Oct. 5 – The Rogers County Cherokee Association will host a bonfire Saturday to share Cherokee stories about Bigfoot.
The event, which starts at 6 p.m., will include an informal Bigfoot calling contest and a chili cook-off. It will take place at the RCCA Community Building, 15488 E. 523 Road in Tiawah.
“It’s all about community and family-friendly activities,” said RCCA Secretary Joe Hensley. “This is something that is family friendly, and it will be good entertainment. We have guest speakers – Woody and Joyce Hansen – and they are basically traditional storytellers.”
The Hansens live in Bull Hollow, a wooded part of Delaware County populated primarily by Cherokees. Woody is pastor of Emmanuel Church in Claremore.
The husband and wife will tell the stories around the campfire at sunset.
Woody Hansen said sharing stories around the fire is important to many Cherokee people.
“When we tell stories, we always like to be able to make a little fire, and that’s just to honor ancestors, their source of light and strength from time immemorial,” Hansen said. “That’s something symbolic that we’ve conveyed.”
The event revolves around Bigfoot, the ape-like creature that roams the forests of North America. Hansen said Bigfoot is called “Uniudawihi” in Cherokee, which means “mythical creature” or “those above us.”
He said Cherokee elders don’t know much about Bigfoot; No Bigfoot carcass has ever been found and no one knows for sure how the creature lives. But Hansen said Cherokee people don’t view him as dangerous or evil.
“He’s just someone who is there for whatever greater purpose he has,” Hansen said.
Hansen said he heard what he thought was Bigfoot about 20 years ago. His teenage son told him he heard coyotes howling. A few days later his daughter told him the same thing.
Then Hansen heard his dogs barking as they normally would when they sensed danger. He went outside to calm them down and heard coyotes – he thought that was why his dogs were upset.
“Then everything suddenly went quiet,” Hansen said. “Then I heard, ‘Woooooooooooo!!’, which was a higher pitch [than the coyotes]. It’s probably a few miles away, and after that noise everything was quiet for about ten seconds. Then the coyotes started again, noisier.”
He said he sometimes noticed a swampy smell in the woods that he couldn’t explain, and that he had a cousin who told him he once had an out-of-body experience involving Bigfoot.
“Until I see one, I’m not 100% convinced, but there are definitely some things out there,” Hansen said.
Hansen said during the calling competition that he will recreate the crying sound he heard 20 years ago.
He said he plans to tell some funny and scary stories around the campfire that have nothing to do with Bigfoot, some of which have been passed down through his family.
Hansen has been involved with snakes for more than 30 years, and he said he plans to share some of his snake stories, such as when hunting a snake led to it being hit by a car.
Hensley said the event is free to attend and people do not have to be RCCA members or Cherokee citizens to come out.
At 5 p.m. before the storytelling event, Hensley said RCCA members will nominate the 2,025 officers and board members.
“We try to do things that tie people together in the community, or tie Cherokees to something that they would traditionally do,” Hensley said. “…A lot of those connections have been broken, and our mission is to strengthen our community and bring back some of our traditions.”
