Natives, UFOs, and Bigfoot

Extraterrestrials and Ultradimensionals:  a Native American PerspectiveGrowing up, I cannot recall having ever heard anyone in my community speak of “aliens” or “Extraterrestrials”, though I did hear of distant relations and “Star People” living amongst the stars many times, mainly around campfires and during traditional ceremonies. Far from being anything to be feared, Star People was just another term I grew up around. I remember listening in awe and fascination at the thought of us having relations that lived off and outside our world, and sometimes spoke to them in my silent moments at night. I wanted to know who they were and what they looked like, if they had families like us, etc. In all honesty, the only time I was exposed to “aliens” per se was when I would go to the outhouse and read the Weekly World News or the National Enquirer. It wasn’t until my later teens that I discovered that people from the dominant cultures were talking about the same “people” as my elders did, though each side’s sense of perception of these people seemed radically different from one another.

Stories of abductions and such were not present (or at least not spoken of) in my surroundings. If anything, stories told by elders of interactions with Beings from other realms/worlds seemed to have more to do with telepathic communication and sometimes full on physical (and friendly) encounters than anything else. To this day, I’ve often wondered for instance, if White Buffalo Calf Woman, the teacher who brought Native people the four traditional medicines of sweetgrass, sage, cedar, and tobacco might have been one of these otherworldly visitors. And Weesageechak, our people’s original teacher and trickster, might also have been a representative of these people as well. To this day, there are still legends and stories in the Canadian north of a pale skinned, bearded man who appeared amongst my people thousands of years ago to give spiritual teachings and lessons. Perhaps the man known as Jesus himself was a part of this otherworldly race and he simply incarnated in our reality to teach and assist us into new phases of growth and understanding. Pity we had to kill him.

Bigfoot or Sasquatch, the main moneymaker for many tabloids, is (and was) ever present within Native culture. Known to many as “the wild man of the woods”, this creature to us is far more than a mere animal. We believe it to be more humanlike than not and in perfect sync with either the spirit world or Star People--or both. Like Extraterrestrials, one would have a hard time not finding someone in the community who has either seen or heard of this Being. And like everything else in Native culture, he is given full respect by rarely having his name mentioned unless his attention or help is desired. During my own encounters with this person (in both the dreamworld and our physical reality), it always struck me how completely and fully he knew everything about me. I could hide nothing from him even if I wanted to. Yet never once was I made to feel unsafe. Is Bigfoot actually a spirit? Does spirit world sometimes take on the form of something people from various cultures can relate with?Below:  An ancient Aboriginal tosses a pizza pie while another tosses loaves of bread. They're just about ready to serve a delicious Italian meal.

Oh, wait...the roundish object is supposed to be a spaceship, not a pizza. This rock art is supposed to represent the "Star People," not two Native chefs. My mistake.