Missing First Nation Bigfoot Mask Returns 75 Years Later

The mask disappeared in 1939 from Sts’ailes First Nation, near Harrison Hot Springs in B.C.’s Fraser Valley.

The Vancouver Sun tracks interesting Bigfoot news as a man's journeys across nations and decades to find a mask that was rumored to be taken by a man consumed and obsessed by the Sasquatch legend. Read an excerpt from the story below.

VANCOUVER - Hunting for an elusive sasquatch mask revered by a British Columbia First Nation has been a 16-year journey for James Leon, taking him through London, Boston, New York and Ottawa.

In the end, all it took was a question to the lady sitting next to him at a Vancouver event that led him to his nation's Sasq'ets mask that vanished 75 years ago.

Leon was at a repatriation event for another First Nations artifact held by the Vancouver Museum when he asked the lady sitting beside him if she knew of the ape-like mask partially covered in bear fur.

"Her eyes lit up and she said 'We were just looking at that mask the other day.' And they were gracious enough to go get it for me," he said with a chuckle.

The mask disappeared in 1939 from Sts'ailes First Nation, near Harrison Hot Springs in B.C.'s Fraser Valley.

Community elders told Leon that the mask had been taken by J.W. Burns, a teacher at the Chehalis Indian Day School, and a man obsessed with the sasquatch legend.

Burns, who is often credited for bringing the word "sasquatch" into common use, donated the mask to the Vancouver Museum.

Leon took the job of finding the mask seriously and learned it had been on travelling display. He searched through the archives of several museum's known for having artifacts from British Columbia.

While all those elders are gone, he said they'd be pleased the mask has been returned.

"We do burning for the sasquatch. It's our belief that his primary role is to ensure that the land is being taken care of. Because everyone of us, as Sts'ailes people, we carry an ancestral name, a rich name from the land."

Read more: Mask associated with Sasquatch lore returned to B.C. First Nation

Bigfoot Day Describes Three Types of Bigfoot Enthusiasts

Bigfoot Day in Clearfield speaker Fred Saluga explains his view that there are three groups of Bigfoot enthusiasts.
Photo: MARCUS SCHNECK,mschneck@pennlive.com

There was a strong UFO theme at the Bigfoot Day gathering in Clearfield, Pennsylvania. Fred Saluga (pictured above) categorizes Bigfoot enthusiasts into three categories. Below is a snippet from an article by Marcus Schneck of PennLive.com, where you can read how Mr. Saluga categorizes the bigfoot enthusiasts.

Wide-ranging views on Bigfoot converged on Clearfield in northcentral Pennsylvania on Saturday, as about 50 Bigfoot enthusiasts and investigators gathered at the Clearfield Arts Studio Theatre for Bigfoot Day in Clearfield.

Bigfoot enthusiasts fall into one of three camps, the group heard from Fred Saluga, state director of the Mutual UFO Network of West Virginia and director of the West Virginia Mountain State Sasquatch Watch. The first believe that Bigfoot is a "cryptozoological hominid creature." (Cryptozoology is the search for animals that have not been proven to exist. The animals that cryptozoologists search for are often referred to as cryptids. A hominid is a primate mammal that resembles humans and apes, and walks on two legs.)

Saluga said, the second group thinks Bigfoot "dwells in extraterrestrial origin," travels interdimensionally and has UFO or non-Earthly ties. And, the third group believes the Bigfoot types envisioned by the first two groups are two different creatures.

"I think he's a creature from another dimension," he said. "He can come through whenever he wants, and he becomes like us, flesh and blood." For Saluga that explains why Bigfoot is not susceptible to diseases, infections and the like; never has been wounded by people shooting at him; and can simply walk away from or disappear from collisions with vehicles.

You can read the rest of the article at PennLive.com titled "Bigfoot Day in Clearfield draws enthusiasts and investigators with differing theories on Bigfoot"

Local Floridian News Segment Reveals Skunk Ape Diet

Local Florida's WCJB-TV does a segment on the Skunk Ape

Florida has it's own version of Bigfoot, known as the Skunk Ape, thought to be a distinct separate species from the Sasquatch. In a recent news segment Florida's WCJB-TV interviews those who have talked to witnesses and reveal the popular diet of the Skunk Ape. read the report below followed by the video segment.

It'a an urban legend that has kept floridians curious over the years…
What can the dark shadow passing through the woods be?

John Bird is a manager at BC Quarter Circle Ranch in Fort White.
He says a neighbor who lives down the road told him he had seen skunk apes.

"He said that they were pulling the spanish moss off the trees and eating it," Bird said, remembering what a neighbor had told him. "He also told my fiance and i and her uncle that he on a regular basis feeds these skunk apes sweet potatoes and plantains."

And while it may seem strange, skunk ape sightings are not uncommon in the area.
Bob Hagen, owner of the ranch says he's lived on the property his whole life… he says his grandparents and great-grandparents told him stories about the mysterious creature.

"I have actually never seen anything that i would swear to you is sasquatch, skunk ape, or bigfoot, or anything else," he said.
But, he adds, he has seen some strange stuff around.

"I was out on the tractor on the pines a couple of months ago, and first, out of the corner of my eye I saw something pretty large moving through the pine trees," Hagen said.

Big foot, sasquatch, or florida skunk ape, thos who claim to have seen it say its tall, dark, but not quite so handsome.

"Our wildlife assistant biologist does receive periodic sightings of different creatures that we actually have no physical evidence for," Karen Parker, Public Information Officer for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission said. "And that's the case of the skunk ape." SRC: WCJB.Com