NA Legend & Lore

[#59]

The following items are taken in context to the L & L concerning this topic from the people that had already been here for thousands of years prior to the arrival of john Smith, et. al.;

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

 


Legendary Beings:

Rugaru
hairy man
 
References:
In The Spirit of Crazy Horse,
by Peter Mathiessen
 
 
Contemporary Lakota Folklore and Legend
 

"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."
 

 

Updated:June 18, 2000

[#59]

Two tales collected by Leonard Roberts follow:

Curious Legend of the Kentucky Mountains--Four or five versions of this curious and strange legend come into my collection over a period of about six years (1948 to 1954) from an isolated region of the Kentucky mountains. At first I did not know what to make of it but, having also collected a few versions of the "Bear's Son" story (Type 301), minus the half-bear, half-man introduction, I guessed that this was that introduction now broken away and told separately. It now appears to be a distinct legend since Dr. Archer Taylor refers me to the long search for American versions by Mr. Rudolph Altrocchi. and now that I reflect on this item I realize that it is not unique to Kentucky mountain folklore. During my youth in these mountains it was not unusual to hear a rumor of some half-wild man, naked and hairy, being found in the woods, living close to animal state. This kind of Romulus-Remus legend seems to stick in the minds of the folk. But how this particular legend made its way into eastern Kentucky is a mystery to me.

The following version was taken down in pencil in 1950 from the lips of Lee Maggard, who lived in a small cabin on the south slope of the Pine Mountain range near the small lumber town of Putney, Harlan County, Kentucky. He had heard it on Maggard's Branch, Leslie County.

The Yeahoh

Once they was man out huntin' and he got lost and after a while he begin to get hungry. He come to a big hole in the ground and he thought he would venture down into it. He wen down in there and he found that the old Yeahoh lived in there and had deer meat hangin' up and other foods piled around the walls. km The man was afraid at first, but Yeahoh didn't bother him and he went toward that meat to get him some. The Yeahoh walked over and looked at the knife and said, "Yeahoh, Yeahoh," a time or two. He cut it off a piece of the meat and it started eatin' it.

Well, the man stepped over to the middle of the pit and took out his flint and built him up a fire. And the Yeahoh watched him and looked at the fire and at the flint and said, "Yeahoh, Yeahoh" again. The man put his meat on a stick and br'iled him a nice piece and started eatin' it. The Yeahoh watched him and acted like it wanted a piece. The man cut it off a piece of the br'iled meat and reached it over, and the Yeahoh commenced to eatin' it up and smackin' its lips and saying, "Yeahoh, Yeahoh."

Well, the man lived there with it a long time and they got along all right. After so long they was a young'un born to 'em, and it was half-man and half-Yeahoh. And the Yeahoh took such a liking to the man it wouldn't let him leave. He got to wanting to get away and go back home. One day he slipped off and the Yeahoh follered him and made him go back. Went on that way for a good while, but he picked him a good time and slipped away. This time he got to the shore where they was a ship ready to set sail. He got on this ship and he looked and saw the Yeahoh comin' with the young'un. It screamed and hollered for him to come back and when it saw he wasn't goin' to come, why, it just tore the baby in two and helt it out one-half to him and said, "Yeahoh, Yeahoh". He sailed on off and left it standing there.

The version that Dr. Taylor refers to in my book _South from Hell-fer-Sartin_ is called "The Origin of Man." Another version was given to me by this teller's grandson. It has the same title and contents, except that the Yeahoh has six children and tears them all in twos and throws them after the embarked man. Another text, similar to the one given above, was accidentally erased from my tapes.

The following text was recorded from Joe Couch, Appalachia, Virginia, in 1954. He had heard it from his people while he lived in Perry County, Kentucky.



The Hairy Woman
One time I's prowling in the wilderness, wandering about, kindly got lost and so weak and hungry I couldn't go. When it begin to get cool, I found a big cave and crawled backin there to get warm. Crawled back in and come upon a leaf bed and I dozed off to sleep. I heard a nawful racket coming into that cave, and something come in and crawled right over me and laid down like a big old bear. It was a hairy thing and when it laid down it went chomp, chomp, chawing on something. I thought to myself, "I'll see what it is and find out what it is eating."

I reached over and a hairylike woman was there eating chestnuts, had about a half a bushel there. I got me a big handful of them and went to chawing on them too. Well, in a few minutes she handed me over another big handful, and I eat chestnuts until I was kindly full and wasn't hungry any more. D'rectly she got up and took off and out of sight.

Well, I stayed on there till next morning and she come in with a young deer. Brought it in and with her big long fingernails she ripped its hide and skinned it, and then she sliced the good lean meat and handed me a bite to eat. I kindly slipped it behind me, afraid to eat it raw and afraid not to eat it being she give it to me. She'd cut off big pieces of deer meat and eat it raw. Well, I laid back and the other pieces she give over as she eat her'n. She was goin' to see I didn't starve.

When she got gone again I built me up a little far and br'iled my meat. After being hungry for two or three days, it was good cooked--yes, buddy. She come in while I had my far built br'illing my meat, and she run right into that far. She couldn't understand because it kindly burnt her a little. She jumped back and looked at me like she was going to run through me. I said, "Uh-oh, I'm going to get in trouble now."

Well, it was cold and bad out, so I just stayed another night with her. She was a woman but was right hairy all over. After several days I learnt her how to br'ile meat and that far would burn her. She got shy of the far and got so she liked br'iled meat and wouldn't eat it raw any more. We went on through the winter that way. She would go out and carry in deer and bear. So I lived there about two year, and when we had a little kid, one side of it was hairy and the other side was slick.

I took a notion I would leave there and go back home. I begin to build me a boat to go away across the lake in. One time after I had left, I took a notion I would slip back and see what she was doing. I went out to the edge of the clift and looked down into the mountain, and it looked like two or three dozen of hairy people coming up the hill. They was all pressing her and she would push them back. They wanted to come on up and come in. I was scared to death, afraid they's going to kill me. She made them go back and wouldn't let them come up and interfere.

Well, I took a notion to leave one day when my boat was ready. I told her one day I was going to leave. She follered me down to my boat and watched me get ready to go away. She was crying, wanting me to stay. I said, "No, I'm tired of the jungles. I'm going back to civilization again, going back."

When she knowed she wasn't going to keep me there, she just grabbed the little young'un and tore it right open with her nails. Throwed me the hairy part and she kept the slick side. That's the end of that story.


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Woods Devils-Coos County, New Hampshire
The following message was posted on alt.bigfoot newsgroup on 26 December, 1996:

Many years ago I lived up in Coos county in New Hampshire. Some of the old men would talk about things called "wood devils" that live in the woods. There aparently were alot more of these creatures back in the 1930's than there are now. These Wood Devils were tall and very skinny. They are grey colored and very hairy. I guess that people saw them mostly when they didnt expect to. They stay in the deep woods. They can run very fast. When a person walked through the woods he would nearly walk into one before he spotted it. They hide by standing upright and still aginst a tree. As a person aproaches it it will stand against the opposite side of the tree. As the person passes it will move so that the tree is always between the person and the tree. If it cannot hide it will still stay perfectly still until it knows the person sees it. They make awful screams. They have a semi human shape, but their faces dont look at all human. I have never seen one, but the people who said they did were regular church goers and would strap their kids for lying. I dont think they would carry on discussions of things they made up.

 

 

 
 

 

Updated:June 18, 2000

[#59]

"I have alluded to the Ot-ne-yar-hed or Stonish Giants, who overran the country, fought a great battle, and held the people in subjection for a long time.The Stonish Giants were so ravenous that they devoured the people of almost every town in the country. At the Mississippi they had seperated from all others and gone to the northwest."The family was was left to seek its habitation, and the rules of humanity were forgotten, and afterwards eat raw flesh of the animals. At length they practiced rolling themselves on the sand, by this means their bodies were covered with hard skin; these people became giants and were dreadful invaders of the country."

So said David Cusick. According to him the Holder of the Heavens led them into a deep ravine near Onondaga, and rolled great stones on them in the night. But one escaped, and since then "the Stonish Giants left the country and seeks an asylum in the regions of the north."

The Onondagas have a local but different story. They say that a Stone Giant lived near Cardiff, a little south of their reservation, which is by no means their early home. He was once like other men, but was a great eater, becoming a cannibal, and increased in size. His skin became hard and changed into scales, which alone would turn an arrow. Every day he came through the valley, caught and devouted an Onondaga, a fearful toll. The people were dismayed but formed a plan. They made a road in the marsh witha covered pitfall, decoyed the giant through the path and down he went and was killed.Of course when the Cardiff Giant was "found" it did not astonish the Onondagas that he was of stone.

The Onondagas have also a story of a Stone Giant's race with a man near Jamesville. He ran the man into the hollow at Green Pond, west of that village, where the rocks rise 200 feet above the water on three sides. On the south side the precipice can be ascended by a natural stairway at one spot, and the man was far enough ahead to reach the top before the other. He lay down and looked from the rocks to see what the other would do. The latter came and looked around. Not seeing the man he took out of his pouch what seemed a finger, but was really a pointer of bone. By means of this he could find any object he wished, and so it was always useful in hunting. As he climbed the rocks the man reached down and took away the pointer before the other saw him. The giant begged him to restore it. If he would do this he was promised good luck and long life for himself and friends. Though he begged so piteously the man ran home with it to show his friends, leaving him there helpless, unable to find his way. His friends interceded, telling him to accept the giant's good offer and not incur his enmity. So they went back adn found him still at the lake. He recieved his pointer, promising to eat men no more, and good luck followed the man. This is one of the oldest Stone Giant stories, closely resembling one told by David Cusick.


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The Albatwitches-Columbia, Pennsylvania
Local legends in the area of Columbia, Pennsylvania speak of a creature called an "albatwitch." The albatwitch is a small (about 4 feet tall), manlike creature which supposedly lived in wooded areas. Their main area of residence seemed to be near Chickies Rock, a heavily wooded area along the banks of the Susquehanna River about a mile or two north of town. Albatwitches were also reported from wooded areas all along the river's shore.

The creatures are named for a habit which they possess. Their bizarre common name is short for "apple-snitch", as they are reputed to have a taste for apples. Legends speak of how the albatwitches would oftentimes steal apples from picnickers, occasionally even throwing them at the startled people. Legends also record that the creatures often sat in trees, coming down only to find food.

Legend also says that the albatwitches either became extinct or were driven nearly into extinction in the later years of the nineteenth century. Chickies Rock, where the creatures supposedly lived, does have a tradition of strange sights and sounds - in the 1950s and 1970s, a manlike figure was seen several times, and local legends also speak of sounds like the crack of a whip heard in the woods at night. One can only wonder if these could be connected with the albatwitch.

Whether these stories are connected or not, several sightings of Bigfoot-types have been recorded from this area. A vague report concerning the sighting of a hairy humanoid came from Lancaster in 1973. Lancaster is a scant 10 miles east of Columbia. Another came from the town of North Annville (about 20 miles to the north) in the same year. In addition, a number of reports have surfaced out of neighboring York County.

Also, some sources say that the Susquehannocks, like many Indian tribes, had a belief in an apelike monster, and sometimes depicted it on their war-shields. The Susquehannocks were a local tribe - coincidentally, major evidences of their civilization (ruins of a village and burial grounds) were found at the base of Chickies Rock.

 
 

 

Updated:June 18, 2000

[#59]

Big Figure

There were no schools in the days of which I speak, but there was a spot near the forest, a playground, where children used to play. One little boy that played there had a knife--what kind I don't know; it happened a long, long time ago.


The other children wanted to borrow that knife but the boy told them, "My mother and father won't allow me to lend it. My mother said you might cut yourself with it, then blame me. My father said you might lose it and never return it. That is what my parents told me."


Well, you know what kids are like. The children decided they would not play with the little boy with the knife. "Let him go by himself," they said to one another. They taunted the boy and teased him. Their backs were to the forest.


Suddenly the boy with the knife cried, "Hey I see a big figure in the trees!"


The children did not turn around and look but kept their backs to the forest.


"You're just saying that because we won't play with you," they shouted.


"No, I'm not," argued the boy. "There it is again! A big figure. It's watching us."


But the children would not listen. "You're just trying to fool us but it won't work," they chided. "We're not going to have anything to do with you."


"It's coming!" screamed the boy. "It's coming!"


The children saw it then. It was a big, big man, bigger than any other. He had hair all over his body and his eyes were set deep in his face. He carried a large basket on his back. The children's strength drained out of them in fear. They were helpless.


The woods giant grabbed the boy that had the knife first and threw him in his basket. Then he threw all the rest of the children on top of him. He set off through the forest while the children peeked through the cracks of the basket, trying to se where he was taking them.


The boy with the knife was right at the bottom of the basket and could hardly move with all the children on top of him. Finally he was able to cut a slit in the basket big enough to squeeze through and he dropped to the ground. The man did not notice, and the boy ran back to his village crying, "Big Figure has taken all the children!" The men of the village gathered together. They asked the boy to lead the way that Big Figure had gone. They traveled over roots and under logs. At the place the boy hadkm fallen through the basket the trail became harder to follow. They could see where something big had gone through the bush and followed that till eventually the trail ended at a large cave. km


The men of the village could dimly see some of their children hanging by the feet in the dark cave. A huge figure of a man was tying up the other children's feet and putting pitch in their eyes. Hs wife and children were helping him.


"What are you doing with our children?" the villagers cried.


"We're going to smoke them," answered the giant.


"Those are our children! We want to take them home with us," said the villagers.


"We're going to smoke them and eat them," replied the big man. He and his wife finished tying the children's feet and started hanging them up, one by one, with the other children.


"Don't do that," the fathers of the children pleaded. "Let us take them home with us."


The big man started building a fire under the children. Then he said to the men, "Why are your faces so nice and smooth and not rough like mine? You have nice eyes. They don't sink way in your head like mine do."


The villagers thought fast. One of them said, "You can have a face just like ours. We can fix you up. Go outside and get a big flat rock and another small rock with a sharp end."


So the big man did what they asked. It was easy for him to carry the big flat rock because he was so strong. Then the men of the village said to the giant, "Lie down and use this flat rock for a pillow. We're going to fix you up just like us."


"How long will it take?" he asked as he lay down and put his head on the flat stone.


"Just four days," they answered. "Close your eyes. Close your eyes tight." Then they took the rock with the sharp end and sunk it between the big man's eyes. He was dead.


"How long is he going to lie there?" asked the giant's wife.


"Oh, about four days," answered the men. They took their children, untied their legs and removed the pitch from their eyes. Then they went home to their village where the people were very happy.



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Big Figure and the Smoked Salmon
A family was camped by a river so that they could put up salmon for the winter. The salmon they had caught were hanging in a split cedar smokehouse.


One day before he went to bed with his family in the shelter they had made, the eldest boy went into the smokehouse and noticed some gaps between the fish that were hanging there. "Some of our smoked salmon seems to be missing," he told his father.


"We're the only ones here," his father replied. "Our family is camped all alone. Just forget about it--we'll get some more."


The next morning when the boy built the fire in the smokehouse, he noticed even more of the smoked salmon was missing. "Tonight I am going to hide in the smokehouse and find out who it is that is taking the salmon," he announced. "I will have my bow and arrow with me, but if it is a man that comes I will not use it."


That night they did not bank the fire very high and it soon went out. The boy hid in the corner of the dark smokehouse and waited. Except for the rush of the wind in the cedar trees and the voice of the river, the camp was quiet.


It was not long before the boy heard a new sound--footsteps. Heavy footsteps were approaching the camp. They came closer and closer and stopped just outside the smokehouse. The boy was frightened but he had his bow and arrow ready.


Slowly the roof of the smokehouse lifted up. The boy pulled his bowstring taut. He dimly saw a huge hairy arm reach in toward the salmon and sent his arrow where the arm was coming from.


There was a terrible cry that woke up the others. "I think I got it! I think it's the woods giant!" shouted the boy to his parents. "Let's go after him."


"We will wait 'till morning," said his father. "He will be a lot easier to trail in the daylight and if you wounded him he might be dead by then."


The family rose early the next morning. The boy, his father and younger brother headed out on the trail of the giant. The trail they found had a few drops of blood on it. It led deep into the forest and ended at a cedar bark house. A pool of fresh water was nearby with a tree leaning over it.


"You wait here," the father said to his elder son, "and your brother and I will skirt around the back of the house."


While he was waiting, the elder boy climbed up the tree, as it was a good place to see from. Soon a large hairy girl came out of the cedar bark house with a bucket in her hand and walked over to the pool of water that the tree leaned over.


When she stooped to scoop up some drinking water, she saw the boy's reflection in the pool. "My, I didn't know how pretty I was," she exclaimed. "I'm different from the rest of my family. Their eyes all sink in their heads and mine don't. They are hairy and I have smooth skin."


The boy above her moved in the tree, and a branch broke and fell into the water. The girl jerked her head up and saw him. "Oh, it is you that I see in the water," she cried. Then she paused and added, "My father has been terribly sick since he came home last night. Can you come and help him?"


"I'll get my father," the boy answered. "This must be where the person lives who was stealing fish from us," he said when he reached his father and brother. "I think he is very sick from my arrow. His daughter wants us to help him."


"Okay," said the father, "let us go in."


They went in the cedar bark house and a big hairy man more than six feet tall lay almost dead with an arrow deep in his chest. His wife and children were standing around him.


The boy who show the arrow walked up to the big man and tried to pull the arrow out. It would not come out straight, and he had to twist it this way and that way. Finally it pulled free.


"I feel better already," said the giant weakly. "You have helped me, so I will give my daughter to one of you to marry."


"No!" cried the elder boy. "I do not wish to marry your daughter."


"I do not wish to marry your daughter either," exclaimed the younger son.


"Have you another offer, then?" asked the father of the two boys.


"Yes, my offer is this. You may use us on your totem pole and face mask. No one else can make our likeness, only you. You can make the mask just like our face."


The father and his sons accepted the giant's offer and went home. They took their arrow with them.


No one else had a mask like theirs. It was a frightening mask with the eyes sunk deep in the head.
 

 

Updated:June 18, 2000