By David Taub
From Unknown Magazine, Winter 2000
Should you be so lucky as to find a magazine or newspaper article about Bigfoot, sometimes referred to as Sasquatch, and you as likely find that it is treated as a joke, you can confidently inform the reporter or editor that the joke is on them for being so ill-informed about this extensively studied subject. Those individuals and organizations who have either exclusively studied Bigfoot, or embraced the study of Bigfoot in the broader subject of "Cryptozoology," include highly qualified scientists, teachers, wildlife officials, law enforcement officers, and technicians. A book titled "The Magic of our Universe-Beyond The Facts" lists a number of such individuals and organizations including:
Peter Byrne, Director of the Bigfoot Research Project (BRP, now defunct) which received grant funding from the Academy of Applied Science in Concord, NH.
Daniel Perez, Director of the Center For Bigfoot Studies (CBS), Norwalk, CA.
Jeff Glickman, Board Certified Forensic Examiner, and Executive Director of the North American Science Institute (NASI)
Dr. Richard Greenwell, cryptozoologist and secretary for the International Society of Cryptozoology, Tuscon, AZ.
Dr. Grover Krantz (deceased), cryptozoologist and professor of Anthropology at Washington State University.
Jeff Meldrum, associate professor of anthropology and anatomy at Idaho State University.
Dr. John Bindernagel, Co-Curator of The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO), which is headed up by Matt Moneymaker and maintains a database of all Bigfoot/Sasquatch eyewitness reports and related observations.
Although these various organizations and individuals liase and work with each other with each other to varying degrees, it is the BFRO which is under the spotlight for this article. They have an excellent website (www.bfro.net) and can be emailed at [email protected]. The BFRO describes itself as "A unique scientific/investigative organization focused on the Bigfoot/Sasquatch mystery." And those who make up this organization include, "Biological scientists, government land management employees, law enforcement officers, and professionals from various backgrounds."
The website is methodically laid out and easy to navigate, tackling all aspects of the subject and dealing with all the obvious questions a novice or skeptic would pose. The frequently asked questions (FAQ's) and points of debate, each have their own heading which includes:
*How could these creatures still be undocumented after all this time?
*Evidence vs. Remains
*Nobody Looks For Bigfoot Remains
*The Roadkill Potential
*Hunter Behavior-hunters don't hunt for these animals.
Some of the in-depth information explained, left me thinking, "Geez! That is so obvious and common-sense, why didn't I think about that?! It also dispelled a number of myths and easily made false assumptions. It is not just the false assumptions that we the general public and mainstream media make, which leads to the easy dismissal of such creatures but also the same flawed assumptions which are frequently made by academia, as BFRO explains: "The common academic attitude is often referred to as the "show me the body" position. The mountain of evidence and testimony is ignored because a specimen hasn't been delivered to academia yet. Very few academics ever consider that physical remains of these animals might be extremely rare and thus unlikely to be found at random. In an era where people are confident that every land animal species has been identified, the idea of an undiscovered great ape species in North America seems absurd. It's challenging for people in this era to realize that only very recently (relative to our history) has civilization adopted a popular presumption that every species has been accounted for. Less than 100 years ago, large animal species were still being "discovered" by western science. Those discoveries usually happened in the context of expeditions to look for unusual animals described by reliable eyewitnesses." Although Native Americans have been aware of the existence of Bigfoot, in particular the tribes of British Columbia who refer to the creature as Sasquatch (Wild Man of the Woods), and the Hoopa tribes of Hoopa Valley, CA, who refer to the creature as Omah (Boss of the Woods), in typical white western dismissive arrogance, their accounts had been given little credence until the past 40 years. This primarily being as a result of the first Associated Press newsline, which picked up on the cast made of several large footprints and nicknamed "Bigfoot" by some workmen on a road in California. Interestingly enough, Teddy Roosevelt described what is quite likely a Bigfoot in his book, The Wilderness Hunter. Ultimately the best evidence is that of the Patterson and Gimlin, 1967 footage, but it still took several more years-the mid 70's before a feature film documentary called "The Mysterious Monsters" showed the Patterson-Gimlin footage. And still, repeated attempts to discredit the footage as a hoax have been, and continue to be made. And that is inspite of extensive study of the footage by cryptozoologist, Dr. Grover Krantz and primate anatomist, Jeff Meldrum. Then, (as documented in Kent Moberg's book, TheMagic of Our Universe) Jeff Meldrum, pointing out details that only an expert in primatology would be able to duplicate states.