively, and many tribal members today bear French surnames), so it doesn't seem far-fetched that the Turtle Mountain Ojibway picked up the French name for hairy human-like being, while at the same time taking on their neighbors positive, reverent, attitude toward Bigfoot. After all, the Plains Cree -- even though they retain a memory of their eastern cousins tradition of the Wetiko (as the Windigo is called in Cree) -- have seemed similarly to take on the western tribes view of Bigfoot as they moved west.

The Hopi elders say that the increasing appearances of Bigfoot are not only a message or warning to the individuals or communities to whom he appears, but to humankind at large. As Mathiessen puts it, they see Bigfoot as "a messenger who appears in evil times as a warning from the Creator that man's disrespect for His sacred instructions has upset the harmony and balance of existence." To the Hopi, the "big hairy man" is just one form that the messenger can take.

The Iroquois (Six Nations Confederacy) of the Northeast -- although they live in close proximity to the eastern Algonkian tribes with their Windigo legends -- view Bigfoot much in the same way the Hopi do, as a messenger from the Creator trying to warn humans to change their ways or face disaster. However, mentioned among Iroquois much more often than Bigfoot are the "little people" who are said to inhabit the Adirondacks mountains. I never heard any first-hand stories among the Iroqouis about encounters with these "little people" -- for that matter, I never heard and first-hand stories in that region about Bigfoot, either -- but the Iroquois pass down stories about hunters who occasionally saw small human-like beings in the Adirondacks (which are not all that far from the Catskills, where Rip Van Winkle was alleged to have met some little bowlers) (and slept for 100 years -HF). Some present-day Iroquois assert that the "little people" are still there, just not seen as often because the Iroquois don't spend as much time hunting up in the mountains as they used to. many Iroquois seem to regard both Bigfoot and the "little people" as spiritual or interdimensional beings who can enter or leave our physical dimension as they please, and choose to whom they present themselves, always for a reason.

Stories about small, humanoids who inhabit wild places are found in many areas of the world, especially Europe. (The Kiowa tell a story about several young men who decide to go exploring south from their Texas home for many days, seeing many new things, until they came to a strange forest [obviously the jungles of southern Mexico] whose trees were home to small, furred humanoids with tails! This they found to be too weird, so they immediately headed back for home). I never thought to connect the stories about the "little people" with the Sasquatch until Ray Crowe brought up the possible connection. After all, if there may be large relatives of humans living in remote areas, would it be so impossible for there to be small ones? Details that stretch credibility, such as pots of gold, pointed and belled caps, games of ninepins, etc., could conceivably be embellishments added over generations to some genuine accounts of sightings.

Throughout Native North America, Bigfoot is seen as a kind of "brother" to humans. Even among those eastern Algonkian tribes to whom Bigfoot represents the incarnation of the Windigo -- the human who is transformed into a cannibalistic monster by tasting human flesh in time of starvation -- his fearsomeness comes from his very closeness to humans. The Windigo is the embodiment of the hidden, terrifying temptation within them to turn to eating other humans when no other food is to be had. he was still their "elder brother", but a brother who represented a human potential they feared. As such, the Windigo's appearance was sort of a constant warning to them, a reminder that a community whose members turn to eating each other is doomed much more surely than a community that simply has no food. So the figure of the Windigo is not so far removed from the figure of the "messenger" coming to warn humankind of impending disaster if it doesn't cease its destruction of nature.

The existence of Bigfoot is taken for granted throughout Native North America, and so are his powerful psychic abilities. I can't count the number of times that I have heard elder Indian people say that Bigfoot knows when humans are searching for him and that he chooses when and to whom to make an appearance, and that his psychic powers account for his ability to elude the white man's efforts to capture him or hunt him down. In Indian culture, the entire natural world -- the animals, the plants, the rivers, the stars -- is seen as a family. And Bigfoot is seen as one of our close relatives, the "great elder brother"

Updated:June 18, 2000
© 2000 Andy Rennard, Bigfoot Field Researchers Organisation
www.bfro.net

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www.bfro.net            &nb sp;  For a Sasquatch in your area...........GreyWolf

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Heyoka

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Heyoka

by Laughing Deer

A Lakota way of being, a medicine way. A Heyoka is one who does things backwards or opposite. The idea that Heyoka is a clown comes from the opposite behavior; it is part of the medicine of Heyoka, to remind us we are merely human beings and not to become too serious about ourselves, not to imagine we are more powerful than we really are, reminding us that Spirit holds all the power. In this day there are those among the Lakota who pour Heyoka lodges, which are directed towards the West and full of laughter. If a Heyoka man messes up he has the Thunder Nation to deal with. Spirit chooses who is Heyoka; it is a very difficult path to follow.

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Contents

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• 1 Heyoka tradition
• 2 Thunder dreamer
• 3 Heyoka in popular culture
• 4 References
• 5 See also
• 6 External links

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Heyoka, approximately translated from Lakota, means ’contrarian’ or ’sacred clown’.

Heyoka are thought of as being backwards-forwards, upside-down, or contrarian in nature. This spirit is often manifest by doing things backwards or unconventionally--riding a horse backwards, wearing clothes inside-out, or speaking in a backwards language. For example, if food were scarce, a Heyoka would sit around and complain about how full he was; during a baking hot heat wave a Heyoka will shiver with cold and put on gloves and cover himself with a thick blanket. Similarly, when it is 40 degrees below freezing he will wander around naked for hours complaining that it is too hot. A unique example is the famous Heyoka sacred clown called "the Straighten-Outer":

..>..>..> ..TR> " He was always running around with a hammer trying to flasten to flatten round and curvy things (soup bowls, eggs, wagon wheels, etc.), thus making them straight "..>..>..>..TABLE>

John Fire Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions 1972: 250

During the Sun Dance, a Heyoka sacred clown may appear to tempt the dancers with water and food and to dance backwards around the circle in a show of respect. If a dancer looks into the mirrored eyes of the Heyoka, his or her dance is finished.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Heyoka tradition

The Heyoka symbolize and portray many aspects of the sacred, the Wakan, in a rather novel way. Their satire presents important questions by fooling around. They ask difficult questions, and say things others are too afraid to say. By reading between the lines, the audience is able to think about things not usually thought about, or to look at things in a different way.

Principally, the Heyoka functions both as a mirror and a teacher, using extreme behaviors to mirror others, thereby forcing them to examine their own doubts, fears, hatreds, and weaknesses. Heyokas also have the power to heal emotional pain; such power comes from the experience of shame--they sing of shameful events in their lives, beg for food, and live as clowns. They provoke laughter in distressing situations of despair and provoke fear and chaos when people feel complacent and overly secure, to keep them from taking themselves too seriously or believing they are more powerful than they are.

In addition, sacred clowns also serve an important role in shaping tribal codes. Heyokas don’t seem to care about taboos, rules, regulations, social norms, or boundaries. Paradoxically, however, it is by violating these norms and taboos that they help to define the accepted boundaries, rules, and societal guidelines for ethical and moral behavior. This is because they are the only ones who can ask "Why?" about sensitive topics and employ satire to question the specialists and carriers of sacred knowledge or those in positions of power and authority. In doing so, they demonstrate concretely the theories of balance and imbalance. Their role is to penetrate deception, turn over rocks, and create a deeper awareness.^{[citation needed]}

..>..>..> ..TR> " For people who are as poor as us, who have lost everything, who had to endure so much death and sadness, laughter is a precious gift. When we were dying like flies from white man’s disease, when we were driven into reservations, when the government rations did not arrive and we were starving, watching the pranks and capers of heyoka were a blessing. "..>..>..>..TABLE>

- John (Fire) Lame Deer, quoted in Seeker of Visions 1972: 250

Wicasa Wakan means Holy man, not "Medicine man" or "shaman" (a term of Siberian origin). This is an important distinction. A Lakota medicine man is called pejuta wacasa.

[edit] Thunder dreamer

It is believed among the Lakota that if you had a dream or vision of birds you were destined to be a medicine man,^{[citation needed]} but if you had a vision of the Wakinyan Thunderbird, it was your destiny to become a heyoka, or sacred clown.^{[citation needed]} Like the Thunderbird, the heyoka are both feared and held in reverence.^{[citation needed]}

..>..>..> ..TR> " When a vision comes from the thunder beings of the West, it comes with terror like a thunder storm; but when the storm of vision has passed, the world is greener and happier; for wherever the truth of vision comes upon the world, it is like a rain. The world, you see, is happier after the terror of the storm... you have noticed that truth comes into this world with two faces. One is sad with suffering, and the other laughs; but it is the same face, laughing or weeping...... as lightning illuminates the dark, for it is the power of lightning that heyokas have. "..>..>..>..TABLE>

-Black Elk, quoted in Neihardt 1959: 160

The Heyoka are healers and have many functions, for example healing through laughter and awakening people to deeper meaning and concealed truth and to prepare the people for oncoming disaster with laughter.^{[citation needed]This is who}

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Heyoka, roughly translated, means "Clown". INNER Heyoka as used on this website,  refers to works more in the Spiritual (soul) area. The "Essenes" of the North American Natives.

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Sacred Fools and Clowns Clowns Names for clowns are heyoka, chifone, koshare, "banana ripener," kwirana, and "blue jay". There are both humorous and serious clowns. Serious clowns of the medicine society maintaining the continuity of fertility, rain, crops, health, and the various orders of Creation. They are the guardians of the ritual, ready with yucca plant lashes to catch a child and throw him in the river.

Whenever the clowns enter the stage of drama in a ritual and wherever they are found in the oral histories, stories, or songs, the clowns have something in common. Scared clowns from different tribes can recognize another scared clown without word passing between them, they would be able to know who the other one was; what he represented and what he was placed on earth to do.

Early histories of oral tradition introduce the concept and the techniques of clowning. When clowns appear in the creation stories they play important roles during the emergence of "The People" into the present. Sacred clowns have a special relationship to the sun, almost like sons. Particularly in the southwest there is often more than one clown society. Example: Pueblos divide clowns into summer and winter clowns.

Clowns have several different aspects. Clowns are sometimes guides to the individuals whose dreams and visions take them to the World of Souls or the Land of the Dead. Clowns have a widespread association to water places such as mist, drizzle, rain, clouds, storms, steams, thunder and lightening. Clowns are mediators for rain. Sacred Clowns: Their Relationship To Scared Knowledge One of the unique features of Native American sacred ways is the important place of humor, and laughter in this aspect of "The People’s" lives.

Sacred clowns portray and symbolize aspects of the sacred in a special way, a way in which their teachings get through to us without even "thinking about" them. Clowns in their actions don’t seem to care about "concepts. They are not concerned about definitions but at the same time they define the concepts at the root of tribal cosmologies, the guidelines for moral and ethical behaviors, and the theories of balance and imbalance.

Clowns are the only ones who can "ask why" of dangerous subjects or "ask why" of those people who are specialist in advanced sacred knowledge. They ask in their backwards language, through their satire, and their fooling around. They ask the questions others would like to say they say the things others are afraid to speak Jokes, puns, and satire are forms of humor that are important teaching tools. By reading between the lines the audience is able to think about things not usually thought about or cause them to look at some things in a different aspect.

Clowns have an important role in terms of portraying and symbolizing concepts. Clowns portray the boundaries and the limits of the world by going beyond them, acting in a non-ordinary way while doing so, and in this way contrast they own contrary behavior with the orderly ritual directions and scared worlds.

Clowns dramatize the powerful relationships. They show the dark side, the light side, they show us life is hard, and that life can be made easier. Sacred clowns integrate modern-day elements into aboriginal rituals keeping their dramas effective from year to year. Most obvious characteristic of sacred clowns is that they are full of contradictions. They have a mixture of innocence and wisdom, and they speak like "wise-priests".

Acoma Medicine Society- The Chaianyi, are some of the most powerful members of the tribe. Koshare- one of the groups of clowns, were to know no sadness and to know no pain even if they were hurt. The Koshare was described as "different from the other people because he knows something about himself". The sacred clowns make people aware of their pain and sorrow but they also relieve them from the thought of it. The Sioux clowns derive their power and wisdom from an experience of shame. The power originates from the experience of an individual vision or dream from the experience of shame.

Heyoka is another name for a clown. Thought of as being upside-down, backward-forward, and says things like yes when he actually means no (for humor). They teach backwards through nonsense, jokes and threats. The Heyoka perform The Cleansing Ceremony as follows: They kill a dog and put it in a boiling kettle, then they dance, sing and act around the kettle. The climax of the ceremony is when the Heyokas dance and take out the dog meat with their bare arms. Then they give it to the poor and the sick, which then cures them of the sicknesses that they have, a good medicine. The Heyoka are not scalded because of a herb- Tapejuta. They chew it and smear it on their arms; therefore the boiling water won’t hurt them. Other activities performed by the clowns include the Zuni clowns imitation of Satataca, The Bow Priest, in his Night Chant Prayer. They make obscene remarks in the place of original lines, this symbolizes the importance of language and all that it allows us to do. Additionally, some clowns even pose as Blue Jays and "Crazy Dancers."

Generally, most clowns participate in backwards talk, jokes, satire, lots of fooling around, contrary behavior, the singing of shameful events in their lives, and asking and begging for food. The MAIN GOAL is to teach by bad example and cause imbalance at the ceremonies. The clowns have many roles and functions. First and possibly foremost is to prepare the people for disaster (this shows that collaboration is needed by everyone to maintain a life that is frequently challenged by catastrophes.) Also, many clowns are considered to be healers. Some may even feed medicine to the sick out of their own mouths.

Yet another role is to show preventive medicine to the people, and this may include good eating and health tips. At the end of a ceremonies, everyone, adults and children alike, should understand the concept of balance. Additionally, those who need to must "share their shame." And finally, other concepts to be understood should be; personal responsibility is at the heart of social order and survival and sacred power. This is all concluded in the finale of the ceremony when there is a cleansing act performed on the clowns

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More Heyoka
Current mood: Spirit Walking
Category: Spirit Walking Religion and Philosophy

by Steve Mizrach

Thunderbird and Trickster

Introduction

The Thunderbird is one of the few cross-cultural elements of Native North American mythology. He is found not just among Plains Indians, but also among Pacific Northwest and Northeastern tribes. He has also become quite a bit of an icon for non-Indians, since he has also had the honor of having automobiles, liquors, and even a United States Air Force squadron named after him. Totems bearing his representation can be found all over the continent. There have been a number of curious theories about the origins of the Thunderbird myth - ones which I will show are probably wrongheaded.

In this paper, moreover, I want to examine how the myths and legends of the Thunderbird tie into the sacred clowning/trickster ritual complex of Plains tribes such as the Lakota. I will show how the Thunderbird is intimately connected to this complex, and attempt to explain why. It is the intimate association between these two traditions that may help explain some features of Plains culture and folklore. Aspects of the Thunderbird myth only make sense in light of these associations.

Plains Indians myth and folklore

In order to understand Plains Indians folklore, we have to realize that their myths were not just "just-so" stories to entertain, divert, or make inadequate efforts at naturalistic explanation. Rather, Indian myth functioned in religious, pedagogical, and initiatory ways, to help socialize young people and illuminate the various religious and other roles in society. Indian myth was always fluid, and grounded in the present, which is what might be expected of societies which largely lacked static, written traditions. Storytelling was an art which was maintained by the medicine people with great fidelity, because it was used to explain the development of certain rituals and elements of society. (Hines 1992)

Some have looked at the Thunderbird myths through the same lens of understanding applied to European mythology. The Thunderbird is like the Indo-European dragon or ogre or Leviathan, a huge monster who kidnaps virginal maidens, and who must be slain by the brave hero. Or the Thunderbird is simply treated as some kind of fantastic oddity, like the mythical unicorn or mermaid - an impossible construction borne from the extremes of the imagination. Both these attempts at explaining myth lose the important point of seeing Thunderbird as a personification of energies in nature - those found in violent thunderstorms and such - and his crucial dual nature.

Still, the Indians were not merely "mythmaking" in the pejorative sense. They no more literally believed in a giant bird generating storms through the beating of its wings, then Christians today literally believe in their divine being as an old man with a beard sitting on a marble throne. Thunderbird is an allegory; his conflicts with other forces in nature are then an attempt to allegorize relationships observed in the natural order, such as the changing of the weather. Like other Thunder Beings, he is essentially an attempt to represent the patterns of activity of a powerful, mysterious force in a way that can be understood simply and easily - sort of the way in which a weather map functions today. (Edmonds and Clark 1989)

The Plains Indians believed that everything that was found in nature had a human representative in microcosm. Everything in nature often contained its own opposite polarity, hence the expected existence of beings such as contraries, women warriors, and berdaches. Because the Thunderbird in particular represented this mysterious dual aspect of nature, manifest through the primordial power of thunderstorms, it is not surprising that his representatives were the heyoka or sacred clowns, who displayed wisdom through seemingly foolhardy action. Western thinking has prevented us from seeing the reasons why Indians perceived this connection. Few anthropologists have sought to locate how Thunderbird may have been mythologically linked to Trickster.

The Nature of Thunderbird

In Plains tribes, the Thunderbird is sometimes known as Wakinyan, from the Dakota word kinyan meaning "winged." Others suggest the word links the Thunderbird to wakan, or sacred power. In many stories, the Thunderbird is thought of as a great Eagle, who produces thunder from the beating of his wings and flashes lightning from his eyes. (Descriptions are vague because it is thought Thunderbird is always surrounded by thick, rolling clouds which prevent him from being seen.) Further, there were a variety of beliefs about Thunderbird, which suggest a somewhat complicated picture. Usually, his role is to challenge some other great power and protect the Indians - such as White Owl Woman, the bringer of winter storms; the malevolent Unktehi, or water oxen who plague mankind; the horned serpents; Wochowsen, the enemy bird; or Waziya, the killing North Wind. But in some other legends (not so much in the Plains), Thunderbird is himself malevolent, carrying off people (or reindeer or whales) to their doom, or slaying people who seek to cross his sacred mountain. (Erdoes and Ortiz 1984)

Many Plains Indians claim there are in fact four colors (varieties) of Thunderbirds (the blue ones are said, strangely, to have no ears or eyes), sometimes associated with the four cardinal directions, but also sometimes only with the west and the western wind. (According to the medicine man Lame Deer, there were four, one at each compass point, but the western one was the Greatest and most senior.) (Fire and Erdoes 1972) The fact that they are sometimes known as "grandfathers" suggest they are held in considerable reverence and awe. It is supposed to be very dangerous to approach a Thunderbird nest, and many are supposed to have died in the attempt, swept away by ferocious storms. The symbol of Thunderbird is the red zig-zag, lightning-bolt design, which some people mistakenly think represents a stairway. Most tribes feel he and the other Thunder beings were the first to appear in the Creation, and that they have an especially close connection to wakan tanka, the Great Mysterious. (Gill and Sullivan 1992)

The fact that Thunderbird sometimes appears as something that terrorizes and plagues Indians, and sometimes as their protector and liberator (in some myths, he was once an Indian himself) is said to reflect the way thunderstorms and violent weather are seen by Plains people. On the one hand, they bring life-giving rain (Thunderbird is said to be the creator of 'wild rice' and other Plains Indians crops); on the other hand, they bring hail, flood, and lightning and fire. It is not clear where with them worship and awe end, and fear and terror begin. Some Indians claim that there are good and bad Thunderbirds, and that these beings are at war with each other. Others claim that the large predatory birds which are said to kidnap hunters and livestock are not Thunderbirds at all. Largely, I suspect that this dual nature of the Thunderbird ties it to the Trickster figure in Indian belief: like the Trickster, the harm the Thunderbird causes is mostly because it is so large and powerful and primeval.

Origins of the Thunderbird Myth

Cryptozoologists like Mark A. Hall, having studied the Thunderbird myths of numerous tribes, and compared them to (mostly folkloric) accounts of unusually large birds in modern times, as well as large birds (like the Roc) in other mythic traditions, suggest that there may well be a surviving species of large avians in America - big enough, apparently,