The Bellingham Herald Pop Pundit: The Political Implications of Sasquatch

Cliff Barackman preaching pearls of Bigfooting wisdom (photo credit: Neo Edwards)

Cliff Barackman, star of Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot is interviewed by the Bellingham Herald. As always, Cliff is an eloquent ambassador for us bigfooters with his ability to articulate the best of  bigfooting to the media. This is no surprise to us that read Cliff's Official Blog.

Read the interview below and don't forget to tune in to Finding Bigfoot tonight as the team talks to our favorite Bigfoot researcher advocate personality, Todd Standing.

When it comes to Sasquatch, ignore Mitt Romney. Even though the Republican presidential candidate called him a "hoax" in Monday's GOP primary debate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Bigfoot is big business - or at least the search for him is.

The Jan. 1 second season premiere of Animal Planet's "Finding Bigfoot" drew 1.6 million viewers. This the second-best premiere for the network and a healthy number for a New Year's Day opening, and the ratings for the following two episodes have remained respectable.

Produced by Ping Pong Productions (the same company behind Syfy's monster-hunting series "Destination Truth"), the Sunday night show follows the Bigfoot Field Researcher's Organization (BFRO) as it chases down leads, examines supposed evidence and attempts to track down the most famous cryptid.

"Finding Bigfoot" stars educator Cliff Barackman along with BFRO founder Matt Moneymaker, research biologist Ranae Holland, commercial fisherman James "Bobo" - and a possible cameo each week by the mythical beast.

Barackman isn't an eccentric monster-hunter type. Originally from Long Beach, Calif., he has taught fourth, fifth and sixth graders. He's also a jazz guitarist and teaches lessons, but has always maintained a passion for science. He says his interest in Bigfoot came more from pop culture than from science, and that he grew up loving monster movies. It wasn't until he saw documentary shows like "In Search Of" in the 1970s that he became excited about the possibility of a "real" monster in the woods. He says it hooked him "pretty deep," and when he was in college he would spend time between classes reading up on the Sasquatch. The research led to Barackman thinking of Bigfoot as not just "fun and quirky and weird," but also as real and believable.

Barackman recently discussed the show, his own experiences and how his work might also mean the downfall of the beast he's pursuing.

QUESTION: What was your most compelling experience?

ANSWER: I've heard them very close to me on many occasions. I've had very large rocks thrown very close to me to get my attention - like, head-sized rocks. I've heard splashing in the river very close to get my attention. I've had them 40, 50 feet from me, screaming in the dark, waking me up at three in the morning. I've found footprints before. I've found trees snapped. I've found hair samples. I have numerous vocalizations on my website ... although I have yet to physically lay my eyes on them. Unless that thing I saw in North Carolina that Matt swears was a person (in Season One) was a Bigfoot.

And I'm kind of inclined to think it was Bigfoot instead of a person.

Q: What do you do when you're out in the woods and you encounter this thing? What happens next?

A: Bigfooting is not a situation for the mind-state of most hunters with their super awesome guns, wearing camouflage and all that other stuff. Because that kind of person, that kind of mentality, is the kind of mentality that tries to gain control. And when you are with Sasquatches, in the woods, you are not in control. These things are super ninjas. That's the best analogy I have. They can literally be 50 feet from you and you won't even know. ...When they're around and they come in close, they stand off in the woods, 50 yards or so and watch you. And if there's more than one around, maybe they're going to knock into each other or clap or whatever they're doing to make that popping noise that they do. You can hear them. So I think the best you can do is sit tight, look interesting, maybe talk to them, maybe throw some food out into the woods. And try to record them with a digital/audio recorder. Or if you have a thermal imager, try to catch a glimpse of one in between trees as it darts around.

Q: Is the goal to capture it?

A: No, of course not. How do you capture an 1,100-pound primate with hands that's as smart as you are? You just don't do that. I think, as far as Bigfooting goes, everyone has their own personal goal ... my personal goal is to learn about them as much as possible. Because when discovery does happen, like I said, it's going to be pretty bad for them. People are going to go out to the woods. Fools are going to go out and try to hunt them. My personal goal is to soften the blow of discovery by learning as much about them as I can now, and then hopefully use this platform that I've been given by Animal Planet to educate the public.

Q: You say that discovery is the worst thing that could happen to them. Do you worry that you and your show are contributing to that, and part of the problem?

A: Absolutely, but at the same time, if the opportunity is given to me and I refuse it because it's going to be bad for them, it's going to be given to somebody else. I feel that my heart is in the right place.

I'm actually interested in Sasquatches whereas other people - known hoaxes and charlatans that are out there - they are just doing it to further themselves and earn money and fame and all that other junk.

I'm a professional educator. I look at this as an educational opportunity.

Q: What is the timeline to discovery and when will the really solid proof emerge that Bigfoot exists?

A: I think there's going to be a rising tide of acceptance where more and more academics step forward and start studying this thing until eventually some cold-hearted person would go out and shoot one of these things - or a trucker will just run one down on a freeway somewhere and we'd just have a body. ... It's really only a matter of time until that happens. I know that's a long answer but I don't think it's going to be two years from now. I think there's going to be a rising tide in acceptance. Until somehow or another, a dead one is brought in.

Q: What are your thoughts on other cryptids like the Jersey Devil, the Loch Ness Monster, Chupacabra?

A: I think the Jersey Devil is just another local name for Sasquatch way back when. I know they're reported to have hooves and wings and all this other stuff, but that probably came out later. Most likely back in the early Colonial days, there was a long oral history of the Jersey Devil. Practically all the settlers, whether we're talking 1690 or 1890, they were all Christians, right? So, as they moved into unknown areas, they ran across scary things that howled at them - or most likely they didn't even see them, by the way, because there's a lot of places with reportedly hauntings in the woods, but those hauntings are limited to rocks being thrown and scary noises, screams and howls. Those are all Bigfoot things. ... As far as other species of cryptids, it was through bigfooting that I came to realize that giant river serpents are probably the real deal. I did an episode of "Monster Quest" years ago where "Bobo" and I were the first white people basically to ever go bigfooting on the Yurok reservation in Northern California on the Klamath River. Just by talking to a handful of Native Americans on that trip alone, I came across like three or four eyewitnesses to these giant river serpents that come up in the river chasing salmon, or used to when there were lots of salmon in the rivers.

Q: Stories of these creatures often revolve around people hiking in the woods, but what about when campers are more vulnerable, like when they use the bathroom in the woods?

A: You'd be surprised how many of those stories I've heard. Now you picture someone who does go out to take a leak or take a dump around a campfire. They leave the campfire area and go 50 yards out somewhere.

They're exactly in the right position, so to speak - squatting - to see a Sasquatch because Sasquatches come close to fires and watch campers. A lot - a lot being like 1 or 2 percent of the time you're out there. Now, these people are away from the fire and squatting, which in primate body language, squatting is a very inoffensive pose. In fact, mountain gorilla specialists, they say when you get close to mountain gorillas, squat down and don't make eye contact. This is exactly what these people are doing when they're out in the woods taking a dump or when a woman is taking a leak. They do see Sasquatches a lot.

Aaron Sagers writes about all things pop-culture each week, but you can follow him daily on Twitter under AaronSagers and on his site, www.paranormalpopculture.com. He can be contacted at sagers.aaron@gmail.com.

2012, Aaron Sagers.

SRC:  http://www.bellinghamherald.com

Shurale — A Tatar Yeti?

"When the sun rose the villagers were awoken by the ghastly cries of a hairy human-like creature that had become glued to the back of one of the horses." Ines Cerro/KH.

"In 1958 the Soviet government saw fit to fund a 'snowman commission' to seek out the basis for Wildman’s reports which from the Pamir Mountains."-- Edward Crabtree

Based in Russia, The Kazan Herald is Tatarstan’s first and only English-language newspaper. Founded in May 2010, the newspaper is a trusted source of objective coverage and quality analysis of news, business, arts, opinion, sports, and tourism in Kazan and Tatarstan. 

Fortunately for us, they have a British journalist, Edward Crabtree, who lives in Kazan and is very interested in the Yeti legends and relic hominid research.

Below is a an article written by him discussing the the legend of the Shurale

Shurale — A Tatar Yeti?

By Edward Crabtree 22 January 2012

Does Shurale, mythical creature of Tatar folklore, have something to tell us about the Russian Yeti?

The world’s media has recently zoomed in on the Kemerovo region in Siberia. There, American and Russian investigators have joined forces to find the “snyeshni chyelovyek,” the snowman, or Russia’s very own Bigfoot, which is said to stalk the area. Dogged by the inevitable hoaxes and cultural confusions, many nevertheless hope that this search begins a new period of East-West cooperation in finally trying to crack this ongoing enigma.

Russia’s involvement in the snowman problem has not always been the risible issue on the fringes that it has since become. In 1958 the Soviet government saw fit to fund a “snowman commission” to seek out the basis for Wildman’s reports which from the Pamir Mountains. This was headed by Professor B.F. Porshnev and his hypothesis was that the Russian yeti was a relic of the Neanderthal, the much sought after missing link, bridging apes and humankind. Eight years later, this idea appeared to be strengthened when another yeti-expert, Doctor Jeanne Marie Kofman, addressed the Russian Geographical Society in Moscow and unveiled an identikit picture of what the snowman would look like as based on many eyewitness statements. A member of the audience then came forward to say how much this resembled the latest artist’s impression of a Neanderthal man, based on fossilized remains.

In Tibet the yeti is a quasi-mythological deity which is an inclusive part of the local Buddhist cosmology. For the Native Americans the “sasquatch” is a similar legendary creature to which magical powers are ascribed. If, indeed, there were a Neanderthal-related hominid existing on the outskirts of human society, then would not one expect the folklores of the world to tell of this? With this in mind, it is time to take a fresh look at the “shurale” of Bashkir and Tatar folklore.

Surale (Tatar: Шүрәле), seated at the right in this sculputre in central Kazan, is a Tatar and Bashkir mythical creature who according to legend lives in the forests, luring his victims and tickling them to death. Tatar poet Ğabdulla Tuqay wrote an epic poem based on the legend. Maxim Edwards/KH.

Sabirzyan Badtretdin, writing in the “Tatar Exclusive Web Gazette,” recently recounted a local tale that has been passed down from grandfathers to the current generation. According to legend, horses had been going missing from the village during the night and were discovered the following morning in an exhausted condition. As this could not be allowed to continue, the village elders were consulted as to what to do next. Their advice? To cover the horses’ saddles in tar and then to release them. Sure enough, when the sun rose the villagers were awoken by the ghastly cries of a hairy human-like creature that had become glued to the back of one of the horses. This was promptly slain and, it was, of course, recognized as being Shurale.

This macabre little account could easily be dismissed as merely a fireside tale, but it does find an echo in a better-documented story. In January 2002 the Russian Journal “Ural Stalker” carried a report by the biologist Nikolai Avdeev. This told of a Wildman who had appeared in the vicinity of Ibramigova village in the southern Urals and which had been blamed for the killing of domestic animals. This too was eventually captured and killed and was personified as shurale by the local Bashkirs. However, in this case, officials from outside the area had a chance to inspect the body. They described it as being covered in black hair, having red eyes, a pronounced brow and no forehead – and being reminiscent more of Bigfoot than of the nimble fingered horn headed Shurale.

This would not be the first time that a folk tale was found to have some grounding in fact. Vietnamese forest dwellers had long told stories of a large antelope creature which lived nearby, but this was not given credence by zoologists. After the discovery of some horns, an expedition was mounted which resulted in the discovery of the saola, a rare mammal known as the ‘Asian Unicorn’, which was only accepted by the mainstream science as late as 1992.

For the time being, in spite of the flippant attitudes towards it by many, there is an international race afoot to capture the ever elusive yeti. Just maybe, Tatarstan may hold one of the missing jigsaw pieces to this intriguing mystery.

BFRO Insists Evidence Exists

The header from The BFRO Website

"The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization insists that, yes, there is evidence and, yes, there are credible reasons bigfoot remains have never been found." --HULIQ.com

HULIQ.com is an independent news organization and is owned by Hareyan Publishing LLC. Currently HULIQ has 16 reporters and 3 editors. Today the file a report on the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization: The video they reference is from the Todd Standing episode.

'Finding Bigfoot': BFRO insists evidence exists, nonexistent remains easily explained 

 By Mechele R. Dillard on 2012-01-22

 According to the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization—or the BFRO, as Matt Moneymaker typically refers to it on the Discovery Channel show Finding Bigfoot—the term “sasquatch” is an anglicized derivative of "Sésquac,” a word in the Stó:lõ dialect of the Halkomelem language meaning “wild man.” In Canada, where the team is heading in tonight’s episode of Finding Bigfoot, “sasquatch” is the more common term used as opposed to the popular “bigfoot” in the United States.

Background: 'Finding Bigfoot' team divided on validity of Canadian Rockies video (VIDEO)

In the mid-20th century, the media created the term “bigfoot,” the BFRO indicates, during a rash of sightings in the area of northern California. Since then, the term has become popularized, although Native Americans are reported to have more than 60 different names for the elusive—maybe non-existent—creature. Terms used by pioneers of North America, as well as non-native inhabitants, include “skookums” and “mountain devils,” the BFRO says.

Descriptions given by the BFRO of bigfoot, they explain, are compilations of thousands of sightings of the creatures; the infamous 1967 Patterson movie footage; more recent computer imaging analysis of what the creature could look like; and statistical analysis of a large database of information gathered over the last 50 years, primarily, the BFRO credits, by John Green. The BFRO maintains that there is absolutely a wealth of evidence of the existence of bigfoot, regardless of what skeptics claim:

“The assertion that there is absolutely no physical evidence is absolutely false,” the BFRO website states. “There is more physical evidence than most people realize. Physical evidence is found every month in various areas across the country. Distinct tracks that do not match other animal tracks, hairs that match each other but no known wild animals, and large scats that could not be made by any known species, are all ‘physical evidence.’

“The presence or absence of ‘physical remains’ is a wholly different matter. ‘Physical remains’ means body parts, or fossils of body parts. Though mammals may leave tracks, scats and hairs behind, they do not leave body parts behind very often. Body parts of mammals are only available when they die. Thus availability of physical remains is initially determined by population size and lifespan. A rare species with a long lifespan will leave very little physical remains, collectively, for humans to find. The probability of humans actually finding and collecting and identifying those remains before they are completely reabsorbed into the biomass complicates the ‘physical remains as evidence’ equation dramatically.”

According to the BFRO, there has never been a serious effort made to discover natural remains of any type of ape in areas where they are rumored to live. And, as remains are unlikely to become fossilized, they become completely reabsorbed into the ecosystem over time. “No one should expect remains of such an elusive species to be found, collected and identified without some effort,” the group says.

Some people suggest that there should at least be “roadkill” bigfoot, or bigfoots killed by hunters. However, the BFRO says that there have been no credible reports about a vehicle colliding with a bigfoot. Additionally, they explain, bigfoots seem to be far more intelligent than other species that do get hit on a regular basis, such as deer, that become “dazzled in the headlights” of oncoming cars. Bigfoots, they say, actually make an effort to stay out of the way of vehicles. And, as far as hunters go, not only are there laws in place that could make killing a bigfoot a potential crime, most hunters who have claimed to have had encounters with a bigfoot, the BFRO says, simply said they did not initially know what the creatures were, and they were so human-like, they did not feel comfortable shooting at them.

For more information on bigfoots, visit the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization website.

SRC: HULIQ.com