Media Article # 237
Article submitted by Richard Noll

Friday, September 30, 1988

Bigfoot lives

By Michael Schmeltzer
Washington Magazine

Perhaps the earliest recorded mention of Sasquatch can be found in a letter written in April 1840 by the Reverend Elkanah Walker, a Protestant missionary to the Spokane Indians. Preserved today in the archives of the Holland Library on the WSU campus, Walker's letter offers a skeptical but detailed interpretation of the Indians' lore:

...I suppose you will bear with me if I trouble you with a little of their superstition, which has recently come to my knowledge. They believe in the existence of a race of giants which inhabit a certain mountain off to the west of us .... The account that they give of these Giants will in some measure correspond with the Bible account of this race of beings.

They say their track is about a foot and a half long. They will carry two or three beams upon their back at once. They frequently come in the night and steal salmon from their nets and eat them raw. If the people are awake they always know when they are coming very near, by their strong smell, which is most intolerable. It is not uncommon for them to come in the night and give three whistles and then the stones will begin to hit their houses. The people believe that they are still troubled with their nocturnal visits. We need the prayers of the church at home ...

p. 64-69+

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