The True Origin of the Sasquatch - What the Bigfoot Legend Forgot

Somewhere among the mountains, rivers and vast forests of southwestern British Columbia, a story has been told for far longer than the story of Bigfoot.

It does not begin with a blurry photograph.

It does not begin with a giant footprint found in the mud.

It does not even begin with the word Sasquatch.

It begins with the Sts'ailes.

And with a being called Sa:sq'ets.

Today, millions of people imagine the Sasquatch as a huge, hairy creature hiding in the forests of North America.

But when we return to the origin of his name, we discover a story that is much older and far deeper.

A story of land.

Of transmission.

Of relationship with the living world.

And an Indigenous story that the popularity of Bigfoot has almost completely overshadowed.

The legend of Sa:sq'ets

The stories surrounding Sa:sq'ets first belong to the oral tradition of the Sts'ailes.

We should therefore avoid searching for one single written version that would explain exactly who he is, where he lives and what he does.

An oral tradition is alive.

It is passed from one generation to the next through stories, teachings, families, places and experiences lived on the land.

What the Sts'ailes publicly explain about Sa:sq'ets, however, is especially fascinating.

For them, Sa:sq'ets is not simply a monster hidden in the woods.

He is presented as a guardian of the land.

A being connected to the earth, the mountains, the waters and the spiritual world.

The stories about him carry teachings that have been passed down for generations.

Most importantly, he is not necessarily presented as a presence that should be feared.

This idea matters because it stands in sharp contrast with the modern image of the Sasquatch.

Today, in movies, television series and videos about Bigfoot, fear often lies at the centre of the story.

A silhouette appears between the trees.

A scream echoes through the night.

Something watches people from the forest.

But that representation belongs mostly to modern popular culture.

Among the Sts'ailes, the relationship with Sa:sq'ets is much more complex.

Members of the community have explained that earlier generations taught them not to see Sa:sq'ets as a monster.

He belongs to the land.

To a world in which human beings represent only one part of something much larger.

Animals have their place.

Rivers have their place.

Mountains have their place.

Plants have their place.

And spiritual beings have their place as well.

Sa:sq'ets therefore reminds us that human beings do not control everything that exists around them.

Humans are not necessarily the masters of the land.

They are part of it.

In some teachings shared today by members of the Sts'ailes, Sa:sq'ets also possesses a supernatural dimension.

He may choose to reveal himself or remain unseen.

This understanding completely changes the question.

If Sa:sq'ets is not simply an animal hiding in the forest, then trying to photograph him or capture physical proof of his existence may not help us understand what he truly represents.

The question is no longer simply:

“Where is the Sasquatch hiding?”

Instead, it becomes:

“What place does Sa:sq'ets hold within the land and the spiritual world of the Sts'ailes?”

And this is where the original story becomes far more fascinating than the story of a simple unknown creature.

Sa:sq'ets and the land

To understand Sa:sq'ets, we must understand that his story is deeply connected to Sts'ailes territory.

It does not take place in an imaginary forest.

It belongs to a real landscape of mountains, lakes, rivers and forests in southwestern British Columbia.

The Sts'ailes connect Sa:sq'ets with specific places within their territory.

One of these places is known as Sa:sq'etstel, today called Sasquatch Mountain.

Red ochre paintings can be found on rock faces in the region.

Within traditions passed down by the Sts'ailes, some of these images are associated with Sa:sq'ets and speak to the long-standing place he holds in their cultural memory.

But the meaning of Sa:sq'ets reaches far beyond the idea of a being living somewhere in the mountains.

He belongs to a web of relationships.

The river sustains the salmon.

The salmon nourish people and animals.

The forests shelter living beings.

The mountains influence water, movement and the seasons.

Each element depends on others.

Sa:sq'ets belongs within this understanding of the land as a living and interconnected world.

His importance also remains visible today.

A representation of Sa:sq'ets appears within the contemporary visual identity of the Sts'ailes.

He is therefore not simply a character from an ancient and vanished folklore.

Sa:sq'ets still belongs to a living culture.

Who are the Sts'ailes?

The Sts'ailes are a Coast Salish First Nation in southwestern British Columbia.

Their ancestral territory includes areas around Harrison Lake, the Harrison River, Chehalis Lake and the Chehalis River.

But reducing this territory to a simple map would miss what matters most.

For the Sts'ailes, the land lies at the heart of identity, culture and transmission.

They use the expression Xa'xa Temexw, which can be translated as “sacred land.”

This expression represents a spiritual, physical and cultural relationship with the land, waters and resources of the territory.

Within this worldview, human beings are not separate from nature.

They are part of it.

They depend on the land and also carry a responsibility to care for it.

This relationship has shaped the lives of generations of Sts'ailes people.

The territory was travelled for fishing, hunting, gathering plants, gatherings, movement and different cultural activities.

The rivers enabled travel and sustained communities.

Salmon held an essential place.

Plants were gathered.

Animals were observed, hunted and respected.

Mountains, rivers and important places throughout the territory carried their own stories.

The land was therefore much more than a place to live.

It was also a place of learning.

A place of memory.

A place where knowledge was passed on.

And within this relationship, the place of Sa:sq'ets becomes much easier to understand.

A guardian of the land is not simply a creature living in a forest.

He belongs to an entire system of relationships between the land, the beings who live there and the people who must learn to live there with respect.

A culture that continues to pass on Sa:sq'ets

One of the most interesting parts of this story is that Sa:sq'ets does not belong only to the past.

The Sts'ailes continue today to pass on the stories and teachings connected to him.

The community includes the Sts'ailes Sasquatch Dancers, who take part in this cultural transmission.

Sa:sq'ets also remains connected to celebrations, stories, works of art and the identity of the Nation.

This helps reveal a fundamental difference between the popular image of the Sasquatch and his cultural origin.

For the general public, the Sasquatch has mainly become an unsolved mystery.

For the Sts'ailes, Sa:sq'ets remains connected to their people and their territory.

When his story is told only as the story of a mysterious hairy animal, much of that meaning disappears.

And this is likely one of the reasons so few people today know the true origin of the word Sasquatch.

How Sa:sq'ets became “Sasquatch”

The word Sasquatch was not invented by Hollywood or by hunters of mysterious creatures.

It comes from an anglicized form of the name Sa:sq'ets.

In the early twentieth century, stories of large beings living in the mountainous regions of British Columbia began attracting attention from audiences outside Indigenous communities.

A man named J. W. Burns played an important role in this transformation.

Burns worked at the Chehalis Indian Day School and collected different stories and accounts.

In 1929, he published an article in Maclean's magazine titled Introducing B.C.'s Hairy Giants.

The word Sasquatch then began spreading much more widely throughout the English-speaking world.

But as the story moved from an Indigenous tradition into the popular press, its meaning also began to change.

Sa:sq'ets was increasingly described as a gigantic hairy being living in remote wilderness.

The spiritual and territorial dimensions gradually moved into the background.

A guardian of the land slowly became a mysterious creature.

And this new image would soon meet another legend.

The legend of Bigfoot.

Sasquatch and Bigfoot: what is the difference?

The difference can be summarized very simply.

• Sa:sq'ets: the figure rooted in Sts'ailes traditions.
• Sasquatch: the anglicized form of his name, which became known to the wider public in the twentieth century.
• Bigfoot: the name popularized in the United States beginning in the late 1950s for a mysterious humanoid creature associated with enormous footprints.

Today, the words Sasquatch and Bigfoot are generally used as synonyms.

Historically, however, the story of the Sasquatch begins long before Bigfoot.

The Sa:sq'ets mask - A story that came home

A remarkable object also helps us understand the importance of Sa:sq'ets within Sts'ailes culture.

In 1937 or 1938, Sts'ailes artist Ambrose Point carved a mask representing Sa:sq'ets.

He notably wore this mask during the Sasquatch Days held at Harrison Hot Springs.

The mask later left the community and entered the collections of the Museum of Vancouver.

It remained there for more than 70 years.

But for the Sts'ailes, the object held considerable cultural importance.

The Nation eventually requested its return.

In May 2014, the mask was repatriated to the Sts'ailes.

It also returned to the Sasquatch Days that same year.

The return carried deep symbolic meaning.

It reminds us that Sa:sq'ets is not simply a character from a forgotten old story.

He remains connected to a community.

To a memory.

To a territory.

And to a culture that is still alive.

How Bigfoot changed the story

In the late 1950s, enormous footprints discovered in northern California attracted the attention of the American press.

The name Bigfoot quickly became famous.

Because the creature being described resembled the Sasquatch already known in Canada, the two stories eventually blended together.

From that point on, the Sasquatch increasingly became a creature people tried to discover.

Books appeared.

Then photographs.

Films.

Eyewitness accounts.

Documentaries.

Expeditions.

And the dominant question became:

“Does a large unknown creature really live in the forests of North America?”

It is a fascinating question.

But it is no longer quite the same story.

A being connected to the land became a possible unknown animal species.

An oral tradition became an investigation.

And a word originating in an Indigenous language became famous around the world, often without the people using it knowing where it truly came from.

There is no single Indigenous “Bigfoot legend”

Another common misunderstanding is also worth avoiding.

The Sts'ailes are not the only Indigenous people in North America with stories about large beings living in forests, mountains or remote territories.

Different Nations have their own stories.

The names are not always the same.

The descriptions may vary.

The teachings can be different.

The relationship with these beings can also differ greatly from one tradition to another.

It would therefore be inaccurate to group all of these stories under a single expression such as “the Indigenous legend of Bigfoot.”

Each Nation has its own stories and its own culture.

When we look specifically for the origin of the word Sasquatch, however, the path leads us back to the Sts'ailes and Sa:sq'ets.

What does science say?

The modern search for Bigfoot belongs to a completely different field.

For decades, footprints, photographs, videos, hair samples and other traces presented as evidence have been examined.

To date, no recognized scientific evidence has confirmed the existence of a large unknown humanoid species living in the forests of North America.

But this scientific conclusion should not be confused with the presence of Sa:sq'ets within Sts'ailes tradition.

These are two different questions.

One asks:

“Is there an unknown animal species behind Bigfoot?”

The other concerns a cultural tradition, a territory, teachings and a memory passed down through generations.

Reducing Sa:sq'ets to a simple question of biological proof would erase much of what makes his story so important.

What the modern Sasquatch almost made us forget

For decades, the Sasquatch has mainly been presented as a mystery to solve.

Does he exist?

Where is he hiding?

Who made the footprints?

Why has no body ever been found?

These questions made Bigfoot famous around the world.

But they also drew attention away from the origin of the word Sasquatch.

Before Bigfoot, there was Sasquatch.

And behind Sasquatch, there was Sa:sq'ets.

A being rooted in Sts'ailes traditions.

A guardian of the land.

A cultural and spiritual figure.

A presence connected to a real people, language and land.

This is probably the part of the story that remains least known today.

And yet it may be the most fascinating part.

Returning to the origins of the Sasquatch

The story becomes much clearer when we return to the beginning.

First, there is Sa:sq'ets.

A being deeply connected to Sts'ailes traditions and their territory.

Then his name crosses cultural boundaries and becomes Sasquatch.

Later, the story blends with that of Bigfoot and becomes one of North America's most famous popular mysteries.

But returning to the origins reveals something that movies and mysterious-creature stories rarely tell us.

The Sasquatch did not begin with a giant footprint.

He did not begin in a documentary.

He did not begin in Hollywood.

His name takes us back to an Indigenous people in British Columbia.

To a language.

To a territory.

And to stories passed down long before the rest of the world knew the word Bigfoot.

Discovering this origin does not make the Sasquatch any less mysterious.

Quite the opposite.

It reveals a story that is far older, more human and more fascinating than that of a simple giant hiding in the forest.