Creek Indian Bigfoot Story From Oklahoma
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on August 22nd, 2013
Artwork and story submitted by the artist, Johnnie Diacon.
Hesci (Hello), I am a full blood American Indian originally from Okemah, Oklahoma now living in Tulsa (Creek Nation). I am of the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town (Raprakko Etvlwv) and Deer Clan (Ecovlke) of the Muscogee Creek Nation (Mvskoke) from my mother’s side and my father was Osage.
I want to pass on to you a description of our (Creek) Bigfoot which we call Tall Man (Estecvpcvke). He is around 10 feet or a little more in height and is covered in gray hair and has a bad odor which resembles a stagnant muddy pond. His color helps him blend in with the trees. He also has a whip-like tail that he cracks which sounds like thunder and if hearing this whiles in the woods this will often cause a person to get lost. I’ve heard older stories that it was his male appendage and not a tail, but this change possibly came about due to Christian missionary’s influences during the last part of the 19th Century and early 20th Century. He carries a club that he has made from a tree limb that he has broken off. The tree would soon die soon afterwards and the women would use the holes left in the tree to bury stillborn babies.
As a boy my father and I saw one up in the Osage Nation near Hominy, Oklahoma. It was late at night and at the edge of a field where the trees began you could see his large man-shaped silhouette barley swaying back in forth as he stood there looking towards us. My father spotted him first and told me to look in that direction, but not directly at him. It was a clear night with a full moon and no wind so the trees were not moving, but you could see him gently swaying like a large animal does when standing. He was about 50 yards from us and he must have been close to 10 feet in height. My father decided it was better to go inside and we did not talk of what we saw.
My late father-in-law was a Hopi medicine man and he lived on the reservation in Arizona. He told me that Bigfoot is like a creator or a helper and that he had visited their village and was healing wounded and sick animals. One in particular that he mentioned was a dog which had received a head wound from an axe which had split its head deep and was not expected to live. That night the Bigfoot whose Hopi name I do not recall came and was licking this dogs head I believe he said. Whatever Bigfoot did to the wound on that dog’s head saved its life and it healed with no scars.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
So there. Proof that some Indian legends are as absurd as anybody else’s. A 14-foot long tail that cracks like a whip and casts a spell, or something like that. The drawing also “proves” that the tree next to it is 10 1/2 feet tall….
@ Goodfoot; Dude I haven’t been on the site much lately, but I have noticed a continuing descent into chronic crankiness in your comments.
Is everything all right with you? I ask this in all seriousness. If this is normal behavior for you, then forgive my butting in. If it is a sudden change, then think about looking into it. If you are not sure, then ask for candid observations from those closest to you. If you need somebody to talk to, let Craig know and he can share my contact info with you. Just seems like something is off.
Its not fun when its not fun. You seem to have lost the fun… Also, you have expressed personal beliefs here that could easily be derided, but I think people have treated you with respect (as far as I know), even if they might not share your beliefs. How about returning the favor when someone contributes something in earnest, regardless of your opinion? This post is different than most stupid hoax contributions that deserve derision. I, for one, think this post deserves a little more respect than you have demonstrated.
Personally, I cherish this type of post. To me this is a real contribution, and I thank the person who related this to us. One of these priceless bits of culture and history is worth one hundred teenagers filming their friends in carpet suits.
Native american tales are unlike most other myths and folktales from around the world, and seem hard to comprehend to those of us from a euro-centric background in culture and literature.
Foremost they are existential tales, in the truest literary tradition of existentialism. We live, stuff happens. Sometimes things happen beyond our control. When we are defeated on an existential level, we don’t always accept defeat, but turn into a rock or a tree (sometimes existential delves into metaphysical to deliver a psychological story, instead of a linear narrative).
White america, who has not yet seen their civilization destroyed in their own lifetime, does not take the time to try and understand what is behind native american tales. That is a shame because it is a rich body of work that celebrates the human condition.
There is not much going on as far as morals, or journeys, unlike the cultural tales of almost everywhere else. The lessons taught, if any, are small ones. What happens in the tales are simply relating how things got to be the way they are, and in most cases the characters are very human in nature and as flawed as the listener is.
In the case of the tall man, it is very important to note that he is portrayed as being beyond human. The tales do not empathize with him or try to tell the tale as a human looking through tall man’s eyes. This is a very important fact that points to things larger than normal life (things that threaten existence, or are very complicated in an existential way).
The person telling the tale above is absolutely correct when saying the penis was turned into a tail because of the christian missionaries. The absurdly large penis is a sign of masculine power and also power over death. The meaning is that tall man is greater than human men, and his power over death means that he can travel between the three worlds.
But seriously, dude, step back and reflect. You consciously choose to enjoy life, make the choice or seek some assistance if you can’t.
PS: I really appreciate the way the artist has made the club a phallic symbol. It points to a deep understand of what he is portraying that honors both the older version and the current one.
Regarding the theme of the large penis, it occurs often in many tribe’s tales. It is most often an amusing anecdote that would be no different than any elementary school big dick joke that you might recall.
Most often two characters will have a need to take out their members, and one of the two will demonstrate in an amusing way how much bigger his is, such as pushing it across a river to impregnate someone on the other side.
But as stated in my last post, the tall man is a little different because he is not empathized with, he is outside of normal human existence. In this case it is a symbol of power and magic greater than man’s.
Johnny I personally rather liked your art work you’ve the makings of a very fine graphic designer and I was especially impressed by how you switched from the high detail of the main figures to a very effective minimalist approach for the back ground which kept it visually interesting without swamping everything else.
What I find int’resting about your Bigfoot story’s how many parallels there are in it to European folklore about the Green Man especially the club and the even more universal element of the bullroarer function here fulfilled by the tail though I’m inclined to agree with you originally it would’ve been his Johnson.
But then you know what they say about people with big feet…there aren’t that many shoe stores that cater for ’em.
@ Alan, I like the corollaries you draw to european folk tales.
The commonalities of folk tales and myths gets at a tightrope walk I constantly do between believing and not believing.
The human mind is universal. It has the same needs no matter the physical or geographic environment. This is why there are so many similarities in myth, magic, and early religion all around the globe. Many stories and customs appear in different parts of the world because the same need to create them exists.
On the one hand:The wild man myth is universal because we feel (and have felt for many centuries) that our lives are now too far removed from nature. Yesterday’s fairy abductions and today’s UFO abductions exist because we feel we have no control over our lives. Stories of little people that can be used as slaves or workers exist because we crave an easier existence. These universal stories are a reaction to a psychological need.
On the other hand: There is some compelling evidence for bigfoot, and there is the Bearing Straight being open at the right time to allow animals living concurrently to gigantopithicus to have an entry point. There is the whole Homo floresiensis thing making it look like menehune and “dwarves” could have lived with modern man. Fairy/UFO abuductions- well, I got nothing (I think they are just a pagan reproach of brutal christian encroachment and a fearful rejection of modern technology).
For me it tends to be a conflict that tilts from side to side, but never comes down on one side or the other.
hoodoorocket:
SERIOUSLY? What kind of large primate develops a tail longer than itself? The tale is a child’s tail.. I mean tale. This is a story invented to keep children from wandering into the woods, like Hansel and Gretel. And that’s ALL it is.
And while I’m thinking of it, what all all those semicircles in the top background? Clouds?
I reserve the god-given right to be irascible, when the situation warrants.
This is not about Bigfoot, but about some mythological creature the author called Bigfoot for lack of a better term.
@Goodfoot, my mistake. Carry on in your unalienable irascible pursuits and enjoy. I am glad to know that your behavior is just your form of entertainment and not a slow descent into dementia.
Again, my thanks to Johnnie Diacon for posting this. I am sure that most readers appreciate your contribution. Not all of us are fundamental literalists, who willfully refuse to understand the symbolic nature of myth and fail to appreciate it’s cultural importance. Don’t take it personally, it is usually just a sign that they need a hug.
Also your artwork is just fine. Anyone pretending to not see stylized clouds and whatnot, is the same sort of individual who will hold a grocery checkout line hostage for an hour to angrily demand a refund for a half eaten candy bar beause there weren’t enough nuts in it. Most people realize there ARE plenty of nuts in the world, no matter how much the cranky geezer with the candy bar goes on about it.
With respect to Craig’s post, I, too, am Creek–do not feel compelled to refer to myself as a Muscogee Creek. (You got it–if Creek was good enough for my Dad and Uncle, it’s good enough for me.) Unlike Craig, I do not remember what my clan or township is as my Dad and Uncle and my Aunts have been gone for decades.
But my grandparents’ homestead–which my late cousin and I have sold off–was located a few miles north of Okemah in Okfuskee County, north of the Haydonville store.
The homestead was located in the Deep Fork bottom. The house was built high with a very high front porch because the Deep Fork would flood from time-to-time. But I have realized something in my old age. Another reason for the high porch was probably to discourage bigfoot–Nokozjumi–visits. My Dad told me that he and his brother and sisters were not allowed to be up at night, even to get out of bed for a drink of water from the bucket and dipper. I think now that it was because my grandparents had a fear of the children wandering out of the house.
Interestingly enough–at least to me–a distant cousin of mine has lately told me that the old people said that a family, tribe, clan or group of bigfoots used to live in The Bottom, but now, the old people say, the bigfoots have moved on south. It was of interest to him because he lives in the environs of The Bottom some miles away, nearer Okmulgee. And it was between Okemah and Okmulgee, say the old people, that a Creek man was found snortly before or after the turn of the 20th Century, dead with many foot prints around him. They think he died terrified and was praying. I don’t know, of course. Those are stories I’ve heard.
But another interesting part of my family’s story living in The Bottom, is that my late aunt said that she was east of the house perhaps picking pecans, that she saw the Little People. Not the dance-y/cutie Darby O’Gill kind of Little People. Ugly, scary Little People. That’s all she’d say. She wouldn’t elaborate.
Now I can’t verify much of this as I do not live in The Bottom area, have hardly ever been there because of mosquitos and the potential for malaria.
Thought you might find my comments interesting.