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| Illustrations for each of the top 9 Alaskan Native Hairy Man stories |
On the west coast of Alaska the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers empty into the Bering Sea creating one of the largest river Delta's in the world. Mostly covered in Tundra it is protected as part of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. Eighty-five percent of the 25,000 residents are Alaskan Natives both Yupik Eskimos and Athabaskan Indians.
In Alaska they have a cryptid "Hairy Man" that goes by many names. The Delta Discovery, a local publication owned by Native Alaskans has been chronically the Hairy Man stories since February 2013. We have selected our favorites and provided links to each story.
1. Plane buzzes Hairy Man people running over ice
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| Plane buzzes Hairy People |
In May of 2012, a plane took off from Bethel and headed upriver, following the Kuskokwim River. The river was breaking up and the snow had pretty much melted, but many big lakes were still frozen over.
For the two people in the plane, the flight seemed to be much like any routine flight. However, just as they passed Tuluksak, the passenger saw something on his side of the plane. He saw two upright but dark creatures running like people on a large, frozen lake.
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2. Captured by Hairy Man
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| Human nurses hairy Man juvenile to health |
In the interior of Alaska, the Hairy Man is known as the “Bushman”. There was an elderly woman who was known as a medicine woman because of her experience as a young girl.
She was out picking berries with others near Rampart when she was kidnapped by a Bushman. She was taken into the wilderness and brought to a cave, where she saw other members of the Hairy Man’s family or group.
In that cave, there were both male and female Hairy Man people, and even young ones. They were hairy and wore no clothes, and smelled badly. But one of the babies of the Hairy Man people was very sick.
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3. Bigfoot follows women during night ride
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| Two women see Hairy Man in the full moonlight |
This lady is from Bethel. Years ago in the 1990’s, she and her younger sister were traveling by snowmachine to Bethel from one of the tundra villages. The sister was driving the snowmachine and she was riding in the back in the sled.
It was nighttime and the moon was full and bright, illuminating the frozen tundra. Stars shone in the sky and there was not a cloud in sight. One could see a long way on a night like this.
The lady riding in the sled had been wearing glasses but took them off because they kept fogging up so she tucked them away. The two women were about halfway to Bethel when suddenly her sister stopped the snowmachine and said to her, “Look!” Her sister was looking at something.
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4. Hairy Man steals dried fish
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| Caught red handed |
One evening, her baby wasn’t well, being restless and whining. That night she slept a few minutes at a time, before baby would wake again and start whining. Soon it was getting bright outside and baby whined again. The lady got up and tended to her baby. When the baby started nursing, the lady was relieved knowing that the baby was much better.
But then she noticed it was unusually quiet outside. Even the early morning birds were not chirping. Through the open door, she could see the dog, which was tied up to the left of the smokehouse door, down on its stomach, its fur very smooth and chin to the ground. She also noticed the dogs were making noises through their noses, making snorting sounds.
While she was looking at the dog, she saw a very big, furry person-like creature coming toward the smokehouse. It was looking around, turning its upper body while turning its head. It got to the smokehouse but did not go inside. Instead, it reached in and took out a dried chum. He tucked it under its arm, looked around again and left. It took long strides when he walked away.
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5. A hunter is chased away by a Hairy Man
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| After several misses, the hunter runs |
A man went hunting by boat one day up the Black River, and got close to Kusilvak Mountain. Stopping at one location, he got out and anchored his boat.
He got his rifble and went up the bank to some high ground to look around, like all other hunters do. While looking around, he spotted some kind of animal not far away.
As he looked longer, he realized it was a Hairy Man! Then the Hairy man saw him too and began to run toward him, making terrible sounds as it came.
Quickly the hunter swung his gun around and fired several times toward the charging beast. Apparently he missed, as the Hairy Man kept coming.
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6. Strong-smelling creature in woods near fishcamp
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| Remembering a stick whizzing past her ear |
“While going back, I bent down to pick a beautiful little flower. Then something went past my left ear, like wood making a ‘swoosh-swoosh-swoosh’ sound like it was flipping over and over as it went past my head.
“Just when I got up and looked, a piece of dry wood branch landed in front of me. I looked to see if anyone was around. I could see far into the woods because there was no grass or growth covering the ground inside the trees.
“I didn’t see anyone or anything. But I smelled something really strong like a wet dog, but stronger and different. I went back to fishcamp.
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7. Nunivak Island Bigfoot
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| in the 1930's a sod house is invaded |
It was during the winter when the three hunters went out on their trip to the west side of the island. As it was evening, the hunters stopped at an old fishcamp to bunk down for the night in an abandoned sod house.
Sod houses, especially those at hunting or fishing sites, were not large and had small entry ways.
The hunters were traveling by dog team. When they stopped to camp they secured their dogs to wooden posts before turning in for the night.
As they were waiting to sleep, the dogs outside began barking. The next thing they knew, someone or something was trying to break in through the door of the sod house. The terrified men got out their .30-.30 rifles in fear of the unknown.
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8. Nome miner kills a Hairy Man
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| Bear or Bigfoot? |
Jean Joiner was a miner from Nome who had a mine near Jade Mountain on Dahl Creek. The Jade Mountains are the westernmost peaks of the Brooks Range.
Mr. Joiner told his story that he had killed a Bigfoot-like animal near his mine, which he thought was a bear at first. But when he looked at the “bear” he killed, he didn’t know what it was but it resembled a human being.
He got real scared of what he had killed and believing that he would get in trouble for it, he cut it up and threw the pieces into the stream near his mine.
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9. Rock throwers of the Andreafsky River
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| Rocks being thrown from the shore |
“Miluquyuli” (the thrower) is one of the names given to the Hairy Man in many parts of the Yukon and Kuskokwim River villages.
At another time, a son (now in his 50s) of the elder remembers camping as a young boy along the same river with his family when, from far up a hill above their camp, a large rock or two were thrown and sailed over them, landing with a big splash into the Andreafsky.
The rocks were too large for humans to thrown that high and far.
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