Pine Ridge Bigfoot Update
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on August 11th, 2006
Today, the Black Hills Pioneer is reporting that the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology is denying that they have the body of a Bigfoot.
SDSMT says it doesn’t have body of a Bigfoot
By Tom Lawrence, Black Hills Pioneer August 11, 2006
RAPID CITY — Of course they’d deny it. The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology doesn’t have the body of Bigfoot, the school announced in a press release Wednesday.
Breanna Bishop, SDSMT’s public information coordinator, issued the unusual press announcement Wednesday morning. The release was sent after an Internet site "reported" that the body of one of the mythological creatures was on campus after it had been shot near Slim Buttes last week.
"According to a report appearing on a number of blogs, Bigfoot was shot and killed Tuesday, Aug. 1, on the Pine Ridge Reservation," the release states. "After a smudging ceremony, the body was allegedly transported to a School of Mines laboratory for studies."
The body was supposedly seen and given a ceremonial treatment by three Lakota elders, including Wilmer Mesteth and Oliver Red Cloud.
"Tell them it’s a bunch of baloney," Mesteth said Wednesday in a telephone interview. "I think someone is playing a practical joke."
He said he was starting to get phone calls from people who had heard the report. He said Red Cloud is an amputee who does not travel and could not have gone to the site of the Bigfoot shooting.
Bigfoot, which is referred to as "Chiye-tanka" or "The Big Man" is in some books about Native American culture and spirituality.
SDSMT chose to play the story as a joke.
"Despite receiving nearly $14 million in research and development funding in the 2006 fiscal year and having a wide array of cutting-edge research initiatives, the School of Mines has no facilities dedicated to Bigfoot or other cryptozoology research," the release stated.
You can read the Bigfoot "news" at:
Pine Ridge Reservation Bigfoot
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.
They’re lying.
So that’s the end of that! If SDSMT really had a BF body, they would not make such a press release, stating “No body”. SDSMT would simply say nothing if they wanted to hide a BF body. Why tell the public a lie that could bite them somday and risk future fundings and reputation?
A BF body could be worth millions. So I doubt that an actual body could be kept under wraps very long by anyone. A BF body would not be like a UFO discovery, where profit/power through technology reverse engineering could be had. So I feel there would be less likeliness of a BF cover-up. Once BF is discovered, officials/science will simply classify it as another animal, then make laws to protect it. (Oh, I do not believe BF is the “Missing Link”) So even if SDSMT actually had a BF body, eventually some information would leak and SDSMT would have some serious explaining to do.
They don’t have the body anymore because it was moved or buried. These people understand what would happen if the truth got out. I just don’t think someone would make “a joke” out of this. Do you?
Um, yes, bigsassy, I think someone would make a joke or hoax out of this. That’s precisely what has happened in this case.
Also, what, exactly, do “these people” understand will happen if “the truth” got out? The truth is out, and some people like yourself apparently aren’t willing to believe that there’s simply nothing more to this story than misinformation and/or a prank.
‘,,,Red Cloud is an amputee who does not travel and could not have gone to the site of the Bigfoot shooting…”
Did anyone else notice this? Should be a detail easy enough to check.
For this to be more than a rumor, the ones said to do something MUST be able to do it!
The other reports from the area are interesting but I think it time to let this one slink back into the shadows.
You have as much proof that this is a hoax as I have that it is not. Your gut feeling is that it is a hoax and mine is that it is not. I don’t doubt that this person at the school is telling the truth but somebody knows the real truth and it isn’t you or I.
Hey guy’s,
While I believe that the story of the shooting is a hoax, I do believe that the rest of the stories are true. I believe some people have seen a Bigfoot out there.
Say Chris, has the acting police chief for that area returned your phone call?
Obviously, another coverup. I agree they must have moved or buried the body. Probably they might haved moved to an undisclosed location. Out of plain sight.
crypto_randz: Are you serious? If you are, I don’t understand the mindset of people who immediately jump to the least likely conclusion. What possible incentive would a university have to “cover up” something like this–especially a small school that could probably use all the publicity it can get?
And to bigsassy: the “proof” that I have that this situation is a hoax is greater than yours that it’s not. As One Eyed Cat just pointed out, one of the people allegedly involved with the “smudging” can’t even move effectively. Another person allegedly involved in the ceremony is directly quoted as saying it’s “baloney.” The school issued a press release saying it’s not true. To me, that’s a lot of “proof” in my favor.
What do you have to go on? An anonymous post on a random message board? I’ll take my side any day. 🙂
James,
You apparently don’t know what this creature represents to these people. Maybe you should do a little research on the Lakota. My side contends that someone shot one of these and these elders did what their people would do in this situation and that is to deny, deny, deny. Would you turn your big brother over to the government for study and exploitation for money? Maybe you would. All in the name of science right? And since when can’t an amputee be transported? I don’t buy the denial.
Remember the bigfoot at pine ridge at to be real indians consider it very sacred an part of their land if so i think it could be real. Find the body you find the bigfoot.
Bigsassy, are there any possible alternative explanations for what we’ve read? Other than a Bigfoot being shot, killed, smudged, and taken to the School of Mines?
Bigsassy: Again, the only person who has mentioned the Bigfoot being killed and taken to this school is an anonymous person on another message board. None of the first-hand or police reports that Loren has posted have mentioned killing a creature.
I have the feeling you’re blending the two disparate elements to create a more “believable” story for yourself.
Right now, both “sides” simply have circumstantial evidence in their favour, although admittedly James has a lot more of it. I’m going to assume that Loren or someone is smart enough to contact the actual people mentioned in the rumour and get their opinions on the matter. So far we have one down, publicly stating that it’s all “baloney.” A simple investigation should reveal the cracks in James’s position, or widen the ones in Bigsassy’s.
Right now, the evidence is weighted towards this being a rather crude hoax, but the Pine Ridge cases deserve the utmost attention, and it’s easy enough to follow up on this matter as well.
What is it about this that you guys are not understanding? Is there ANY “evidence” of this dead Bigfoot other than a single post on another message board? If there is, I do not remember seeing it. Why are any of your lending it any credence whatsoever?
If I go post on another message board that I ran over a bigfoot and then gave it to my brother to bury, will you guys automatically assume that’s true until it’s proven otherwise?
I read this elsewhere on Rense.com, and wanted to comment here.
“We DON’T have a Bigfoot corpse here!”
Isn’t this like denying you have a pink dragon somewhere on campus? I mean, if you deny it, who’s gonna believe you DON’T?
Look… I doubted the shooting story when it came out… it just doesn’t ring true. But THIS makes me wonder if it isn’t a “briar patch” story.
My guess is that they’re being flooded with phone calls and e-mails from people who will believe anything on the internet…I don’t blame them at all for issuing a press release.
People, I urge you strongly to look at the so-called evidence here. There is NONE. I’ve yet to see any explanation here as to why we should take the dead bigfoot story seriously. Can anyone walk me through it, step by step, using concrete evidence? I’m guessing the answer is “no,” since you’ll only be able to point me back to the original post from the other website–to which there has been ZERO follow-up, by the way.
Also, here’s another thread started on the Godlike Productions message boards (where the originally “bigfoot was shot” rumor was started):
You’ll see that they’re having a good laugh at the people here who took the original post seriously.
Yes, the SOLE evidence of a dead Bigfoot is the forum posting, as far as I am aware. That’s one for Sassy and the Conspiracy Theorists (Good name for a band, actually). As for your side, we have a university denial, a statement concerning the unlikelihood of a participant being able to participate, and another supposed participant saying it’s a load of hooey, plus no police report that we know of. Like I said, the weight of evidence points to a hoax.
You certainly think it’s a hoax. I think it’s a hoax, but proving it’s a hoax requires a little more evidence than what is effectively just circumstantial evidence, albeit a preponderance of it. I suspect we will soon have denials from the other 2 named in the post to add to our heap. Something more solid would be access to police records, proving they were not called to any scene at the time they are said to have been there. I think that would pretty much clinch it right there, plus I gather from Loren’s updates that someone he’s in contact with is listening to police broadcasts. Surely that person would have heard the events transpire, had they been listening. Hopefully they’re taping them too, which means we’d have concrete evidence that the police were elsewhere when the shooting is supposed to have occured.
As for whether or not I’d believe you if you said you ran one over and had it buried…Well, I’d have to start with the premise that YOU, at least, believed that to be the truth, and work from there. Who are you? What is your background? Are you reliable? Can you back up what you say? Can anyone else? Etc…Etc. Based on your posts here on Cryptomundo, I’d be inclined to consider you relatively trustworthy, but a statement without anything else is just circumstantial (Actually, I suppose hearsay is the legal term).
Ultimately, my comments were meant not to enflame either of you, but to have both of you cool your jets a bit and play nice-nice together. However the Pine Ridge flap turns out, the truth will out, just have a little patience.
Sky King, could there be a reason other than deception for why they’re saying “We don’t have a Bigfoot corpse here”?
And you’re absolutely right, we have nothing on this original poster, and no follow-up. Who was this guy? What is his background? Is he reliable? Can he back up anything he said?
I have to agree with sky king some where along the line here someone is going to have to get a body of one of these things. To prove that it exist. It sounds sad but thats the only way so far in any of the bigfoot cases we havent seen a body, but lets see what happens.
Mnynames: I’m not upset or angry, so I’m not sure why I’d need to cool my jets. 🙂 I’m just trying to point out that some people are a little too eager to believe whatever they’re told. There must be some threshold of truth, right? Whatever that threshold might be, this story certainly doesn’t meet it.
There clearly isn’t any smoking gun here and the possibility that this was one sick practical joke is very great indeed. I was stating my opinion on the matter and what my gut was telling me. I hope that my opinion is wrong and that Loren or someone else can really get to the bottom of this. My gut told me that Biscardi’s hand was a bear paw with the claws cut off. Maybe so maybe not. After all of the credible sightings in this area and then the very creative anonymous post and then more credible sightings and then the strange denials of those supposedly involved my gut says one was shot and some are covering. Hey it’s making for one great thread and love the band name you came up with Mnynames.
Bigsassy, I agree with you: there’s a very great possibility that this is a practical joke. I think you’re very near to getting to the bottom of this matter yourself. You have the perception to see through a hoax, such as Biscardi’s hand.
I appreciate you stating your opinion and your feelings. There are a couple of things I would like to clarify.
One is, what do you find strange about the denials of those supposedly involved?
The other is, you’ve said “my gut says one was shot and some are covering.” Have you ever had your gut tell you something that you later found out wasn’t true?
With respect.
i believe if they had a big foot body they would be calling around the world for funds to research it .It would be the goose that laid the golden egg period .
i think if they had a body it would be the goose that laid the golden egg in funding and would be screaming it around the world they would go from 14 millon a year to 100 millon a year
I too would like to see the “experts” faces when a big foot is finally found and brought into public veiwing, but I am not going to start a conspiracy theory about a supposed dead big foot (by the way, would the supposed shooter go to their version of hell for shooting the supposed big foot?) just because someone wanted to start up another hoax. Big foot hoaxing is becoming a world wide past time. People have gone thru much more than getting online and typing that someone killed a big foot. And seeing how quickly this story spread, I do believe that someone in the media business would have offered that college a ton of money to get video or something. And let’s not go towards something having to do with the rituals of the native americans, if there were any they would have done them. They are very specific on their rituals, and if burying the body right there was apart of it, they would have. We have gone this long without a body, we can wait a little longer to catch one alive (probably drugged for safety) where and when we can study the bugger in depth.
Okay everybody,
I’m pretty sure I have evidence that this is all “baloney” (as Wilmer said). Or at least part of it isn’t true. As some of you may know, I live in Rapid City and I frequently travel back forth from RC to the rez (almost everyday for the past two weeks).
Anyway, I know that Mr. Red Cloud could not have been at the supposed scene of the shooting. He was at Bear Butte at around 4:30 PM that Tuesday August 1. I know because I was there doing some filming. He was speaking at the Gathering of Nations Campground to Protect Bear Butte. He still should have been there for the dinner that evening as well, (because he and others were signing a “Papel Bull”). How could he be there and then immediately be over “smudging” at Slim Buttes area? I’m pretty sure he still would have been at Bear Butte, because that day was one of the most important days. It is possible I guess if the incident happened late, late that night and he left right after I did (5:00PM).
But still… he is disabled and wheelchair bound. I just don’t see a man of his old age to be in one place and still have the energy to be smudging a dead BF miles away. After all, he gets very winded just after talking a few minutes. Anyway, I just thought you all might like to know these rather interesting new details. At least we know Mr. Red Cloud wasn’t involved…
I’d say the kids who started this rumor certaintly got their kicks… Too bad they didn’t do their research… The “people involved” are well known around the community, hence it would be likely for them to easily “use” their names in this (what I think) hoax. But what they didn’t know is that Mr. Mesteth and Mr. Red Cloud have both been recently preoccupied with the Bear Butte thing, so I can hardly imagine them dealing with the BF.
Also, SDSMT!? A small college in town? Yeah, I can really see a bunch of guys traveling from the rez to RC down St. Joe Street with a huge biped creature in the back trunk! And not being seen by some curious bypasser. The natives ALWAYS get stares by the townfolk… somebody would have noticed something even at night. And what about the stench, aren’t BFs supposed to stink… badly?
I don’t know… too much stuff (that I know at least) leans to HOAX!
Thank you Rozz….
I’m relieved…truth is…we are not apt to get the straight story….either way.
Lot’s of good sleuthing on this matter…we all know the capture and vaudeville debut of this wonderous creature will be accomplished by TB…
Too many folks with too much time on their hands…at least the Lakota have a name for the big folks…other than nuisance…JMHO
No Bucks…No bigfoot…
ole bub and the dawgs
hau (hi). I am from porcupine on the pine ridge rez. I am also a distant cousin to donavon lone hill. I also believe there exists this entity in our Lakota territory.
Having read your chronology/timeline, I was surprised to see that your references were under represented. I would like to refer you also to the books titled: “in the spirit of crazy horse” (*1983) by Peter Matthiessen. *Matthiessen also wrote “Indian country” where there are also references to this “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch” whatever you folks call him.
Another archival document from 1966, an out of print book called “Pute tiyospaye” (Lip’s Camp). This book was written by Lakota Students from the town of Wanblee, which is also on Pine Ridge. There, reference is made to the “Tall Man” which your website is referring to as “Telephone Man”.
Yes HowieYowie my gut feelings are sometimes wrong. And like I said they’re most likely wrong in this case. As more and more information comes out it does seem that someone was joking around. Now the credibility of a Pine Ridge bigfoot is shot. Pretty ironic. I like to debunk a hoax just as much as everyone else but I also like there to be a debate in order for all of the facts to come out. Enough said.
Yep, and Loren called it right away, too.
I’d just like to point out that just because it appears that the shooting was a hoax doesn’t say anything about the other sightings, including by law enforcement personnel.
Agreed. The police sightings remain quite compelling.
Hello all. I have recently came across this site via an article in the Rapid City Journal. I feel it important to tell you all that I just graduated from SDSM&T in May. I also feel that it is also important to inform you that the South Dakota School of Mines is an Engineering school. There is no form of autopsy lab. There is a small Biology department in the basement of one building. There is also a nice sized Paleontology department. While it is true that all fossils found in SD go here, living and recently deceased beings do not. It is more likely that Mr. Big Foot would have been sent to the University of South Dakota as they have an extensive Medical program.
Thank You
After reading through all of these kind and amusing entries I decided there were a few things left unsaid.
Mr. Red Cloud is said to be an amputee and on a mission to a very important ceremony. The writer also states later that Mr. Red Cloud gets very winded after talking a wee bit. And that it couldn’t be Mr. Red Cloud ‘smudging’ because the ceremony he was at was very important.
Finding a dead/shot Bigfoot isn’t important? I think that would take precedence over any other ceremony.
The Native Americans had fought long and hard to keep the skull of a ‘person’ here in Washington and Oregon. So how much more paramount would a ‘Bigfoot’ body be to them. This is part of their legend, Bigfoot?
If I were them I wouldn’t be telling anyone either the way the media along with the scientists want to take away and disect.
But on the other hand we have no body. Mr. Red Cloud was at one place where he might have stayed late for, so is said that he couldn’t have been at the site. We have Mr. Mesteht saying it is “…a bunch of boloney”. And that “…someone is making a practicle joke”.
I have to agree with him. But I only say that because there is no body, no concrete proof. Not because Red Cloud couldn’t be in two places in one day, because he could have. And not because Mr. Mesteth had said there is no body, because anyone can tell untruths.
I just need to see the concrete evidence first.
Not saying that I dont believe in Bigfoot, because I know for a fact he is out there.
“If I were them I wouldn’t be telling anyone either the way the media along with the scientists want to take away and disect.”
With all due respect, the media aren’t interested in dissecting anything other than conflicting stories…
And, if you are opposed to dissection how do you suppose we verify the authenticity of this creature if a body is ever found? (or do you want BF to be verified as a flesh and blood creature deserving of state protections that other endangered species receive?)