Folklore

Among many Indians tribes in North America Bigfoot is seen as a sort of supernatural or spirit being, whose appearance to humans is always meant to convey some kind of message.  The Salish Indian tribe of British Columbia in Canada call the creature "Sasquatch" meaning ‘wild man of the woods.’ Among the legends are the stories of the "giant men" of the Mount Shasta and the "stick men" of the Washington Mountains. For the Algonquin Indians of the northern forests have a legend about Witiko (or Windigo) who are human transformed into cannibalistic monsters because they have tasted human flesh in time of starvation. The Windigo is the embodiment of the hidden, terrifying temptation to turn to eating other humans when no other food is to be had. As such, the Windigo's appearance is 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 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 his book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 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 :

Oglala Lakota Medicine Man Pete Catches told Mathiessen:  

Ray Owen, son of a Dakota spiritual leader from Prairie Island Reservation in Minnesota, told a reporter from the Red Wing Republican Eagle:

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”  

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."  

The Iroquois of the Northeast view Bigfoot much in the same way the Hopi do. However, the "little people" are mentioned among Iroquois much more often than Bigfoot. These small human-like beings have been seen in the Adirondacks mountains. 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. 

Place

Bigfoot is rumored to be living in the mountains and forests of northwestern United States (northern California, Ohio, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho) and Western Canada (British Columbia and Alberta).

Northern California

The highest rate of sightings and recovered footprints are in the Northwestern part near the Oregon border around the Humboldt Forest, Bluff Creek, Hoopa, Weitchpec, Orleans, Somes Bar and Willow Creek, located between Crescent City to the North and Eureka to the South; between Interstate 5 and Highway 101 on Highways 299 and 96. Other California cities with a number of reported sightings are Mt. Lassen, Mt. Shasta, Weed, Round Mountain, Elk Creek, Caribou, Happy Camp, Clear Creek, Trinity Alps, Weaverville, Salyer, Crescent Mills, Lake Oroville, Hayfork, Vacaville, the Lake Tahoe area, Yosemite, Mammoth Lakes, Bear Valley; and in the coastal cities of Eureka, Yreka, Fort Bragg, Orick, Crescent City, San Rafael, Olema, Hayward and as far south as El Capitan Reservoir in San Diego County near the Mexican border where a family of 3 were sighted. 

Southern California 

The deserted areas of Southern California are the home of the Desert Sasquatch and he has been reported several times only 12 miles away from San Diego. The Palmdale-Lancaster area of the Mojave Desert  and Edward’s Air Force Base are the “hottest areas” in terms of sightings but credible sightings also occurred at Lake Isabella, Piute Mountains, China Lake Naval Weapons Center, Fort Irwin Military Reservation, Tehachapi, Monolith, Mojave, Edward’s Air Force Base, Rosamond, Lancaster, Palmdale, Victorville, Hesperia, Pearblossom, Valyermo, Apple Valley, Twenty-nine Palms Marine Base, Joshua Tree National Monument, Colton, Corona, Riverside, Ontario, Redlands, Beaumont, Yucaipa, Hemet, , Lake Elsinore, Indio, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Superstition Mountain, Manzanita Indian Reservation, Cleveland National Forest, and Cahuilla Indian Reservation. 

Western Canada 

A lot of those experiences have come in recent years from the Blue Mountains and especially in the high country just a few miles east of Dixie, a town of a couple hundred people on U.S. Highway 12, some 10 miles east of Walla Walla. Mt. St. Helens which has always carried legends of Bigfoot is a famous spot and last but not least a little town called Tete Jaune Cache, about eighty miles west of Jasper, Alberta.

Description

According to one of Bigfoot’s most prominent chroniclers, John Green, Canadian journalist/investigator, the creatures are about seven and a half feet in height. They are normally solitary in disposition and seldom seen in company of others. Like a primate, Bigfoot is supposed to have reddish-brown/auburn hair covering nearly all parts of his body and a footprint ranging from 11 to 21 inches but averaging about 16 inches long and 7 inches wide.They also have broad shoulders, nonexistent necks, flat faces, large flat noses, sloped foreheads, brow ridges and cone-shaped heads. However, the proportions of their limbs are closer to that of a human than a primate. They are generally omnivorous, largely nocturnal, and mostly inactive during cold spells.

Both sexes and offspring have been observed, usually in summer and fall. Strong, agile, and fast, Bigfoot is a good swimmer and are often seen near and around bodies of fresh water; streams, lakes and rivers. They are also said to be malodorous and to communicate by grunts, howls, shrieks, or whistles similar to those of a mountain lion. Bigfoot enjoys a broad diet ranging from fish, rodents, and deer to fruits, berries and various vegetation.  

Some pretend that they live in small groups of one male and 4 sometimes 5 females and that this is the breeding community. Then as they have offspring, the young females grow up and replace the adult females as they are dying. The young males are grown up and they are driven out of the group by the adult male which tolerates no competition. These young males would then wander the countryside, growing up, getting stronger, looking for another social group where they can perhaps have a conflict or challenge the dominant male there, and hopefully take over. 

As a rule, he seems to stay away from humans even if he has been sometimes described as spying us. He can disappear quickly in such a manner that invisibility is recognized as one of his power.

Sightings

The oldest written account of Bigfoot on record occurred in 986 A.D. by Leif Erikson and his men. During their first landing in the new world, the Norsemen wrote about monsters that were horribly ugly, hairy and swarthy.

One of the earliest published reports of Bigfoot was in a California newspaper, the Antiloch Ledger, during 1870. He reported the sighting of a gorilla or wildman in the bush. He also noted that the head seemed to be set closely on its shoulders, without a neck.  However, it also goes on to say that it had relatively short legs, and therefore could have been a chimpanzee or another monkey. 

Thousands of notable sightings occurred throughout the 20^th century, with witnesses coming forward to newspapers throughout. Stories ranged from stumbling upon the enormous footprints to being abducted or attacked by the creatures.

Kidnapping 

The story of Albert Ostman, a 64-year-old retired lumberman from British Columbia, went public in 1957 with a tale he had kept to himself since 1924, for fear of being ridiculed. Ostman's "sleeping-bag snatch" remains the most elaborately detailed account of Bigfoot contact : a first-person account of abduction.

While on a camping trip near Vancouver Island, Ostman found that something had disturbed his supplies and food on two nights in a row. A Native American trail guide had warned him about the presence of local Bigfoot when Ostman set up his camp, and this was the first time Ostman had ever heard of the creatures, but he didn't think they could be the culprits messing with his gear.

Then one night Ostman was shaken awake to find himself being indelicately carried away inside his sleeping bag. The opening of the sleeping bag was held shut, and Ostman had no choice but to be dragged along the forest ground for what he estimated to be 25 miles, nearly suffocating. After what seemed like a three-hour ordeal, he was thrown to the ground in a heap, and emerged to find himself in the company of four Bigfoot. Ostman described them as a family, with a father and a mother and their pair of offspring, one male and one female. He indicated that the adult male, his kidnapper, was over eight feet tall and powerfully built, covered in dark hair all over. The children, though smaller, were still about seven feet tall.

Ostman said the Bigfoot chattered amongst themselves in a seemingly intelligent language, and although they did not hurt or threaten him, they were determined not to let him leave. Their lair was inside a small valley enclosed by cliffs, and the adult male stood guard at the only apparent entry passage. Ostman suggested that he may have been selected as a prospective mate for the young female.