Where did the Bigfoot legend really begin?

1the twist

Everyone thinks Bigfoot was born in 1958, in a newspaper. Here's the twist: the giant is far older, and the name is the newcomer.

2six ideas

This is a course of six ideas, and we open with the oldest: the stories told by Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest. Want the short version instead? Switch course off and ask again.

3many peoples

Across the Pacific Northwest, many nations told of wild hairy people of the forest. Not one monster, but many different beings, each in its own language.

4Sasq'ets

The Sts'ailes people of British Columbia speak of Sasq'ets. That word, anglicized by a schoolteacher named J.W. Burns in the 1920s, became our word Sasquatch.

5other names

Other nations had their own beings: the Lummi told of Ts'emekwes, the Salish of the Skookum, and further east, Wendigo-like giants. The names differ, and so do the meanings.

6a guardian

Here's the part Hollywood skips. In these stories the being is often a teacher or a guardian of the wild, enforcing respect for the forest, not a beast to hunt.

7a warning

Some stories also warn children away from dangerous woods and rivers. A hairy giant is a memorable way to say: don't wander off alone.

8the whole idea

So the keepsake picture: many peoples, many names, one forest. Oral tradition carried these beings for generations, long before anyone said Bigfoot.