Sasquatch Chronicles Blog

Apr 17

Pretty shield and the giant skull

Duke writes “This is an example of how reading a wide variety of different subjects can sometimes turn up something very interesting. Because I was interested in Bigfoot, I wanted to get more information on how they make a living and procure their dinner, and what that dinner is. Since the native Americans were the most skilled in woodcraft, I began to read things about their methods and their beliefs, because almost every tribe had bigfoot stories.

Reading about their beliefs led me to the handful of books with firsthand accounts of their lore, and these were, not surprisingly, books about and in some cases by, the medicine men of the tribes. An even more rarefied sub-variety of this category are accounts of or by medicine WOMEN, and the following is from a book of exactly this type These excerpts are from the book “Pretty Shield, Medicine Woman of the Crow” Which was an interview done with her when she was already an old woman in the 1930’s. Her interviewer she refers to as “Sign-talker” which was a reference to the fact that he could write down letters “signs” and read them back aloud “talker”.

He was a middle-aged white scholar who simply thought it was important to get a firsthand account of life on the continent before the arrival of the white man, and those few who were taking the time to record this precious evidence were uniformly interested in what the chiefs and warriors of the tribe had done. Therefore we are VERY lucky to have an account of this kind in existence at all! The following refers to situations and locations from Montana, in this case from the 1860’s*, The relevant exchange begins with Pretty Shield asking Sign-Talker a question. This excerpt begins on p.48 “Did you ever hear that a tribe of very large people once lived on this world, Sign-Talker?” “No” I answered. p,49 “Well, once when I was a girl* and our village was at ‘The -place-where-we-eat-bear-meat’ (near the present day Headgate) several of us girls walked up to ‘The-dry-cliff’.

This was, to me, a strange place. A great herd of buffalo had sometime been driven over the cliff, and killed by the fall to the rocks below. There were many, many bones there that told a bad story, And on top, stretching out onto the plains, there were long lines of stones in this shape (she made a V with her hands) with the narrow part at the cliffs edge. These had helped to lead the running buffalo over the cliff. I have heard old women talking of such things being done before the horse came to the plains; and yet this herd of buffalo that went over ‘The-dry-cliff’ may have been driven to death by another people.” “The cliff was high, sloping in at the top. At the bottom were the bones; many, many bones. I noticed a dark streak on the face of the cliff.

It was narrow and straight, reaching from the bottom of the cliff to the rim above. It looked to me like a fire that had burned there for many snows had made this dark streak on the smooth stone, and yet I had never heard anyone mention this. I could not keep my eyes from looking at this dark streak as we girls were walking towards it. p.50 “We had brought some pemmican, and I had my ball with me because we intended to stay all day. The sun was past the middle when we began to dig with a root-digger at the bottom of the cliff. We were only playing. We were not looking for any particular thing. But our playing stopped suddenly when, in digging, we brought up a man’s skull that was twice as large as any living man; and with it there were neck-bones that were larger around than a man’s wrist.” “We ran away from that place, and I was the first to run. The size of the skull frightened me.

Upon reaching our village I told my father what we had found. He said he wanted to see the skull. We took him to the place, sitting off quite a distance while my father smoked with the skull. He said it was a medicine-skull, and powerful. While we girls watched him my father wrapped the great skull in a buffalo robe and buried it.” “It was ‘Shows-the-lizard’ (her friend) who dug up that skull; and we found the blackened sticks of an old fire there too. Yes.” she said thoughtfully “I believe that another kind of people once lived on this world before we came here. This big skull was not at all like our skulls.

Even though I did not stay there very long I noticed that it’s seam ran from front to back, straight, with no divisions….” Was she trying to describe a sagittal crest like those found on great apes as an attachment for the huge jaw muscles they have? What about the skulls size? Whether a giant or ape, a specimen with a skull that size would have been in the 12 – 15′ tall range if we scale up a gorilla or human to a size of the proportions needed to have such a huge head. Her account of the huge and strange skull ends here, but her account includes two other references that may be connected to this, both, interestingly enough, on the subject of preserving meat by making pemmican. p.135 “….after this was done we pounded the dry meat with stone hammers that are found nearly everywhere.

They were made by ‘The-ones-who-live-without-fire.’ ????? p.139 “We pounded our meat on stones held together with rawhide, using the long stones that were made by ‘Those-who-live-without-fire.’ Were the ones called ‘Those-who-live-without-fire’ a very primitive tribe, or were they describing Bigfoot? Her manner suggests that these people were well known to the Crow and not a vanished people or myth of the past. If it was bigfoot, does this indicate these creatures knew how to dry and storage meat thus eliminating the need for fire? These are certainly questions for which I will be searching for answers…. I found this story to be very interesting, and I hope you did as well!”

16 Responses to “Pretty shield and the giant skull”

  1. pam

    Very intriguing! It sure fits together nicely. I am enthused now to start researching in that area, also. Thanks again Duke; keep digging!

  4. Jacqueline O

    This is good stuff!!!

    I spend the majority of my free time reading, whether it is National Geographic, Smithsonian, or Scientific American, but my favorite literature comes from the journal entries of every-day people recording their personal experiences as a way to pass time. My favorites are those from the past 500 years, during the exploration of the “new world”, particularly accounts from the Civil War and Revolutioary War. Journals, I believe, have the most accurate and detailed accounts of historical events perceived through the reality of each individual. The classic classroom textbooks do little to intrigue children and young adults.

    YES, we should be so grateful for those few who took the time to collect first hand knowledge from the Natives, who lived here before white man destroyed the incredible symbiotic balance between humans and nature! If only Europeans had adapted to the Native’s way of life. This planet, being an ever changing life form in itsself, would be in a much healthier state! Damn those dirty humans!!!

  5. Melanie W

    Great story and info Duke! Many hanks! The description of the skull makes me think of the Paracus elongated skulls, some of which have only one skull plate (can’t remember the name of those sections… I’ll have to look it up). Humans have three.
    Any chance you could post the name of the book? Sounds like a good read.

  8. Christine J S

    Duke you’ve kicked me into “information overload”! Between all the good stuff from the boys at “Big Thicket Watch” and now your wonderful post filled with fascinating insights, I’m the one who feels blessed to be a part of SC. Wes, you sure can pick the winners.
    Thank you both so much

      • Duke S

        Christy and Daniel, the skull is a mock-up of the Skulls found in the Lovelock Cave, thought I would include it to give everyone something to look at and think about. On some other sites where this went I posted photos of Gigantopithecus AF, and Paranthropus Boisei. I notice that Dr. Meldrum used a PB skull for the head on his Bigfoot Skeleton mock up that you may have seen posted around recently. Thanks for the question!

  11. Jay h

    red haired big foots at lock heed cave.. I still believe there a offspring from giants and those primitive apes you speak of.. ..no nuclear DNA = no human man or known species of a man gene found… only explanation , it’s giant fathers were the offspring off fallen angels.. a diluted branch of the nephilum blood line if you will… very interesting story

  12. Jay h

    WOW!!! THATS IT …That’s exactly the description of every sighting – very pronounced jaw, deep set eyes, huge protruding brow line, slightly conical on top of the head….wow I believe that’s a bigfoot skull all day long….Amazing

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