Buffalo Bill and the Bigfoot Bone

Native Americans of the Pawnee tribe show William F. Cody a specimen they have found.
Illustration by David A. Claerr

*This is a special guest posting by one of my favorite researchers, David Claerr. You can type his name in the search bar to the right to find his other articles.*

One of the perennial questions raised by claims concerning the existence of Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, is the apparent lack of physical remains available for examination by the scientific community. Although evidence is mounting in the form of possible foot- and hand-prints, hair samples, scat, toenails, etc. there has yet to be, in modern times, a publicized major specimen such as a living being, complete skeleton or or corpse. ( A few years ago, I examined a large partial human-like femur or upper arm bone that was being submitted for DNA testing. By extrapolating the height of the being from the bone it would have been about eight feet tall.)

Comparison: Section of humerus indicated by area between red lines

An examination of historical accounts often yields tantalizing clues and intriguing stories of not only encounters with Bigfoot, but also physical remains and local legends that distill the experiences of indigenous peoples.

One such account is related in the autobiography of the famous American frontiersman, Pony Express rider, army scout and Wild West Show impresario, William F. Cody, also known as Buffalo Bill.

Buffalo Bill, during his long, adventurous life, also served as a guide to several hunting excursions and scientific expeditions. One of his early experiences occurred while he was still an army scout on assignment the state of Nebraska. The story later spread as far back east as Connecticut, and led to fossil hunting forays by Professor Marsh of Yale College in 1871.

There are several interesting points in Buffalo Bill's account, quoted below.

"While we were in the sand hills, scouting the Niobrara country, the Pawnee Indians brought into camp some very large bones, one of which the surgeon of the expedition pronounced to be the thigh-bone of a human being. The Indians claimed that the bones they had found were those of a person belonging to a race of people who a long time ago lived in this country; that there was once a race of men on the earth whose size was about three times that of an ordinary man, and they were so swift and powerful that they could run along-side of a buffalo, and taking the animal in one arm could tear off a leg and eat the meat as they walked."

from "The Life Of Honorable William F. Cody", By William F. Cody, Published in 1879

In summary, we have an eyewitness account by a historical person of a large, human-like thigh bone identified by a medical professional, together with a local legend that describes large, swift and strong humanoid beings that hunt and capture large game without the use of weapons. Like pieces of a puzzle that fit together, the account seems to describe a phenomenon with a strong resemblance to the reported descriptions and activities of Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

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