J. W. Burns (John Willison Burns) was a Canadian schoolteacher and journalist in the early 20th century who played a key role in popularizing the legend of Bigfoot. He worked as a teacher among Indigenous communities in British Columbia in the 1920s.
Burns collected stories from members of the Sts’ailes (Chehalis) people about a large, hairy, human-like being said to live in the mountains. In 1929, he published an article in Maclean’s magazine describing the creature, using the name “Sasquatch” (derived from the Halkomelem word Sásq’ets).
His writings helped bring Indigenous oral traditions about the being to a wider North American audience. Burns did not claim to have captured or proven the creature he primarily reported what he said were eyewitness accounts.
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