Hairy Family panel, Tule River Reservation, California. From:
Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy
Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,
1:1-12, Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.
I continue now with a look at the meanings of the Hairy Man pictograph panel presented by Kathy Moskowitz Strain. Previously I discussed the interpretation by Garrick Mallery who described this panel as a “mourning” ceremony based upon his theory of gestural analysis.
Strain, on the other hand, took the eminently reasonable step of looking at ethnographic material on what the members of the Tule River Indian Tribe on the Tule River Reservation believe about the panel. In her presentation she stated that the pictographs are believed by the Tule River people to “depict how various animals, including Hairy Man, created People. Other stories tell why Hairy Man lives in the mountains, steals food, and still occupies parts of the reservation. Since the Tule River Indians equate Hairy Man to Bigfoot, the pictograph and stories are valuable to our understanding of the modern idea of a hair-covered giant.”
The first three stories were gathered by the Strain in the summer of 1992 from tribal elders and members. The main story tellers were Isadore Garfield, Leona Danby, and J.R. Manuel with help from others in attendance. As stories were told, information was either added or clarified until a written copy was produced and read back to the group. “How People Were Made” details how the pictographs at Painted Rock came to be and identifies the large figure on the main wall as Hairy Man. “When the People Took Over” explains why birds and animals live where they do today while “Food Stealing” is a simple story about Hairy Man and his fondness for an easy meal.
“How People Were Made” is a variation of the ubiquitous creation story in which all the animals discuss the qualities that humans should share with them, walk on two legs; talk; hand dexterity; etc. and then hold a race to determine which ones would be granted to the humans. Then the animals created the people. Hairy Man liked the result but when the new humans saw him they became frightened and ran away. This made Hairy Man sad and that is why the pictograph of him is crying. Perhaps it also explains why he is elusive today; he is trying to avoid frightening people.
“When People Took Over” explains how humanity multiplied and began to fill the land and take all the food. The animals got together again and divided up their roles and resources. Hummingbird would henceforth fly and feed on flowers, Trout would live in the water, and Eagle would fly and eat squirrels and deer, etc.
“Food Stealing” describes the belief that “in the old days, women learned never to leave their acorn meal unattended. They would spend all day pounding on the big rocks near the river, making the acorn meal, and then take it down to the river to leach it. They would then leave it in the sun to dry, but they would come back and it would be gone. They would find big footprints in the sand where they left the meal and they would know that Hairy Man took it. He likes Indian food and knows to wait until the acorn is leeched of its bitterness before taking it. We always wondered if he liked the sound of women pounding acorn and knew when to come and get food.”
Hairy Woman and Child, Tule River Reservation, California. From:
Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy
Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,
1:1-12, Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.
Hairy Woman and Child, Tule River Reservation, California. From:
Strain, Kathy Moskowitz, 2012, Mayak Datat: The Hairy
Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,
1:1-12, Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.
“The last story, “Big Foot, the Hairy Man,” was collected by E. B. Johnstone in 1975 from tribal elders Ruby Bays and Jennie Franco. In 1973, at the request of the tribe, Johnstone (1975) began gathering some of the traditional stories told by members of the reservation. The daughter of a tribal elder, who had been the caretaker of the pictograph site in the early 1900s, identified Hairy Man as being the same as Bigfoot (Johnstone 1975, p. 5). Johnstone (1975, p. 19) further noted that Hairy Man was described by the Tule River Indians as “a creature that was like a great big giant with long, shaggy hair” and since Bigfoot also meets that description, the two were the same.”
“Big Foot, the Hairy Man
Big Foot was a creature that was like a great big giant with long, shaggy hair. He was good in a way, because he ate the animals that might harm people. He kept the Grizzly Bear, Mountain Lion, Wolf, and other larger animals away.
During hot summer nights all the animals would come out together down from the hills to drink out of the Tule River. Big Foot liked to catch animals down by the river. He would eat them up bones and all.
It was pleasant and cool down by the river on hot summer nights. That is when grown-ups liked to take a swim. Even though people feared that Big Foot, the hairy man, might come to the river, people still liked to take a swim at night. Parents always warned their children “Don’t go near the river at night. You may run into Big Foot.”
Now Big Foot usually eats animals, but parents said, “If he can’t find any animals and he is very hungry, he will eat you. We won’t know where you have gone or what has happened to you.”
Some people say Big Foot, the hairy man, still roams around the hills near Tule River. - Children are cautioned not to make fun of his picture on the painted rock or play around that place because he would hear you and come after you.
Parents warned their children, “You are going to meet him on the road if you stay out too late at night.” The children have learned always to come home early.”
So to the Tule River people have explained the Hairy Man pictographs as a record of their creation story, a reminder of how the animals and people who inhabit this world were assigned their life ways and habits, and as a place of spiritual power to Hairy Man. This has also not addressed the presence of figures identified as the Hairy Woman and the Hairy Child, other than the assumption that they, along with Hairy Man, constitute a Hairy Family (which, of course, could be the case). Let us hope that some researcher will revisit the question and try to record stories explaining the Hairy Woman and Child. Still and all, Strain, in her paper has done a great service to us all by recording, explaining, and preserving this information. Thank you Kathy and well done.
REFERENCES:
Garrick Mallery
1989 Picture-Writing of the American Indian, 10th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1888-’89, by J. W. Powell, Director, and subsequently republished by Dover Publications in 1972.
Johnstone, E. B.
1975 Big Foot and Other Stories. Tulare: Tulare Board of Education.
Strain, Kathy Moskowitz
2012 Mayak Datat: The Hairy Man Pictographs, published in The Relict Hominoid Inquiry,
1:1-12 (2012), Idaho State University, edited by Jeff Meldrum.
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