Peaceful, Desert Big Foot Encounter

I wish to relay an encounter that I had in the Spring of 1971, on the Walker River Paiute Reservation in Nevada. This encountered occured during a Spiritual Trek and Vision Quest. I was about 25 years old at the time.

I was raised since the time I was 3 years old to become both a "Bo-Hughant" and a "Po-Hughant", which is a Holy Man in the Paiute and Shoshone Languages. During that period of my life, I have had many experiences that most would call fairy tales or just the imagination of a young man. Some of those experiences I will share in other discussions.

I entered a canyon at the base of our Sacred Black Mountain, and upon entering, I made prayers asking for permission of the Spirits of the canyon to enter the canyon. Once entering, I proceeded with caution as this was the time of year that the Rattle Snakes were comming out of hibernation. The canyon stank of thier smell and the warm sands on the floor was covered with Rattle Snakes, sunning themselves. They are half blind at this time of year so walking through hundreds of Rattle Snakes was a time consuming business. Continuing up the canyon, I soon found myself climbing the steep granite walls to get to my sacred place.

I wore only my breech cloth and moccasins and had my Buffalo Skull strapped to my back. Climbing the Granite faces was perilous and with the Buffalo Skull unweildingly awkward, the danger of falling was great. A fall would at least break a leg and I would be lost forever.

After many hours of climbing I finally reached my perch on a Granite Outcropping. I immediately made my prayers and tobacco offerings and began my vigil. Behind me was a small area of boulders and a small number of Pinion Trees that had found root in crevices in the rocks.

As the night progressed, I began to hear the voices of ancestors passed. [The Paiute used to bury thier dead in the canyon below] I could here people talking and laughing, children playing and elders singing. I found this very soothing to my soul. The night was black but the sky was filled with stars and as the moon was shinning i could see clearly in the black. I turned to the East to wait for the morning sun and continued praying. About midnight I could feel as if I was being watched. Many types of animals lived up there including Mountain Lions. If it was a lion I would turn and talk to it and give it my prayers. I turned and looked about, nothing was upon me, but I did see something odd behind a small Pinion Tree. As my eyes focused i could see a creature standing behind the tree watching me. it was covered in white hair and very broad accross the shoulders. It looked very powerful. It had no neck and it's head was huge, but I could not make out the facial features.

It was a Big Foot or "Pied-zoh" as we call it. I felt no threat from it and took tobacco out of my pouch, I made offerings to it. I then explained to it the reasons for my being there at that time. That I was not there to harm anything and that I was there for peaceful reasons. I felt that he understood. It did not move or make a sound. I then turned back and continued to pray. About an hour later I turned and looked again and it was gone. There was no sound of any movement at all.

The next morning I decided to go to where he was standing. I could tell that behind the tree, that something had been there. I stood as close to the tree as I could to see how tall the tree was. I was 6 foot at the time and the tree was a good foot taller than me. The Big Foot stoot at least 2 foot taller than the tree. I felt in awe of that.

During the rest of my Quest I never saw another thing.

Native People are very superstitious but will rarely ever talk about Big Foot, or the other things like Water Babies, Gargoyles, Spirits, Demons or even Time Rifts. So each time I tried to relay this sighting to my own people, I often felt like I was just making up a story.

Native people will not pursue a Big Foot and will leave them alone. They also don't want anyone bothering them. There are so many other stories of the Desert Big Foot as seen by Native People of Nevada.

I do believe that my life is enriched by my encounter.