YEAR: 2000

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: May

DATE: 1

STATE: California

COUNTY: Tulare County

LOCATION DETAILS: Tule River Indian Reservation, Porterville CA.

NEAREST TOWN: Porterville

NEAREST ROAD: Highway 190

OBSERVED: My sighting was in May of 2000 on the Tule River Indian Reservation in Porterville CA. I worked on the reservation at this time at the end of the paved road (very remote), my secretary (who is a member of the tribe) and I stepped outside for a break. My secretary spotted it first on the mountain behind our office. She pointed it out to me, it was a large hairy mammal standing in front of a rock about 100 yrds away with it's left arm extended upward holding on to a rock ledge. It was easy to see and make out the animal's face and eyes. We watched it for about 10 minuets but then my secretary got scared so we went back into the office. She then told me that her people believed that the bigfoot was sacred and that they lived at the area we had saw the bigfoot and that they help to carry their dead through this mountain to the other side. I then went back out side and it was gone.

OTHER WITNESSES: 1 witness, working at desk

TIME AND CONDITIONS: about 10:00am, clear skies, sunny

ENVIRONMENT: oak and buckeye trees, steep terrain, next to a river

Follow-up investigation report:

I talked with the witness by phone. The following details can be added to the report:
--The witness was a counselor at the Substance Abuse Center, right next to Painted Rock (where there are the only known pictographs of a bigfoot).
--The witness is Native American and the secretary is Yokuts.
--The creature was seen right above Painted Rock, near Tule River.
--The creature was hunched down or squatting, hanging onto a rock ledge. They could see it from the waist up.
--When it looked right at them, they got a good view of the face. There was little hair on the face, which was ape like and flat. Its head was round or oval. He could not see the whites of its eyes, but could tell they were dark. It had noticeable ears.
--It was covered with six inch long reddish brown hair.
--The secretary got upset because she had just buried her cousin that morning and the Yokuts believe that Bigfoot comes and carries the dead to Mt. Tilliman, the mountain above Painted Rock.
--The witness knows that Bigfoot, or Hairy Man (as he is known on the reservation), is considered sacred to the tribe. He is considered to be very powerful medicine.
--Another story told was when a young man with an addiction problem was doing a sweat or fast, he was placed in a circle of tobacco. A bigfoot approached him, made lots of noises, but would not enter the sacred circle.

For more information about the Hairy Man Pictographs, see
Hairy Man Pictographs