Interesting account, I want to thank Knobby for sending this to me.
The following is from a history book written by Andrea Laforet and Annie York titled: “Spuzzum: Fraser Canyon Histories 1808-1939,” pp. 87-88
“Chief Pelek was the chief as far as Five Mile Creek, and he ruled the band. When the CPR was laying its track through this area, there was a construction camp up at the long tunnel above Spuzzum. The contractors who lived in the camp used to miss a lot of their stuff from the outside of the meathouse. Two cowboys had an idea about what to do. They took some long rope, the two of them, and they stayed up all night to watch the meathouse
Along came a sasquatch to the meathouse to take the food away. ‘So there,’ the cowboys thought to themselves, ‘that’s the chance for us to capture this monster that’s been taking our food away.’ So they lassoed him, and of course when they lassoed him they had the string around his neck. Then he jumped, and he snapped his neck and died.
One of the Indians above the tunnel there, from the reservation, came along and saw these whites looking at this monster laying on his back. The man came all the way down from there to Spuzzum to the chief and told the chief what had happened to the monster, which the Indians call ‘sasquatch.’ So the chief called together his retainers, his warriors. He put his robe on — his robe is made of weasel, and his banners were made of buckskin with beautiful pictures on them. He took these things and went with his warriors to the construction camp. When he got there the interpreter asked what they had done with the sasquatch. “Oh well,’ said one of the men, ‘we’ll do something about it. We’ll bury it.’
The chief insisted he would claim the body because the Indians have always reverenced these sasquatches. The Indians claim the sasquatch is a human being, and they always claim the body, and they bury it or put it on a scaffold, if they have that kind of system. So finally these men gave up, and they gave him the body. He took the body all they way from the tunnel right down to Spuzzum. He gave it his blessing and buried it as a human being.
The Indians claim that sasquatches are human beings because they are the people who practiced to be medicine men when they were young. When the boys or girls are young and want to be medicine men, their father or grandfather takes them up to the mountains and leaves them with very little to eat. They had to sleep and pray and stay alone, and some of them never returned. They got wild in the woods and never came home again. The Indians claim that that is where the sasquatch came from.”
Jeffrey H
1st!!(??): I’m a big fan of the Native American’s stories about their encounters and knowledge of the Sasquatch. They have a long oral history of this creature. They knew we’ll before others and the DNA results that the Sasquatch was a being, maybe human type, maybe not, but definitely a spiritual being. The Native Americans have had such a closer experience and relationship with them that they have a better understanding of their ways too. I truly respect what the Native Americans have to say about the Sasquatch and they seem to have a lot more experiences with them on their reservations.
Michael L
Yes, they have always known and believed. That is for sure, once they take your children or women- you will never forget…
Michael1lion
Knobby
This story is associated with the Nlaka’ Pamux tribe. Spuzzum was the southernmost village of the Nlaka’ Pamux located in the narrowest part of Fraser Canyon in Southwestern British Columbia, Canada.
During and after the gold rush that began in 1858, European, Black, and Chinese miners, settlers, and merchants stayed there, some permanently. The CPR mentioned in the story building a rail line not far from the village is the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The railroad through that area was completed in 1885 which must have been around the time of this event. Annie York, one of the authors, was born in Spuzzum in 1904.
Knobby
An important note from this story is it speaks of Native Americans viewing sasquatches as people and burying them with their people. This might explain some of the extremely large skeletons found in Native American burial mounds, that they were indeed sasquatches buried there.
Diana A
Bingo Knobby! Someone got it! I am native californian indian and I have always recognized that but I never tell anyone. Just waiting for everyone to put the facts together.
Duke S
Interesting take on the whole thing, but a child who “goes wild” and lives in the woods is not going to become 8 foot tall, 600 lbs, and fully covered with hair.
Daniel S
I didn’t know Brock Lesnar studies as a young man was in lndian healing and medicine’s, in sasquatch city, Brock please don’t kill me
Karen C
Excellent thought Duke, we can always depend on you to be so logical. Thanks for sharing your wisdom because we do appreciate it.
Kathryn C
Wow, they must have had that rope tied off to something very strong to hold the weight of the bigfoot off the grouind. I thought the end was gonna be that the guys holding the other end of that rope went flying “ass over teakettle” when the bigfoot crashed to the ground. lol
The story might have happened but some details are a little suspicious.
Diana A
Yes kathy, i had that same vision in my head too! Ha ha! But Duke, you got to remember mythological beliefs stem from a grain of truth. At times, they take anthropomorphic style but this story has a lot of truth in it. Consider todays stories we hear on this site as well as the other credible sites. Some stories include people going to camp, hunt, hike, etc., they get accousted but if they are alone they can be abducted. Sometimes they return sometimes they do not. In the PAST memory of the Na Amer, this could be what happens to those(adults not children) who in traditions sought to go on a vision search for medical knowledge. They could of ended up becoming a part of a bigfoot tribe(leaving their DNA markers) never to return. Remember, this is a grain of truth that developed into a story that tells enough truth to keep you aware of what can happen to you when you venture deep into the woods.
Knobby
I didn’t think of that Diana A, that perhaps some of those young men and women left out in the wilderness, never to return, did copulate with sasquatches and contribute their DNA. But of course the legend itself is born of lore seeking to explain what they don’t understand.
As far as the incident itself, of the dead sasquatch, it sounds very plausible. Sasquatches are known to steal hunters meat, or fisherman’s fish, and sasquatches can also climb sheer cliffs and jump down from heights we cannot, and it appears the men must have had the rope tied off or them holding the rope plus the rope snagging on something may have been enough resistance for the sasquatch to snap its neck due to the heavy weight of its body.
Nathan E
Great account, Knobby. Once again there is a body that never makes it a university… Anyway, the action of the Indians was interesting. About the rope incident, I have seen both 19th century lariets and modern replicas, and they are not weak instruments. If a lassoed young sasquatch leaped or jumped and suddenly took up the slack to its neck, that would have been it.