Thom Powell Week: Oregonian Guest Columnist

This week we celebrate Thom Powell, the contemporary researcher and author of the Bigfoot research book, "The Locals". On November 3rd he will be speaking at an event sponsored by the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon. There are rumors he will provide a peak of his new book, "Shady Neighbors"



Below is an article by Thom Powell for the Oregonian. Although it is not strictly about Bigfoot, Powell does suggest a connection between the words "Squaw" and "Sasquatch". Fascinating Stuff!

Drawing the line on offensive place names
Published: Monday, August 16, 2010, 7:00 AM
By Thom Powell

The Oregonian's story on the removal of offensive place names was interesting and accurate -- mostly. A few interesting additions: The modern-day movement to change offensive place names began with an Oprah Winfrey show in 1992. A guest on her show declared that use of "squaw" as a place name was offensive. The Oregonian's story explained that the word was derived from an Algonquian name for "woman." More accurately, the translation is said to be something on the order of "female reproductive parts."

Algonquian as a tribal language was spoken only in the northeast corner of the U.S. and Canada. Three quarters of the continent's tribes did not recognize the word at all, much less regard it as something offensive. Nineteenth century linguists may have incorrectly translated the word as a more general reference to female Indians. Being easy to pronounce and remember, it was then carried across the continent in the minds of explorers, trappers and settlers who were completely unaware of any implied insult associated with the term.

They were a hardy bunch, but the early settlers were not always literate, and they definitely weren't politically correct. They doubtless used disparaging terms for females of all races, including their own. Yet, "squaw" was not meant to demean or offend when it was assigned to plants (squawberry, squawroot), places (Squawback Ridge, Squaw Butte), and people, male or female. Interestingly, a white man who took an Indian bride was a "squawman."

Consciousness-raising began with a 1992 episode of the daytime talk show "Oprah." Guest and Native American activist Suzan Harjo, appealed for change to demeaning names used by professional sports teams (think: Washington, Cleveland and Atlanta) even though such names are intended to convey generally positive images of warrior-like fierceness.

In any case, Harjo bolstered her position by invoking other linguistic insults such as use of the word "squaw." Not being an expert in Algonquian herself (she is Cheyenne), Harjo cited a 1972 book, "Literature of the American Indian," in which the authors raised the dubious claim that the word referred to female genetalia in the Naraganset dialect of the Algonquian Nation.

In truth, it is not at all clear which of several words has been anglicized into "squaw," but "eskwaw," "esqua" and "ojiskw" are all possibilities. Other Algonquian tribes used "squa." By the way, the Algonquian term for white settlers was "wasichu." How would that do as a team name? Anyone want tickets to see the Washington Wasichu play?

In any event, leave it to explorers and settlers to phoeneticize and simplify tricky pronunciations, then carry them westward, but the story probably doesn't end there. No Indian in western North America ever named a place using Algonquian terms, but white explorers and settlers may have.

Why places such as the remote Squaw Butte in Clackamas County would be so named is less clear. Did an explorer see a female Indian there? That's possible, but I doubt it. My own research suggests that another Indian term in use more locally may have been confused and simplified into the handier term "squaw."

Squaw Butte sits within the lands once occupied by the Clackamas band of the Chinook Indians. Nearby, the Kwakiutl Indians of the Pacific coast used the term Tsonoqua. This term, also spelled "Tsonokwa," translates into "a wild, very hairy female being with big feet."

Another put down? I don't think so. Rather, it's a reference to a female "sesquac" or sasquatch, as we call them today. The "tsonoqua" was a female bigfoot, and while the concept of the sasquatch or bigfoot is much ridiculed in modern society, the Indians in virtually all parts of North America had terms to describe these elusive and mysterious beings. As it turns out, Squaw Mountain lies in a remote location in the Mount Hood National Forest where the legend of the sasquatch persists to the present.

Pioneering research on this point, done by Molalla resident Frank Kaneaster, even identifies Squaw Butte as being at the center of a cluster of modern sasquatch sightings. My own research bolsters Kaneaster's dubious data set with two more sightings by local hunters who emphatically claim that a sasquatch is what they saw while hunting the flanks of Squaw Mountain.

Frank Kaneaster map with color-coded pins showing a cluster of reports near Squaw Mountain .

When one examines the places in Oregon alone that bear (or once did) the name "Squaw", they all bear an interesting similarity: They are remote, even by today's standards, and so were even more remote in the days of early wasichu (white) settlement. They are surrounded by other place names that hearken of the mysterious wild beings: Devil's Ridge, Devil's Lake, Skookum Lake, Tarzan Springs, Skookum Meadow, Diablo Mountain and more.

Virtually all North American tribes embrace the wildman or sasquatch phenomenon. They uniformly regard these beings not as animals but people, member of a mysterious but very real tribe. And if the sasquatch, or skookums, exists then there are females, for which one of the local terms was Tsonoqua. This is a more likely origin for the word "squaw" when referencing remote geographical places in the Pacific Northwest that were actually named by the Indians, not the wasichu.

I guess it doesn't matter anymore. The Forest Service has removed the name from the creek and its parent butte. It is now known as Tumalo Creek and Tumalo Butte, which, in the Klamath dialect, means either "wild plum" or "cold water," depending on which translation one accepts. A strange choice considering the Klamath Indians didn't live around here, and the name "Tumalo" is already prominent in central Oregon. It's also kind of a boring name. I mean, "Coldwater Creek"? "Wild Plum Butte"? C'mon, guys, is that the best you could do? If we're going to change the name, how about reverting to "Tsonoqua"? It's probably the original name for the place, and laugh if you will, but the place does have a history of reported sasquatch encounters to back it up. The Indians don't laugh, but they don't discuss their feelings on the subject with the wasichu either. They know all too well our tendency to label unfamiliar beings as animals, then use that as an excuse to shoot them.

Tsonoqua may be an old name, but it is not as easy to spell or pronounce as is "squaw." The nice thing about "Tsonoqua" is that if some of the locals don't like it, they can just slur it, and it will sound like the traditional wasichu name. That's probably the way Squaw Butte got its name in the first place. Now, if I could just get on "Oprah," I know I could change people's minds.

Thom Powell lives in rural Clackamas County and teaches sciences at Robert Gray Middle School in Portland. He is the author of "The Locals: A Contemporary Investigation of the Bigfoot/Sasquatch Phenomenon."

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Shady Neighbors Book Cover
Thom Powell Week: On the heels of PG film Anniversary

EXTERNAL LINKS
Original Oregonian Article
Thom Powell's book the Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell

Thom Powell Week: On the heels of PG film Anniversary

This week we celebrate Thom Powell, the contemporary researcher and author of the Bigfoot research book, "The Locals". On November 3rd he will be speaking at an event sponsored by the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon. There are rumors he will provide a peak of his new book, "Shady Neighbors"

Please Note: The following reprinted content was before MK Davis's assertions of the Bluff Creek Massacre and although most disagree with MK's assertions (we do anyway), this post is more about the Patterson/Gimlin Film and Thom Powell's ponderings of the possible human-ness of Sasquatch.

On the heels of the anniversary of the Patterson Gimlin film (OCT 20) We found this insightful remark from Thom Powell on Cryptomundo. It is a response to an M.K. Davis Presentation at Don Keating’s Ohio Bigfoot conference on May 17th, 2008.



There is no doubt M.K. Davis has made his mark in the Bigfoot Community, for better or for worse. Most would say for the worse. Once heralded as one of the greatest contributers to analyzing the Patterson/Gimlin Film, his theories became controversial when he began to assert he had evidence for a Bluff Creek Massacre.

Days before he announced the "massacre", at Don Keating’s Ohio Bigfoot conference on May 17th, 2008, MK presented other less controversial assertions. These assertions supported the more human-ness of the figure of the Patterson Gimlin film, including the possibility of a top-knot and ponytail.

Although there was the back and forth that can be emblematic of our Bigfoot community, we like Thom's response to the presentation in general. Instead of entering the fray of whether or not Bigfoot is human or ape, capable of braiding its hair or not. Thom provides the sanity of context and asks us not be afraid to look past our assumptions.

To all,
I was fortunate to hear MK Davis make this presentation in Portland OR recently. He showed the audience various enhancements and how he accomplished them. He was able to identify numerous features and elements in the PGF that almost everyone is unaware of.He showed us that there is a great deal of useful and interesting information in that short clip. The short quotation that is taken out of context and published above does not come close to doing justice to the whole subject of enhancing the PGF. Davis provides compelling but admittedly inconclusive film data to support the following conclusions:

1. the creature shows a number of hair stylings like a top-knot. He concludes it’s not a saggital crest on the subject. It is a top-knot of hair. He shows his detailed analysis that supports this view and it is more compellling than most realize.

2. There is also evidence of braids and a ponytail in the head hair. These are utilitarian hair styling that are commonly used in modern and ancient tribes to keep hair cleaner and out of the way. On this basis Davis asserts that the PGF subject is closer to a vestigal member of a Native American population, not an ape. This is the essence of the assertion that the film shows a human being.

3. He presents data that supports the view that the creature is holding a stick, which could be for digging (hence the whole digger-indian thing.)

4. Most reproductions of the PGF have been darkened in the reporduction process. The closer one gets to the original film, the lighter the creature appears and the thinner the hair appears to be. This shows better views of the body outline beneath the hair/fur. Enhancements Davis performed show the breasts and facial features more plainly and definitely. His enhancements show more ‘humanish’ facial features than the animalistic features that other researchers contend are shown in their respective analyses of available copies of the PGF.

There are other interesting points about the subject and the surroundings that Davis presented. It is an excellent talk and if you haven’t seen it, you have no accurate basis to judge it. Roger Knights was at the same talk I attended so I submit that Roger’s assesments of the infromation presented are more accurate than most.

Hopefully Marlon Davis will publish an monograph so more people can get an informed view of his data and conclusions. Davis is a very skilled technician and his conclusiona are fairly sound.

A final note:
Here in the greater Portland area there is a lot of sasquatch activity in the surrounding forests. The patterns that emerge from analysis of dozens if not hundreds of unpublished accounts does, in my view, strongly support the view that at least some of these creatures are intelligent enough to qualify as human, i.e. vestigal Indians. With this body of locally available information in mind, MK Davis’ assertions are really nothing shocking. If anything, his assertions validate something that has been argued by others for a long time: that at least some of these creatures are some form of human.

Yet, the ‘ape’ paradigm still holds sway elsewhere on the continent and indeed some of these being may indeed be ape, but they probably are not all apes and I think Davis compellingly shows that the one in the PGF is not the ape that Dahinden argued, but the rather intelligent creature that Ivan Sanderson asserts. So, we’re back to the old Danhinden vs. Sanderson debate about the true nature of these creatures. Perhaps they are both correct: The bigfoot phenomenon represents multiple taxonomic grouping, as Colemen has long argued.
Best to all,
Thom Powell
May 20th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

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November 3rd Event
Thom Powell Week: To true believers, Bigfoot lives
Thom Powell Week: The Contemporary Researcher
Thom Powell Week: Peer Review
Shady Neighbors Book Cover

EXTERNAL LINKS
Thom Powell's book the Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell

Thom Powell Week: Book Cover Tease

Click the above picture to enlarge and see details!

This week we celebrate Thom Powell, the contemporary researcher and author of the Bigfoot Research book, "The Locals". On November 3rd he will be speaking at an event sponsored by the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium and University of Oregon. There are rumors he will provide a peak of his new book, "Shady Neighbors"

Speaking of the book, "Shady Neighbors," Thom Powell is taking Bigfoot art and Bigfoot book covers to the next level. He has commissioned our artist to create an original and unique cover for the book.

The image above is what those artist-types call a study, basically practice to see how to create textures (like the liver spotted skin of a primate) or lighting (like the way a sunset highlights fur). Proportionals and sizing is also worked out, like perhaps a baseball would look even smaller in the hand of a Sasquatch.

You may ask yourself why would a Sasquatch hold a baseball. that's a question for Thom Powell on November 3rd!

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
November 3rd Event
Thom Powell Week: To true believers, Bigfoot lives
Thom Powell Week: The Contemporary Researcher
Thom Powell Week: Peer Review

EXTERNAL LINKS
Thom Powell's book the Locals
Cliff Barackman talks about the Chehalis Project, investigated by Thom Powell