Vocabulary

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

Video

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

 

Eastern Ohio, 1994.

Bigfoot researcher Matt Moneymaker and a colleague are investigating reported Bigfoot sightings in a wooded area near the town of Kent. After spending years pursuing Bigfoot in hopes of seeing one himself, Matt is eager to find out whether there really is a giant creature in these woods.

Matt Moneymaker, President of Bigfoot Field Researchers’ Organization: “We were staked out along a road. The guy who I was with was about 60ft away . . . and at about 2:30 a.m., something comes walking down the road. I see something. He sees it first through night vision.”

Matt rushes over to investigate and is stopped dead in his tracks by the sound of — inhuman growling.

Matt Moneymaker, Bigfoot Researcher: “This thing steps out. A very big, tall, fair, covered thing. Standing out there growling at me. When you’ve got something that big, that close to you, you could see it well enough to know that must be a Bigfoot. So I just kind of backed up and walked away.

I was pretty happy at that point because I’m thinking if this one’s going to do that reliably, then this is a place that we’re going to get some video footage of them if we’re coming here with the right kind of gear.”

But when Matt returned with camera equipment to document the encounter, the creature had vanished. Although Matt was not able to photograph the large hairy beast that he witnessed, he remains convinced that what he saw was, in fact, Bigfoot.

Matt Moneymaker, Bigfoot Researcher: “It’s one of those things that sounds so over the top. But after I had a face-to-face encounter, I knew it was exactly the same thing that all the witnesses around there had described.”

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If these sightings are of a real creature, then what exactly is Bigfoot? And how did this phenomenon begin?

Tok Thomson, Ph.D. Professor of Anthropology, USC: “Bigfoot is generally reported to be a very large, very furry hominid creature. Something like a person, but not a person.

Seen very often remotely in the forest and with various stories about sightings or about footprints that really are pretty widespread in many, many communities in the United States and in Canada.”

Matt Moneymaker, Bigfoot Researcher: “Before 1958, people didn’t use the word Bigfoot.

But it was in 1958, Northern California, guys building a road, found footprints around their gear when they would come back in the morning.

And a guy named Jerry Crew made plaster footprints of these tracks and showed them to a reporter in Eureka, and they dubbed it ‘Bigfoot’. That was where the name first originated and got into American vocabulary.”

Christopher Bader, Professor of Sociology, Chapman University: “I grew up in Washington state where it’s hard to underestimate Bigfoot’s power.

Bigfoot is the mascot of different companies.

Bigfoot is all over billboards.

As a young boy in Washington state, I fully believed in Bigfoot’s existence.”

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In 1967, interest in Bigfoot surged when an investigator named Roger Patterson captured incredible footage of a creature that matched the description of Bigfoot near Bluff Creek in Northern California.

Todd Neiss, Founder, American Primate Conservancy: “One of the issues when it comes to people believing in Bigfoot existing is, is let’s face it, mainstream science has shunned away from this topic.

However, amateur researchers are trying to pick up the slack, and bridge that gap between amateur and mainstream science.”

Bigfoot researchers claim that the vast majority of Bigfoot sightings are sincere — and that hoaxes represent only a small fraction of reports.

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They also point out that stories of Bigfoot-like animals are not merely a recent fad.

Believe it or not, more than 3000 years ago, the ancient Babylonians told stories of a creature that sounds an awful lot like Bigfoot. Except they called it “Enkidu”.

Sara burdor, Ph.D. Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, UCLA: “Enkidu is a hairy, wild man creature with super strength. And he’s fearsome. He’s ready and willing to defend this wild territory that he inhabits.”

The King Gilgamesh, who becomes his soul mate, basically best friends. So this king becomes this amazing hero through his relationship with this wild man that has shown him how to negotiate the boundaries between humanity and wildness.”

Since that time, descriptions of so-called wild men, half human, half ape beasts have popped up throughout history, all over the world.

Jonathan Young, Ph.D., Founding Curator, Joseph Campbell Archives: “In the Caucasus, there was something called the Alma that was a big monster, a nature creature. In Australia, there is the Aboriginal version which is called a Yowie. There is the Yeti in the Himalayas.

So there are local variations, but the story is more or less the same, very big, seemingly animal-like, or is it human, or is it some hybrid? There’s the point.”

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In North America, there are Native American legends that go back centuries, long before the discoveries made by Jerry Crew or Roger Patterson.

Lynne McNeill, Ph.D., Assoc Prof. Of Folklore, Utah State University: “We know that Sasquatch, the preeminent Bigfoot creature that we have in the United States, is located in the Pacific Northwest. That very word Sasquatch comes from a Salish tribal word that means wild man or hairy man.”

The natives of the Northwest say that there are creatures that walk upright and only at night and can speak in their language.

I found in speaking with indigenous peoples that they don’t describe them as an animal at all. They call them the first ones or the old ones. These were the tribe that was here before we got here.

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Questions

 

Bear. Bigfoots are only sighted in the Pacific Northwest northern California, Oregon, Washington, British Colombia, and Alaska. True or false?

Wolf, Wolves. Did Matt greet and make friends with Bigfoot? Did he video and record Bigfoot?

Beaver. Describe Bigfoot. What does Bigfoot look like? Is Bigfoot human?

Otter. Is Bigfoot a Native American name? Have most people always known about Bigfoot? When did Bigfoot really become well-known?

Gorilla. What do most scientists think of Bigfoot? Do most scientists positively believe Bigfoot exists? How do business and popular culture view Bigfoot?

Chimpanzee. Are most Bigfoot sightings and encounters hoaxes?

Orangutan. Bigfoot is a recent phenomenon confined to the US and Canada. Is this right or wrong?

Fox. Do (all) Native Americans and other folk societies regard Bigfoot as a beast, creature, or monster?
 
 
 
Coyote. Are there sightings or legends of a Bigfoot-like creatures (people) in your region or country? Are there legends and folktales of fantastic creatures?

Deer. What do you think about Bigfoot sightings and encounters? Are they real, fake, bears, apes, hallucinations, or figments of people’s imaginations?

Elk. Have Bigfoot become a part of Pop Culture, eg in advertisements, logos, brands, TV shows, movies, etc?

Moose. What might happen in the future?

Eagle. What could or should people do?

Bison. I hope Bigfoot would remain a mystery forever. Do you agree?