Showing posts with label Conspiracy Theory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conspiracy Theory. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

BFF R.I.P.? BIGFOOT FORUMS CLOSED. Outing Its Former Controllers, and What Is a JIMITE? plus... A BIGFOOT POEM

BIGFOOT'S BLOG, Mid-August 2010 Edition


Well, here we go again! Another round of big, crazy Bigfoot news. It's been a full two years since the "Georgia Gorilla" Bigfoot Body Hoax. We'll cover that fiasco next time around. See below or a brief update and some assigned reading on Mr. Biscardi.

Image: What is wrong with this picture?

The BFF may be closing forever. Even though the former tyrant, "Teresa," was deposed, along with henchwoman "JayleeD," most of the old fixtures like "Blackdog" and "Bittermonk" still remained in place, and were still causing the same old problems of favoritism, back-biting, attack dog-ism, etc. We didn't really monitor this, as we don't go to the site much at all since we were  banned from it for no good reason. However, we have received constant helpful information from the fine folks over at the "BFFA" (Bigfoot Forums Anonymous), erstwhile known as the SEARCH FOR BIGFOOT FORUM. Thanks to all of you, for the information and support! Read on for more, plus some background information on the "Jimite" faction that has caused so much trouble from within the Bigfoot Community, much like a nasty virus, or leprosy, eating away at the health and productivity of the field itself, slowly diminishing its effectiveness. You may be amazed at how many of the same names run through most of the most troubling conflicts in Bigfooting in the last decade or so.

We have two BFF-related reports below, plus a poem, News, and a new Bigfoot toy. Read onward...

Don't forget to become a Fan/Friend of BIGFOOT'S BLOG FACEBOOK PAGE to keep up with things on a nearly daily basis. This is where we will post flash news and updates while our three-a-month blogs sit churning on the back burner.

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Here is a poem we recently found in the massive files of paper here in our bookshop. We wrote this late one night after awakening from a bizarre dream. We present it here as we found it, unrevised, in rough draft form. It could be trimmed down from four pages to one, but we kind of like it this way in its raw form.

THIS FOOTPRINT HAS BEEN HERE FOR A THOUSAND YEARS

Bespoken of by wild wood, feared,
 beloved of wolf, eagle and bear,
Bearing in him the ghost
 of the lost grizzly shadow,
Of condor, and incomprehensibly tall
 suggesting a thousand-yeared history
Beyond recollection even of those
 small men who first crossed over
The bridge of land and ice after him
 crossing continents, spanning vague water
Lands frozen, indistinguished, and also disdaining
 the pale white ones following, and their oil slicked,
Blackened world of roads, ashed stumps,
 denuded and gated, raped piles
Upon blasted towering monuments
 to false comic book televised gods.
He hates this, and you, if you believe it,
 but he loves what is left of what is
 still good in your blood.

His foot shakes beneath all
 other animals, quavers the hearts
Of beasts and men, boasts of strength
 allied with two thousand year trunks
Redwood, and fir forests, of which his
 is the beating conscious heart.
In the sand, rarely, a mark;
 there is so little seen, blending
With brown and shadow and stone
 he moves merged with myriad forms.
His scat is rapidly eagen again as holy.
You will not see him, his bones vanish
 into mulch, no fossil contains his
Vast form, as upon rock, through
 rivulets and over log and rip rap
He ponders invisibility and watchs
 you from beyond camp fire and villages.
Only his teeth, a jawbone, maybe, remain.
Unseen, unknown, older than the fields
 that were ripped away to geologic
Foundations torn and shucked aside
 to form what now are called mountains,
Yosemite, or temporary bases for cities.

If  fortune lapses and you catch
 a fleeting image it will not be
His, but yours, a reflection of a child's
 Boogeyman, a beast of tabloid fame,
A fear magnified by distance and
 tortured separation, solitude,
Among all that prosper and thrive
He eats and breathes vast quantities
 of that freedom unfelt, unbelievable;
Outside, in cold uncaring of it, through flood
 and snow, uncivilized, bearing across
Years and remembering more than knowing,
 this thing has been here a million years.
At least, look up, see sun burning; look
 down, feel roots burrow and wrack, touch
Fire, ash, deep compost of all that lived;
 you won't come close, but at least have
Tried to approximate to the impossible.

There is more than your scheduled dreams
 metered days, accruing debt to ignorance;
His stride courses decades, levels all
 into undeluded, timeless, mortal deeds.
Eat, inhale, drink, lift yourself
 into the sun while it is here.
Nothing lasts; but this adaptable,
 strongly struck footprint, though
In sand or mud, has beaten across
 all of human memory, song, and legend.
It has been and watched and known,
 and now strikes out beyond to outlast.
Stands and sees beyond, through;
 you see him not from your passing car window.
He eats your pale illusion of freedom
 like a tidbit, and moves down the steep hill bracken
 for more.

-- Steven Streufert, circa 2008, found in the piles and files

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BFF R.I.P.???
BIGFOOT FORUMS ON HIATUS, TO CLOSE PERMANENTLY?
Founder BRIAN BROWN, "BIPTO," Rejoins, Sees the Problems, Closes Site





Despite our recent protestations, we find this news saddening... Is the BFF DEAD?

We perhaps played a bit of a David to Goliath role here (or rather, more like the straw that broke the camel's back!)... perhaps; but we hope that the site may be preserved somehow, if not as an active discussion forum, then perhaps as a permanent archive of great information. When founder Brian Brown was here in our shop he did not seem at all angry with us over our criticisms made on this blog, and seemed to chuckle a bit at our satirical images presented here. He seemed, indeed, to know just what we were talking about it. Changes were going to be made, he said. Well, we didn't exactly expect what we found in our inbox this morning, and it is not what we had hoped would happen. Apparently, the problems just seemed too vast, too deeply ingrained, and the factions too entrenched, for any real change to occur? Or perhaps it would have taken full-time super-human powers of administration to effect any real change?

This today from "Bipto," Brian Brown, the Bigfoot Forums' founder:

"Also, as you all know, I have recently "returned" to the forum. This was a mistake. I wasn't happy with what had happened to the forum's reputation and thought I had a solution that would have put the site on a firm footing for the future. That may all still happen, but I don't know when. Bottom line is my personal and professional obligations do not, at this time, allow me to give this site the attention it requires. Also, I have no idea to whom I can give the forum. Honestly, I don't know if I *want* to give the forum to anyone. The fate of the BFF is tied to me in a way it isn't with anyone else. I have come to the difficult conclusion that best course of action for me to take is to put the forum on a hiatus during which no posting will be allowed. For all intents and purposes, the BFF is closed until further notice. I will leave the site up as long as I am able. All the content will be visible, but posting and new registration will be suspended. There was a time when the BFF was necessary. I believe that time has passed. When a redwood tree falls, thousands of little ones sprout on its stump to take its place. It's time for whatever comes after the BFF to sprout."

Yes, there are OTHER forums out there, and Bigfoot discussion will not end on the internet. One thing we can say, though, is that it is good to see the former oligarchic tyrants of the BFF, those who took over after Brian Brown and Paul Vella left their roles as Chief Administrators, brought down from their haughty perches. They can all go and seek refuge where they belong: OVER ON THE JREF FORUMS! We do sincerely hope, though, that someone with the time, ambition, and broad-mindedness might be found to revive and host the BFF in the future. Recent rumors that Brian Brown was going to hand over the BFF to the Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers (AIBR) have proven to be unfounded, as confirmed to us personally by AIBR co-founder Kathy Moskowitz Strain. 

Almost all former Administrators have been demoted to Moderator status on the BFF, save for Brian himself and the other good and fair guy, "Tugboatwa." This hopefully will prevent any malicious changes being made to the site while it sits in hiatus limbo.


Read below for more background on just whom these former BFF usurpers are, and their history of running conspiratorial coups d'etat from within Bigfoot organizations. Oh, what fun!

And no, BFF "Parnassus," this is not a case of "the cheese had fallen off his cracker." Those Nazi and Commie images were meant as JOKES. It is called "SATIRE," fool! You say, "I guess he's just playing for attention/hits. Reminds me of Glenn Beck." Well, that is rich. But yes, it WAS propaganda. We WERE trying to get the information out to the largest possible group. Sometimes exaggeration just plain WORKS. See? Sometimes one has to destroy to rebuild. Sometimes one just needs to clear the crap out of one's pathway. The pieces below were written before today's closure announcement, but we'll just post them as is.


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THE JIMITE CULT AND ITS USURPATION OF THE BIGFOOT FORUMS:
A Preliminary Overview of the Culprits and Oligarchs

Image: from the excellent "The Jimite Chronicles" web site. Link Below!

NOTE: This part of the blog contains quotations from others in the know and from two web sites in particular. It is offered for the information of those who may have encountered problems on the BFF or in Bigfoot organizations in the past. It is not meant as having any implication opon the personal lives of any of the people mentioned, but rather refers to their ONLINE BEHAVIOR within the Bigfooting Community. Take what you find below with a few grains of salt.

Who are all of these administrators and moderators on the Bigfoot Fourms (BFF) that we had such problems with? Hiding being anonymous user names like "RedWolf," "BlackDog," and "MasterBarber," they thought they could exercise total control of others while running rampant in violation of Forums rules themselves. After founder Brian Brown, and then subsequent Chief Administrator, Paul Vella, left, the site was taken over by a group that operates in the shadows, moving through organizations in the background, and making their opinions and power grabs known under pseudonyms like those above. They and their friends and cronies eventually came to control the site, up until the recent return of its founder. A stink was raised by many disaffected and banned members, such as ourselves and other members of the Search for Bigfoot Forum (SFBF), and a threatened boycott has apparently accellerated the process of change. Efforts are being made now to clear up this mess, and "Teresa" and "JayleeD," two notorious "dictatorial" BFF operators, have been deposed from positions of power (yes, they "resigned," but we all know how that works when someone is given the opportunity to fall on their own sword). We are hoping a full clearing of the house will occur.

BUT, you might ask, WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE? And why should it matter? We hate anonymity, and believe in ethical accoutability and respect in discourse. So, we are going to "out" them to the extent that we may. Our involvement in the BFF Boycott Movement (call it what you want!) led us to a secretive, ulterior world of black operators, a veritable Illuminati-Bilderberg Group Conspiracy of Bigfooting. It goes back, in large measure, to the "Jimite" Jihad movement. WTF, BFF? We hear you asking....

A brief snippet quoted from the SFBF:
"jimite legacy:
* they ruined the bfro and left
* they ruined the aibr and left
* they are currently infesting the bff as its leadership"

Yes, it may seem odd, but many of those who led the post-Kentucky-video defection/expulsion of curators from the BFRO, and then tried to pull a coup d'etat of the AIBR (Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers), were the VERY SAME PEOPLE who eventually came to rest as dictators and Head Trolls on the BFF. Much of the controversy on the BFF started when connections of these cronies to the Michigan Recording Project (MRP) became manifest in a cover-up of questioning about that project and its results. The Forums administration was actively practicing censorship, and reading ostensibly private PMs (Personal Messages) sent by members of the Forums. Eventually, full scale "slander and libel" were the result, and personal recriminations and vendettas came to dominate the discourse. We, living out in the middle of nowhere in Willow Creek, were largely unaware of these problems. We may live in the heart of "Bigfoot Country," or the "Bigfoot Capital of the World," but we did not involve ourselves deeply in these all-too-human alliances and secret societies operating at the core of Bigfooting on the interent and in the various BF orgs. We just did our own research, and used the Forums to notify folks about our blog. We had been warned. Perhaps we should have stayed away? In the end we stepped in a big pile of doggie doo-doo, left by all the "dogs" on the BFF, "RedWolf" and the lot. Luckily, we have a fresh new pair of Converse high-tops and are heading off in new directions. Let this  be our last commentary on the BFF situation. Let's run down the list of folks and find out who they all are, if we may.

Here are two great links for readers to refer to now, or after the list below. These are both apparently anonymous blogs/web sties run by folks in the know. They have obviously had interactions with these BFF/Jimite factions in the past, and we are trusting that the sites are factual, though very satirical, and not made up of evidence fabricated in any way. Check them out!

Here is the Rogues Gallery...
The Rogue's Gallery: Know your Jimites and Their Whacky Pals

NOTE: UPDATE, Aug. 22nd--This page has mysteriously vanished from the internet! Check the link to see if it is still up. Maybe their server has crashed due to too many hits?

...from the fine site, The Jimite Chronicles: The Arrogance, the Hypocrisy, the Hoax..
Be sure to pursue all of the links found on the left side to view all of their sub-pages. Notice the major overlap with the BFF Oligarchical Controllers? "T" obviously is "Teresa" Hall. The "Jim" of "Jimites is Jim Flowers, along with Stacey Flowers, or "Missus Jim," below. "PaulUK" is clearly Paul Vella, onetime Chief Administrator. For "RedWolf," see below. Right now we are not fully sure just whom we think "BlackDog" and "MasterBarber," two of our own antagonists, are. 

Some of these statements may be a little dated, but you'll get the gist.
We QUOTE (these are not OUR words), a little:
"The Jim: It goes without saying, he is the Jim, the head of the gang. The Jim doesnt say that much these days, but when he does it to deride someone. At end time he had walked away from the MRP alledgedly, now it's the real deal, it even predates them.
Missus The Jim, the Stacinator: The "scout", the nice one, she seems nice.... and asks a lot of questions, essentially the Jimite spy.
"T": Beware this one, also seems nice, review her posts on the BFF and elsewhere, theres the nice side you see, and the other one behind your back. She is openly a jimite, also a BFF moderator, and if nothing else, their permanent beachead on the BFF.
Guy In Indiana: Normally just another troll, fairly whiny when his pals get some comeuppance. Recently hoaxed by a guy in a monkey suit, but somehow, it's REAL when it happens to him. Also an Incredible Hulk forum aficionado.
Ty: Another troll, one of the more foul mouthed ones at that.
Wildman: Another of the more foul mouthed of the Jimites, not quite the puss filled doughnut that is Blackdog, but he tries.
Bittermonk: Has been called "one of the most two faced folks in bigfootery".
Blackdog: One wonders if he actually goes in the woods at all, or just spends time online as a troll. Recently returned to the BFF, after a long ban. One of the scummiest, nastiest of the Jimites.
Wolftrax: See Crowley Crusade, one of the lead lap dogs. Given to Conspiracy theory, possibly demented and the biggest crybaby of the bunch.
Timber Ghost: Runs the Kiamichi board, a "one comment wonder".
PatB: Acts like a sweet old hippy lady, she isn't. Has been proven the one true liar in the MRP and in falsifying the altering of evidence, is herself, a hoaxer.
PaulUK: Heads the BFF, allows the climate of gossip, dogpiles and the like. A UK native and one wonders why he has any importance in Bigfootery at all. HE freely ignores the rules of his own forum when he doesnt make them up as he goes.
Jayleed: PaulUk's "Annie Oakley", another BFF admin, also part of the problem. She is also "T"'s best friend and a closet jimite in the guise of a biased BFF admin.
Pywacket: Seems to have a problem remembering where he puts trail cams. Not nessicarily a Jimite, but an opportunist to cozy up to people, truly a creepy individual.
SuzieQ: Loyal lapdog, seems to prefer to stay on the BFD fishbowl where it's safe
Nightwing: Their resident artist, actually the one imite there might be hope for, but usually goes along with the groupthink.
Redwolf: She likes to make implied threats against folks of the BFF and BFD, another loon. A chest thumping self deluded bully.
Tube: See Crowley Crusade" ["Tube" is Matt Crowley, no doubt.]

We will quote again. Here is their list of the "Next Generation" of BFF/Jimite cultists, post-Paul Vella Administration:

"The current controlling roster:
Teresa: The witch in chief
Jayleed: Ol Annie Oakley herself, bitter over being called on her MRP related censorship, Loyal Jimite Foot Soldier, co-conspirator in the MRP hoax.
Counselor: Old school BFF Mod, attempted to censor the MRP on other forums
Mikek21: Old school Jimite Kool aid drinker
Moregon: Old School BFF Mod, will he/she/it survive the new Regime?
Oregonfooter: Loyal pod
Tugboatwa [Jerry Riedel]: The one old school decent mod, it's amazing he's survived this long.
Ace!: Loyal Pod
Bipedalist ["William"]: Snarky pod, with his own Agendas, but loyal Kool aid drinker
Bittermonk: Old School Jimite, co-conspirator in the failed AIBR coup de tat
GuyinIndiana: Bitter MRP hoaxer, "claims" he had a sighting, Incredial Hulk forum afficionado
HRPuffstuff: Bitter and nasty little Pod, has own agenda
Master Barber: New comer to the Mod squad, has own agenda, had role in running out Red rat fink
Redwolf: Just a plainly mean haggy ol' bitch. She is the bully of the Mods, constantly posturing as a delusional badass, when actually nothing more than a true bully and a useless hick. Co-Conspirator in the MRP hoax.
And alas, what of Timmy? What of the Red Rat Fink"

By the last they mean "Red Rat Snake," or Tim. A nice guy, who tried to be nice on the BFF, and paid dearly for his efforts.

And here is one last list, of the supposed ancillary characters and their "roles" in the BFF control-cult:

"The Roster:
The Jim (thug-misdirector)
Stacinator (ambassador-troll)
PatB (ambassador then victim)
Wildman (thug)
Bittermonk (info gatherer)
Tube (occasional hanger on)
Blackdog (thug and troll)
Volsquatch (troll)
Wolftrax (troll and victim)
Red Wolf (thug)
Teresa (victim)
mike2k1 (info gatherer)
GuyInIndiana (troll-misdirector-info gatherer)
ty (troll)
susan (hanger on)
jayleed (troll-misdirector-thug)
nightwing (ambassador)
shaman (thug-hanger on)
thigmo (ambassador)"

Be sure to read their KNOW YOUR JIMITE GLOSSARY, on the lower end of the same page. It will explain many of the parenthetical usages above. You will know no more about Bigfoot by reading this, but you will know a whole lot more about all-too-human HUMAN NATURE. We learned the "hard way," by having to try to deal rationally with these cult-think petty idea gangsters; but read on to the next paragraph there to see their hypothetical example of "A typical session of dog pile." Fascinating! And ALL TOO familiar! And lo, these were the very same "people" (troll-dogs) who came after us and tried to set us up to be banned. Hilarious. Or not. Maybe it is just plain lame and juvenile. Again, THE LINK IS HERE.

Here is another gallery of culprits, a bit more sardonic, a bit more brief:
"Or Maybe There is a Player's Page," found on the "There Is No Bigfoot" web site domain.
This page acts as a sardonic warning for anyone who would blithely enter into discussion on the BFF.
The site reveals the following additional information: "BitterMonk" is Sam Rich, and "JayleeD" is Jay Lee Doster.

We quote the intro.:

"Below are a few short paragraphs describing some of the more prominent, albeit dubious Bigfoot enthusiasts, nimrods, hunters, gatherers, players, bat-boys, key grips and ...caterers whose lives apparently not only revolve around Bigfoot and its discussion, but with wreaking havoc on the sense and sensibility of the average reader and listener. Most are offenders, that is, members of the Bigfoot Forums ... discussion board."

One responder to our earlier inquiries said the following....

Who are the Jimites?
"Jim Flowers, Wildman, Blackdog, Stacey Flowers, Susan, TY, Teresa, Redwolf, GuyinIndiana, Bittermonk, Wolftrax, Pat Barker, Nightowl, Nightwing, among others.... Starting to make sense?"

Who "messed up" the BFRO and AIBR?
"The names above, some were in the AIBR (and left in a mass exodus, singing "woe is me") and the BFRO (same "woe is me" situation), some not. Just about all of these names above, are in the SRI (if it's still functioning)."

Just who ARE these characters?
"Redwolf is Kathy Harper. One time BFRO member, One time AIBR member. All around self important, little miss something else I cant type here. I have no clue who Masterbarber is... He came out of nowhere, but is quickly proving himself to be a royal jerk. Blackdog.. Well, now thats a difficult question. I know his first name, thats it. Blackdog was a BFRO member - and reminds his pals (some named above) how he left the BFRO and warned all of them, but they didnt listen to him. He lords that over their heads like a newly sharpened axe."

OK, then, ENOUGH SAID FOR NOW. If YOU have any further leads please do let us know through the email contact on this blog, or by leaving Comments, below. The above should be clue enough for some. Thanks! With Bipto, Brian Brown, now in charge, let us hope for postive changes! With old-school moderators like Tugboatwa, Jerry Riedel, in there, we can hopefully hope that good ethics and common sense and fairness will prevail in the end.

LINKS:

The full JIMITE CHRONICLES links, beyond he Rogues Gallery:
Their History: The Hall of Infamy (great info on the BFRO coup and AIBR schism, etc.)
The BFFWatch Blog (limited posts)
The Footery Exposer (limited posts)

Follow the amazingly convoluted MRP thread on the Bigfoot Forums HERE.
Read a concise Michigan Recording Project controversy history HERE.
Melissa Hovey blogs about the BFF and MRP HERE.
Drop in on the JREF BFF Debate HERE.

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A POST WE MADE RE. THE BFF FIASCO,
POSTED RECENTLY ON THE SEARCH FOR BIGFOOT FORUM

I for one am not gloating, so much as having fun with this. Though it is a serious matter, and many have been hurt along the way on the BFF or by being banned and suppressed or mocked, I feel a light-hearted approach to them disarms their viciousness. What was I to do? Take being banned seriously and get depressed over it? Nah. I just went to "war" and gave them a dose of the satire they needed. Oftentimes it is humor that is the most effective means of commentary. It is hard to argue with a joke; but that joke can show reality and human behavior in stark relief.

Do I think the BFF matters? Well, yes, it does; as they are so well known, and so prominent, the site does in many ways and cases stand for the BF Community and researchers in general. It is one way the world knows about us and Bigfoot, and an area that collects a lot of the new and perhaps naive who don't yet know better. It should be a universal domain where all of us may comment and share information, and sanely discuss things. It saddened me to see it becoming the prowling and stomping grounds of a small group who obviously cared more about their own egos and sense of power than any actual human beings on there, or the topic itself.

When I saw the self-importance of these BFF admins/mods I just wanted to bring them down a notch. Well, when I see BF bull-pookey I just can't resist--I comment on it on my blog. THAT is what got me banned, not anything I even did on the Forums. While there may not always be opportunities to prove this elusive creature exists, there are always areas within the field of study where we can comment on and attempt to correct the ideas and theories of others whom we feel are just plain wrong. This is a big part of the problem. There has to be a line, somewhere, where mutual respect reigns over petty differences. This can be difficult to achieve when some things said are just so clearly wrong, and egos are involved.

Hence, for example, I do like MK Davis well enough as a person, though I tried to tear his "Massacre Theory" to shreds. When I interviewed and talked to him, however, I tried to maintain a spirit of civil debate. Discussion and debate bring progress, when civility is maintained. This is how knowledge grows and progresses. It is unfortunate that quite often there is no room for this kind of discussion before the defensive and aggressive slings and arrows start to fly and flay.

It's exciting to see change happen, and to think that I was not just banned into obscurity. To speak up and have a say, and then to see results--that is nice. Do I expect the world to suddenly be a better place? Nah. But maybe the BFF can improve, un-ban those of us who were unjustly booted, and learn to respect new people who may not yet be masters of the sinister, predatory game played by some. And I am happy to see vindication for Melissa, who obviously has had much more reason to be angry about the BFF and Mistress T. than I ever did. If what I did on my blog helped in even a small way to bring justice into this situation, then yes, I am excited about it.

Did I make a little "tabloidy" hay out of this? Sure. But I really think we need to get our act together, all of us Bigfooters, or our arguments and bickering will just be food for the Lan Lampheres out there seeking to make news and entertainment by playing us off against each other. And every ridiculous new "Bigfoot War" just makes us, and BIGFOOT, look all the more silly to the outside world.

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NEWS!

STEVE KULLS, the SQUATCHDETECTIVE, has just announced that he will be outing the main writer and founder of THE BIGFOOTERY ENQUIRER on his BlogTalk Radio show on September 5th. We talked to Kulls earlier this month, but will not disclose here any information he shared with us. We put out a few stringers at his request, to folks out here on the West Coast, but none of them felt that the person mentioned was the right guy. One said, "he isn't literate enough" to write that blog. Well, Mr. Kulls has EVIDENCE that supposedly confirms his suppositions. WE SHALL SEE. Be sure to tune in to his show on that date. We will post a reminder of it on our BIGFOOT'S BLOG FACEBOOK PAGE

The BFE has been trying preemptively to "out" itself (in apparent response to our campaign to expose them), vaguely, anyway, using a silly bunch of riddles in their "Treasure Hunt" game. Well, you might try, too. Go to the site through the link, above. If they are exposed then they won't be able to snark so freely.

Also: word has it that Kulls' new book, "FIFTY LARGE," will be finished soon. It is a thorough recap and analysis of the Georgia Bigfoot Hoax and his relations with that notorious figure, TOM BISCARDI. This should be good! For now, check out Kulls' page, BISCARDI EXPOSED for all the details to this point.

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A NEW BIGFOOT TOY!

This one should make a good Christmas season present for your young Squatchers! However, we have been told by one witness in Target that their kid was horribly scared by the thing as it jumped up and down in its box and roared and pounded its chest. And this is only the in-store DEMO behavior!

See it on Amazon, for about a hundred bucks...
Fisher-Price Imaginext BIGFOOT the Monster

Product Features: "The Imaginext Big Foot includes a remote control, ball, speech and lots of personality. Remote toggle allows him to walk forward and backwards and the six buttons are happy, angry, sleep, fun, ball, and exercise. Hear him roar and watch him pound his fists or raise his arms above his head and shake his fists. Press the ball button and hear him say things like "play" and watch him throw the ball. Press the button on his belly and hear him laugh, the button in his mouth makes him chew and burp (don't worry, he remembers to say "excuse me")."

From the Manufacturer: "Imagine a little monster with a BIG personality. That’s BIGFOOT. He’s happy. He’s angry. He’s sleepy. He’s fun. He talks and walks and throws a ball, chews and burps and exercises. And kids can bring him to life with an easy-to-use wireless remote control. The symbols on the buttons show you what BIGFOOT will do when you push them -- no reading required. BIGFOOT includes one (9.6Volt) NiMH rechargeable battery and battery charger. Remote Control requires 2 AA alkaline batteries."

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ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!
[Spoken in the manner of the Sierra Sounds....]

BFFHGHGJHGHGJHGYJGJHHFOODHVGJHHGGHGUYGUYYYBFF@#@#$%#@#! '!!!
(Angry Bigfoot Was too Angry to Speak in Hu-man.)

Angry Bigfoot channeled this time by Denali Brown, age 8.)
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This blog is copyright and all that jazz, save for occasional small elements borrowed for "research" and information or satirical purposes only, 2010, Bigfoot Books and Steven Streufert. Borrowings will be tolerated without the revenge of Angry Bigfoot, if credit, citation and a kindly web-link are given, preferably after contacting us and saying, Hello, like a normal person would before taking a cup of salt

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Reading THE HOOPA PROJECT: A Study in Contrasts and Confusion

THE HOOPA PROJECT: A Fact and Logic Check and Close Reading, Section One. (A Book Review.)

It was on April Fool's Day that Skamania County made its Bigfoot Ordinance, Mr. Paulides.

Paulides, David; Harvey Pratt, illustrations. THE HOOPA PROJECT: Bigfoot Encounters in California. Blaine, WA: Hancock House Publishers, 2008.

First, don't take this review the wrong way. The Hoopa Project is, despite certain flaws, still a fascinating book. Say what you will about David Paulides and Harvey Pratt, they have done some interesting work, some of it unique. NABS decided to focus on one limited area of Bigfoot activity in this book, and also focussed on a particular cultural group, the Hupa Indians. This gives the book a certain strength and distinction. When we first read it upon its release we barrelled through it in just a few days, drawn on by intrigue to the end. However, as we went along there was a certain feeling of unease. We found ourselves repeatedly asking, Did he really say that? Isn't this or that point just plain wrong? That is not even begining to mention all of the typos and poor general editing. The redundancies in the book, with affidavits repeating the narrative for each sighting report, prove to be highly tedious, and hence the book could have been reduced to nearly half its size--but that is for another blog entry.

Here we cover just the first section, and think it will be clear if you read to the end of this part of our review, that the book sits on rather shaky foundations. In saying what we say below, please note, we are not trying to debunk Bigfoot, but rather to debunk the statements and methods found in this particular Bigfoot book. Hence, we do not necessarily question or doubt the Skookum cast or various hair and scat DNA finds, but Paulides' use of these in his narrative. It is our feeling that he and NABS are so eager to conquer the field and the issue at hand, so confident in their own investigative abilities, so concerned with outdoing all the other Bigfoot groups (especially the BFRO) and researchers, that they get going right from the start on the wrong foot, so to speak. If we are to prove Bigfoot to the world, or to make the field at all respectable to the general public or the scientific world, then we simply MUST have solid methodological foundations, and our analyses of evidence and reports should be sound, not fraught with gross errors of logic and procedure. If the story isn't straight to begin with, then everything that follows is corrupted in sequence, and the errors compound multiplicatively upon those that preceeded them.

After Paulides came out as being in support of the "Bluff Creek Massacre Theory" (blogged about earlier by us HERE and HERE, and the MK interview HERE and HERE) we really had to revisit those misgivings. We decided to go back and do a review. What follows is a close reading of the book's first 51 pages, with an eye bent to ascertaining fact, fiction, and error in the book. The sightings reports which constitute the majority of the book are best left for later. Despite minor errors and glitches of methodology and assumption in this later part of the book, the reports are still good, and need to be appreciated for what they are--personal stories, anecdotal evidence, and at least suggestive of certain traits of the Creature and of a particular Native American culture in Northwestern California. We particularly appreciate this part of the book, despite misgivings about the introductory part, as we, too, live in the same region, and we receive the same kinds of reports from locals constantly.

All of us make mistakes--that is for sure. Even Bigfoot's bLog does, we'll admit it humbly if and when it happens. We are here to learn, after all, not to dictate. However, we feel there is a real need to run through parts of this book in order to show how egregious the errors and illogical assumptions can be in a Bigfoot book. It would do us all well if we learned to fact-check, edit, and think correctly before we publish these things. If we bigfooters can't get the story straight, the media and public surely won't, either. Since the people outside of the world of Bigfooting cannot or will not look more deeply into the evidence, it is clear that they will evaluate the topic based upon what they can see: the behavior of the researchers, and the consistency of their productions.

Image: "Paul Bunyan Conservation Society" footprint stompers, sold at Willow Creek Bigfoot Days festival, 2007. Photo by Steven Streufert. Rant Mullens and Ray Wallace would surely have envied these desigtns!

Introduction. On pp. 9-12 we find out how Paulides got his start hunting Bigfoot: in logical error and imaginative leaps. He tells of going out with his father into the mountains in Lassen County. They find a fire down in a creekbed, "made of fifteen to twenty small twigs broken into equal pieces approximately one foot long... placed on the sand in the shape of a teepee." Now, what this is doing in a Bigfoot book is a mystery, as there has never been a convincing report of these creatures utilizing fire. He notes that there were no footprints around the fire in the sand. If so, how could it have been a Bigfoot? Why assume it was made by a Bigfoot? He then acknowledges that this is odd, and admits that he doesn't really think it was a Bigfoot. OK, so will he say it? Maybe it was a pot grower? A hobo? No, he then proposes an even more extreme idea: maybe, he says, it was one of the "Little People" spoken of by Natives. But Dave, you then say they live in caves and underground, and that they only come out at night. And if there were no signs of footprints at all, what made the fire, a levitating elf? Occam's Razor would say that he should, logically, propose the simplest solution, not go from one presumptuous assumption to an even more wild presupposition. This may have intrigued Paulides about Bigfoot, or whatever; but as the first section of the book all it does is convince us that he is a guy who is prone to leaping to odd conclusions first, rather than the simplest and most rational ones. This, then, sets the logical tone of the book.

On pp. 12-14 he speaks of the "Whistler incident," up in B.C., Canada, in 2002. What happened? Nothing. He went to Canada, hired a guide to take him fishing, and then the guide told him a story about a roadside sighting of Bigfoot, told to him after Paulides asked him a leading question about "strange, outdoor wildlife experiences." Dave says he was "mesmerized," as if he had never heard of Bigfoot before; but just a page earlier he is talking about hearing about it way back in his childhood. Why would anyone be so entranced by the most common kind of Bigfoot story: "it walked across the road"? We've all heard this a million times on TV and elsewhere. Also, later on in the book, he himself devalues such sightings as being not substantial enough.

On page 14 he mentions that he then "read everything" he could about Bigfoot. If so, then why does he not give ANY credit to previous researchers on the pages that follow throughout his own book? If one is conducting professional research and scholarship and publishes a book or monograph one is ACCOUNTABLE to the field and other scholars that have gone before one, and one is required to give citation of their works and conclusions. Rather, Paulides goes on to claim nearly all of the following pages' contents as solely his own, as if they arose only from his own original "experienced police" investigation; but he has already admitted that they did not. As we shall show, he takes credit for other's work as if these were new discoveries, effectively stealing their ideas. Plagiarism is not just the exact quoting of someone else's written words; rather, in a scholarly sense, it is the lifting and appropriation of ideas and theories, without due credit given, as well. To follow such shoddy scholarship with public arrogance and grandiose statements is even less palatable.

In Chapter One Paulides covers what he calls "Government Acknowledgement" of Bigfoot. It is HARDLY that. No official support of the Sasquatch's existence is ever released by The Government. That Skamania County, Washington (pp. 19-22), issued a declaration about Bigfoot, in Ordinance No. 69-01, on APRIL FOOL'S DAY (of all days!), 1969, is obviously part good humor, and also partly related to the desire to prevent obsessed would-be Bigfoot hunters from shooting other hunters out in the woods. This was, notably, only a year and a half after the Patterson film was shot, and Bigfoot Hunting mania was at full steam. Yet Paulides takes it as a wholly literal statement of government belief in Bigfoot.

The ordinance specifically states,
"Whereas, publicity attendant upon such real or imagined sightings has resulted in an influx of scientific investigators as well as casual hunters, many armed with lethal weapons, and... Whereas, the absence of specific laws covering the taking of specimens encourages laxity in the use of firearms and other deadly devices and poses a clear and present threat to the safety and well-being of persons living and traveling within the boundaries of Skamania County as well as to the creatures themselves...".

An amendment to it from 1984 also states, "Should the Skamania County Coroner determine any victim/creatures to have been humanoid the Prosecuting Attorney shall pursue the case under the existing laws pertaining to homicide." Isn't it clear? This ordinance has been set down to hopefully prevent murder of humans, and is NOT a clear recognition of there actually being such a creature as Bigfoot out there. Rather, it only says that IF the creature exists, then the killing of one will not be considered to be murder, and will be subject to a fine. By "Victim" they obviously mean "human," so if someone is shot (i.e., Homo sapiens) during a Bigfoot hunt, then it will be considered to be murder. Clearly, the focus is on homicide, and discouraging it, not the acknowledgement of a Creature out there. All that the ordinance says is that it is "possible," that it is "possibly" out there in the hills--hardly a bold declaration of belief and support. We bigfooters believe, sure, but Skamania County is obviously hedging their bets and playing it safely.

Paulides claims that this declaration was found when he did "an internet search for Bigfoot/Sasquatch legislation," implying (given all of his claims of an extensive professional investigative background) that he was somehow searching "official" government information sites. Rather, obviously, he just up and GOOGLED IT. One does not have to be an "Investigator" with "30 years experience" to do this. Furthermore, he must have already known about this ordinance, as it was WIDELY noted in the Bigfoot literature, in many books that he must have read if he read "everything" he could find on the subject; and it has been presented in a few television shows and Bigfoot documentaries, such as Sasquatch Odyssey. Let's just pick a few books off of our own shelf and take a look. Oh, look! Here the Skamania ordinance is in John Green's book (1978), and here it is in Peter Byrne's book (1975), and here it is again extensively covered in Robert Michael Pyle's book (1995), and here is Murphy's book (2004) with photos of the official documents and everything! Surely the author has read at least one of these major tomes, since he read "everything on Bigfoot." This is NOT, then, original research. The Hoopa Project author is not proving his big-time cop abilities, but rather just doing what any Bigfoot internet geek does. Why does he do this and not credit prior researchers? It is, it seems to us, to build up the narrative trope that he is some special kind of researcher, not just some guy reading books on Bigfoot and surfing the 'net. It is, it seems to us again, largely a fictional construction. Here comes Paulides, a guy in the field of Bigfooting only a couple of years, and already at the start he claims to be the only professional, full-time, serious Bigfoot researcher out there? Come on, and go figure.

Images: NABS/ public commercial product promotional images, found on Amazon.com.

The book brings up the Environmental Atlas for Washington, or “Provisional U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Environmental Reconnaissance Inventory of the State of Washington,” published by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1975. A lot is made of this publication, as if it proves official government recognition of the Sasquatch as a real animal. Rather, it can be taken as a slightly tongue-in-cheek presentation, but also seriously as a declaration that the creature has been REPORTED to be in Washington. The Atlas does not present this topic mockingly, and does indeed take it as a possibility that there could be something to all of the reports. It is clear, however, that the “very existence of Sasquatch… is hotly disputed,” as the Atlas states. From this point it refers repeatedly only to ALLEGED Bigfoot hair, “alleged sightings, tracks and other experiences.” It says these reports CONJURE UP the image of Bigfoot, implying a phantasm. It does not come out and SAY that the creature is actually KNOWN to be 8-12 feet tall, and so on. It is a PROVISIONAL statement. Other qualifying words used throughout this report include, “reported,” “apparently,” “if” and “generally considered.” It is also clearly reporting on what is, to the author, generally considered to be folk mythology or cultural belief particular to the region, which MIGHT have some basis in fact—might, only, is what they are saying: “If Sasquatch is purely legendary, the legend is likely to be a long time dying…. Legendary or actual, Sasquatch excites a great popular interest in Washington.” See, this Atlas includes cultural dimensions, and not just environmental facts. Also, this Atlas is not an official production of the entire USA government, nor a statement of official governmental or institutional policy. It is a regional side-project, done by a certain and limited agency of the government only. It is no more official policy than a particular wildlife study or environmental impact report done by someone working for the government.

Paulides, though he at other points in his larger work is clearly suspicious of government cover-up (especially with his belief in the "Massacre" conspiracy theories, and his recent belief that an Oregon lake was closed by authorities because of Bigfoot activity), here places great credibility in government: “If you believe in your government and you believe they have the best evidence, laboratories, and tools available, then I believe the government is taking a bold step forward in the authentication of Bigfoot/Sasquatch as a creature.” (p. 19) However, there is no real original study being done in this Atlas, and its imprimatur is limited. It is a short summary of previously known aspects of the issue only. There was no new testing done officially in this project, though there is a mention of some hair having been analyzed at some point by the FBI with inconclusive results: “no known animal” does not necessarily prove Bigfoot. If one actually reads this brief bit from the Atlas one can clearly see that it is nothing official, scientific, nor comprehensive. On page 17 Paulides goes to great length to say how “extremely competent, intelligent, and technical” the US Army Corps of Engineers is, how “cautious” they are. But does he not recall how the Corps was largely blamed for the poor design and management of the levees that broke and inundated New Orleans during the Hurricane Katrina debacle? If we know one thing for certain about the government, it is that it is a vast, compartmentalized bureaucracy, one often at odds with itself, and in a great many instances incompetent and self-contradictory. Again, Paulides claims he found this Atlas in his “personal search of the United States government records,” but it was well known for years, seen or spoken of in many Bigfoot books and websites. We are sure he just read about it somewhere, and then wrote to the Corps to get a copy—no P.I. work necessary there; and no credit is given for previous work on the Atlas Bigfoot article. Oh well.

Images: From the Corps of Engineers Atlas of WA, showing Sasquatch in both. Click to Enlarge.
What does the Corps really say? The BFRO asked and here is what they say: “But whenever they are questioned by reporters who seek clarification on the issue of whether the Corps or the state of Washington officially acknowledges the existence of bigfoots, they steadfastly claim that the listing in the Atlas was an ‘error’ or a ‘joke’ that was not corrected prior to the printing of the atlas.” And this appears on the BFRO Blue Forum: "A biologist/writer was assigned to put together the WA state atlas. The criteria was defined broadly as environmental elements of interest to public (because the atlas was made for the public). The writer spent some time determining what things were of great interest to the public, that [are] broadly environmental in nature. The sasquatch was one of the items that came up consistently." So, this project was for popular consumption, not official, and was mainly (apparently) written by one biologist, not the entire Corps or US Government! Personally, we think it is cool that Sasquatch made it into the Atlas, and we think personally that the Creature does exist; but this Atlas IS NOT proof that the government agrees with us bigfooters. Why is Bigfoot in the Atlas, then, you ask? Because BIGFOOT IS COOL.

Anyway, let's ramble onward....

The next section, starting on page 28, deals with how NABS (Dave, that is) "started the search," and found the location where they (he) would search for Bigfoot. Obviously, this is mostly a foregone conclusion--just look at the maps in John Green's old books and you'll have every clue you need. He proceeds to try to make his choice seem quasi-scientific, but again just runs through all of the basics already covered by Green and others decades earlier; and he glaringly does not give one bit of credit to Green or anyone else. He says he spent "weeks of working the Internet and deciphering graphs and charts," but then jumps immediately into talking about the area around Hoopa, CA. He does not really explain at this point why he chose this area save that basically he kind of liked the look of it. It had the Patterson-Gimlin film site nearby, and lots of Native Americans. What more could one hope for? It is only later in the text, presumably narratively after he had decided on Hoopa already, that he begins to try to build a data structure to explain his choice. Almost all of this basic data was contained in John Green's books and SASQUATCH DATABASE, now available online (click the highlighted text).

Image: One of John Green's early pamphlet books, predating and pre-configuring Paulides' research by over three decades.

Fact checks, pp. 28-34:

• He says that Hoopa Valley is one of only two valleys in this region. He is wrong. Basically every river has some kind of valley somewhere, Willow Creek has a valley. There is the Eel River valley, the Mattole valley, and on and on...

• He says the creature in the PGF is "running across Bluff Creek," but actually the creature WALKS away from the creek on a sandbar.

• He says that Louse Camp is on Bluff Creek, six miles south from the P-G film site, but it is NOT. It is 2.5 miles as the creek flows, west then southward, and even less by direct line.

• He says that there have been "few actual sightings in the new century" in this area, but we know and have heard of many, many of them, and know some who have seen Bigfoot right up from Louse Camp in recent years. Several BFRO researchers, as well as NABS-affiliated researcher Sean Fries of Weaverville, have reported constant wood knocks, vocalizations and other signs of Bigfoot activity in the area. Paulides is utterly WRONG when he says about Bluff Creek, "The weather can be treacherous, the trail is very tough and you won't see Bigfoot. You had a chance of seeing him in this region in the 1950s and maybe early 60s, but not now." Huh, what now Dave? This is just not true, based on no real research at all, and is a statement made simply off the top of his head. He uses it to make Hoopa seem like a more active zone. Also, there are roads in the area, not trails, and they are mostly fairly well graded and leveled. Bigfoot activity in the area is reported regularly, with new sightings and reports each year that goes by.

• He uses the name "Hoopa" to describe the people of that tribal group and reservation affiliation, though their official name is HUPA. Hoopa is the name of the city and reservation, not the people. This is a fundamental error that should never be made by someone who has supposedly spent two years living among these people.

•  He states (pg. 29) that the Hupa received their reservation in 1876, but in fact it was 1864 when the treaty was ratified and the reservation "comprising 90% of their original homelands" was established. (Source: Hutchinson Encyclopedia article). He says that it was established under President Ulysses S. Grant, but Grant was only in office March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877. This "official occupancy" recognized by the US government came only after the millennia-long homeland had been disrupted by the coming of European-Americans and the consequent decades of genocide, colonialism and "Indian Wars." It is a fact, though, that as remote and resilient as they are, these Natives never lost their traditions and connection to the land that they share with Oh-Mah.

• On the same page he says that Highway One is on the coast from Hoopa, but it is known as Highway 101. He speaks of the "Bald Mountains," but the name used for those is "Bald Hills," traversed by Bald Hills Road from Weitchpec to the coast near Orick, an area important to Bigfoot history.

• On pg. 30 he speaks of the "Go Road," more properly called the G-O ROAD, or Gasquet-Orleans road. He mentions it as if it is the same road as the famed Bluff Creek Road. He conflates the G-O project with the Bigfoot track-find and equipment vandalism events of 1958, but the Bluff Creek one was a logging project road starting considerably south of Orleans. The G-O road was to end in Orleans, not down near the mouth of Bluff Creek, nearer to Weitchpec than Orleans, where the road Jerry Crew and Ray Wallace made famous starts. The Bluff Creek road runs past Louse Camp up into the dead-end of the creek's headwaters area for logging access. As evidenced by the Notice Creek bridge, which bears the marking "1958," built by Jerry's crew, this is the road project that the Bigfoot events happened on, not any of the G-O Road projects.

Image: Bluff Creek Basin on Google Earth. The Bluff Creek Road starts way at BOTTOM, Orleans and the G-O Road turnoff are at right. They are NOT the same road. Way up to north and west is the PGF site, where the creek bends eastward into the  basin's headwaters.

• He claims on the same page that it was the "Hoopa" and Yurok Tribes that fought the battle in court to end the G-O Road construction before it entered Native sacred mountain peaks in the Siskiyou wilderness area. In fact, it was the Sierra Club and the passage of NEPA that got that ball rolling, and then a remarkable alliance of Native and environmental concerns later combined to assure the protection under the Indian Religious Freedom Act and eventual declaration of an official Siskyou Wilderness Area and also the Smith River Wild and Scenic National Recreation Area. Combining these two areas, plus the cost of fighting legal battles, eventually closed the road project only seven miles short of completion at its middle. One source says "The GO Road battle was won on environmental grounds, not on grounds of religious freedoms. As one Yurok stated, to establish the area as wilderness is to completely miss the point." (See article HERE.) 

• He says that Patterson and Gimlin came to Bluff Creek to film a Bigfoot, but their stated intention was to film tracks of the creature found recently. He says, wrongly, that they “left the area of the Go Road and started to slowly make their way by horseback down into the Bluff Creek region. Just as they were about to reach Bluff Creek they each saw movement in the creek…,” etc. ACTUALLY, no. They DROVE up Bluff Creek Road from down near the mouth at the Klamath, up from the Bluff Creek Company on the road to Louse Camp, where they camped just upstream from the campsite and Notice Creek. They were in the area for DAYS or WEEKS before eventually spotting the creature, and were riding up and down the creek a lot. Where Paulides gets his version of the story is surely a source in thin air, not actual research of documented sources.

• Furthermore, speaking of the filming (pg. 31), Paulides says they were using a 35mm camera, but it was a 16mm camera.

• Speaking of the Creature he says experts have determined that she was 7-foot, 3-inches and over 700 pounds, but ACTUALLY, no one has really been able to finally agree on or conclusively prove these measurements, and there are many theories out there that differ pretty widely. There are whole books written about this subject, but which Paulides has simply not bothered to read and absorb.

• Speaking of the film he says that the Creature was carrying "something" (a stick), as if this is an established fact. Actually, it is pretty much only M.K. Davis who sees that stick. We can't! This is verifiable proof that Paulides was under the sway of Davis’ odd and conspiratorial thinking even at this early, pre-Bluff Creek Massacre Theory stage of things.

• He speaks of muscles moving in the right thigh and right shoulder of the Creature. In fact, muscles can be seen moving ALL OVER the Bigfoot in the film, especially in the back and buttocks. This is why it looks real upon close inspection. Why does he select only two limited spots? Odd.

• He speaks of the creature "on tape," but actually, it was on FILM, from a real movie camera, not a video tape machine (which did not exist in the consumer market at the time). He also states that the film has been declared by "professors" and "experts" to be impossible to fake; but the sad fact is that way more such figures think that it IS a hoax. The film has never been finally or credibly debunked, but Paulides should say that there is still much disagreement on that topic.

• He speaks of Willow Creek’s Bigfoot Days as being “a huge event that draws university professors, professional Bigfoot hunters and a variety of amateur explorers.” Has he ever BEEN to this event? It is not some kind of academic conference. In fact, it is a small community parade with a festival of vendors and a car show down in the park. It has very little serious Bigfoot content, mostly consisting of gorilla suits, or knick-knack sellers hawking novelty goods.

• He says Willow Creek area itself has “relatively few” sightings “compared with other regions in Northern California,” but in fact, as evidenced by reports in the Bigfoot Books store and around town there are MANY sightings right around this area, every bit as much as on the Hoopa Reservation. This stuff is in the historical records and books, and even gets reported in Paulides' sequel, Tribal Bigfoot. Living here in Willow Creek, we ourselves pass by a large number of Bigfoot sighting areas every single day, and new ones continue to be told to us.

• He says (pg. 32) there are no public campgrounds anywhere in the Hoopa region, but in fact Tish Tang Creek, which he mentions, DOES have a public camping site. In fact, he MENTIONS “Tish Tang Campgrounds” on the very same page, in his sightings chart.

• Astonishingly (pg. 33), he says that “the Hoopa Valley has been an area with significant human habitation for over 250 years.” In another place he says "almost 200 years." IN FACT, the Hupa people claim residence in the area for over 4,000 years! And this is just what they remember. Archaeology probably proves or will prove an even more ancient occupancy--we need to look into this further. (See the Wikipedia HUPA article.)

• He speaks of a finding of an animal bed, and then another instance where some scientists found some bedding material. Apparently they found it slightly odd, and found some deer bones near by it. Paulides leaps to the conclusion that it simply must have been Bigfoot, as what other animal would make a bed and leave bones around? This is NOT proof of Bigfoot, but just proof that some bones and a bed were found. A-hem! As Ray Crowe used to say, "Keep your Skepticals on."

Getting the picture yet??? Well, that was JUST A FEW PAGES of the book! Read on for more.

The next section, "By The Numbers" (pg. 34-45) is a somewhat lengthy attempt at statistical accumulation and analysis. It is interesting, but it almost exactly replicates (WITHOUT credit given) the same work that John Green has done over the decades. Green was the first Bigfoot researcher we know of to attempt serious data accumulation and systemization, and to put it into a properly constructed computer database. This was back when computers still had the green, text-only screens, folks. Anyway, the conclusions Paulides comes up with completely mirror Green's in terms of the conclusion that Sasquatch/Bigfoot creatures generally tend to live in moist, rain-prone, forested and mountainous regions. Nothing new there!

He'd already decided to study the west coast, so he immediately excludes sightings hotspots such as Ohio, Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania, and northern Michigan and Wisconsin. This is unfortunate, but understandable--after all, he wanted to do his research in Northern California, fairly close to his home, right? So, his sightings research is initially biased in that he only searched for sightings in the far western, coastal states.

Also, one notes that his list of research sites is rather limited. He said he had read "everything" on Bigfoot earlier, but here there is only one book (Bigfoot Casebook) and the Track Record newsletter (known to be up, down, and all over the place). The rest of the list consists of eight web sites. The first two sites on his list are in fact NABS web sites! Did he REALLY think he could sneak this by us as ostensible research? Nabigfootsearch.com and CaliforniaBigfootsearch.com... that's odd. How could he create and gather his statistics for this analysis from his own web sites if he had just gotten started in accumulating data? That would be, um, impossible. You can't build a database without... building it! Anyway....
BFRO.net--great! A fine database there. But then the GCBRO.com site?
You've got to be kidding. That site on our checking today had only TWO sightings for all of Bigfoot-infested Humboldt County! OregonBigfoot.com has a nice database, and a site which we highly recommend--another good choice. However, Bigfootinfo.org had only 17 sightings for all of California. Next comes "Home.clara.net," which is not even a Bigfoot site, but rather an internet service provider's home page! Ugh. The last, BigfootEncounters.com is a great general site, but their sightings reports are not in any proper database format. The California list has no source citation. They are basically just long lists organized by location, of often non-attributed or unverified, and quite often very brief sightings.

These latter type of sources do NOT live up to the criteria Paulides lays out on pg. 35, where he says that he eliminated all reports that did not have enough information: "In order to be considered significant, a sighting had to include information other than just 'Bigfoot sighted, Highway 37, 9 a.m., 1966.' I looked for dates and times, a narrative describing the circumstances, a description of the creature, and possibly the chance that the sighting was investigated to some degree." Fine, Dave, but really, nearly all Bigfoot sightings are like this stuff you want to rule out. The really good ones are all the more rare than the already rare fleeting ones. Now, when trying to accumulate raw data about a creature's distribution, it is NOT an effective method to just willy-nilly exclude sightings that do not live up to an arbitrary standard. For raw data you want... DATA! That means any credible sighting should be counted. If, however, you are seeking later to define what the best source sightings for a description of the creature are, then fine, use the best; but do not exclude data at the start--that is called BIAS.

So, whatever the results of his ten pages of analysis, we can say that at the start the data was corrupted by his bias for Northern California and Hoopa in particular. Also, some of his sources are good, but the others are simply bad or non-existent. Basically, he must have data-mined the BFRO database at that time, with a sprinkling of Bigfoot Encounters backgrounding. This would explain Matt Moneymaker's displeasure at Bigfoot Books' stocking of the NABS Bigfoot Sightings Map in our shop. A quick check encouraged by Matt revealed a huge data piracy from the BFRO site, though at least the map gives credit to the BFRO.

Paulides has gone to great lengths in this selection to at least read all of the sightings he could find in his limited selection of sources, and then to assemble it into graphs. This is a good idea, but as it is deeply flawed initially and in methodology in its selection bias, we're not sure what in it can be counted on to be reliable. Though it demonstrates clearly what was already widely known about Bigfoot and Sasquatch habitat in sightings, it fails to establish firm grounds outside of bias. He admits that there are problems, as Bigfoot is seen all over the country, and is reported to survive in some quite unlikely places which don't fit his assumptions, such as Arizona. Rather than trying to reconcile this, he just rules out the entire USA that does not fit into his presumptions. He then arbitrarily rules out any sightings or reports from before 1940. Then he declares that he only wants first-hand reports, even though a huge number of Bigfoot reports in the books and records are second and third- hand. He shows no stable criteria for his selection or de-selection of sightings, as if it is just up to how he feels about a report. This is not scientific. Then he goes even further, this time entering full illogic: "A Bigfoot incident in this book (for affidavit reasons) constitutes an occurrence that can be directly related to accepted and known Bigfoot behavior." So, we take it from this, only those reports that correspond with David Paulides' ASSUMPTIONS about what Bigfoot is like or how it acts will fit in to his modeling. In this regard, if one thinks Bigfoot is "human," then one will SEE Bigfoot as such, and it will turn up in one's reportage and forensic illustrations. This does not make sense. Bigfoot is NOT an established creature yet, though many have seen it or seen signs that may have been made by it. Bigfoot is a cryptid thus far because we DO NOT yet know all of the facts about it. Sure, patterns of behavior and size and shape arise, but they have not been absolutely verified. Therefore, it stands to reason that we should remain open-minded about what a Bigfoot is and what it can do. We assume that they are bipedal; so should we rule out ALL quadrupedal reports? They are supposed to be brown in color; so should we rule out any that are grey or silvery in color?

Already Paulides has ruled out sightings that don't include more than a date, place, time, any that are just fleeting road crossings, any that don't fit into his standard model (another bias), any that occur outside of his selected study area, etc., etc. So WHAT IS LEFT? It seems to us that the vast majority of Bigfoot sightings occur outside of the parameters Paulides has selected. Most are brief, many are vague, there is great uncertainty in some where the witness might be unsure of what they saw, and there are many that are told to only a few people often years after they happened, with details perhaps vaguely documented. Also, we cannot forget that perception is relative, so that how one person sees a Bigfoot will differ from how another sees one. Some of the sightings are surely misperceptions. Some of them are tall tales. How does statistician Dave decide which are which? As he does not make this very clear, all of his data, though interesting, is basically useless as statistic or science. It is ten pages of confirmation bias glaringly delineated.

In the end he selects Humboldt County, CA, which should have been obvious to begin with; but then he chooses Hoopa for nearly completely arbitrary reasons. "Hoopa seemed to be a natural location to set up my office and hang a shingle as it was set in a valley with all the amenities of home." So, after all of this work trying to find where Bigfoot lives, he opts for comfort. Then he repeats his false presumption that Hupa heritage goes back "almost two hundred years," when in fact it goes back thousands. He mentions the climate of Hoopa, but just about anywhere in Humboldt has that climate, with rain, a body of water, mountains, wilderness and parks. He even mentions that the "Bigfoot capital of the world," Willow Creek, is right nearby, as is Bluff Creek, where the PGF was shot. So, why not set up shop in Willow Creek, or Orleans? It is clear from what he says here: The area (Hoopa) also comes with an interesting history, a reservation, and a region that is almost completely surrounded by wilderness areas. So we see, rather clearly, that the selection that was the basis and foundation of this whole research and book project was based upon personal interest in this particular Native American reservation, and also upon the convenience of the researcher. This is bias, pure and simple, and hardly follows logically or necessarily from the preceding statistical analysis. Hence, we can call the whole process a distortion or a sham. His “Decision” was in fact no more scientific or credible than if we were to just up and say, hey, let’s go camp at Mount Shasta and look for UFOs and Lemurians!

Paulides goes on to talk briefly about the local Natives' "Sacred High Country." He puts it "by coincidence... directly in the middle of the Bluff Creek region, but in fact it is to the north and west of Bluff Creek. He speaks of "tribal elders" making the trek into this high, mountain peak area, but in fact it is mainly reserved only for the tribal groups' medicine men or shamans to make this pilgrimage. He rather superficially describes this quest, in what we feel are fairly ethnocentric terms, saying they go there to "pray to their gods." This is the general dismissal that old anthropologists always made to describe the "strange beliefs" that people they did not understand practiced and followed. In fact, this point demonstrates what is perhaps the greatest deficiency in The Hoopa Project--that of true ethnographic exploration. There is almost no real description of this cultural background so vital to understanding these people, and nearly all of the conversations are with younger tribal members, non-elders, dealing with events of the day, not the deep and rich reality that would give substance to any book about these issues. Despite all of his time spent in the Hoopa Valley, among the Hupa, here (pg 49) Paulides goes to "court documents" go get to the idea that this area was the "center of the Indians' universe." OK, but what does it MEAN? We get no real insight into this realm from this book, sadly.

Images: Above and below, the Bigfoot Mural at the Early Bird "Bigfoot Burger" restaurant. Photos by Steven Streufert.

He then concludes the section we are analyzing with "Best Bigfoot Evidence, Past and Present." He speaks of the camcorder as revolutionizing the documentation of sightings, but in fact there are very few videos of Bigfoot, as opposed to the Patterson-Gimlin Film, that have any real quality or credibility. Well, maybe the Freeman video.... He talks about newspaper reports, but didn't he already rule these out earlier as unreliable and not first-hand enough for him? He speaks of DNA from hair and scat being "classified" as Bigfoot, as it often comes back as "not on file" and close to primate. However, the fact is that though these results are intriguing, they are often inconclusive, and often are not on file because the supposed DNA has been corrupted or degraded. DNA of a Bigfoot has never been verified AS from a Bigfoot because there as yet is not a standard set example of what a sample of Bigfoot DNA really is. This is a topic that constitutes interesting possibility, but has yet to prove much. He glances over a few historical bits at this point, with great superficiality and preconceptions.

Odd parasites have been claimed to have been found in some crap that was supposedly from a Bigfoot, but no one knows if Bigfoot made that pile of scat, and no one has to our knowledge actually seen Bigfoot take a dump. Despite this, Dave seems to know that Bigfoot scat looks like "a giant human scat, very large." He speaks of the more recent analyses of footprints done by Jeff Meldrum and Jimmy Chilcutt, but he fails to credit them in particular, and rather just proceeds to use general terms that exaggerate the number of academics and scientists who have looked into the issue and found the evidence to be convincing. In actuality, very few scientists find the evidence credible. This is what makes Meldrum special, and he should really be named and cited here, not just vaguely alluded to. He speaks of the Skookum cast, which may very well be an imprint of a Bigfoot butt, but he totally disregards the fact that there is still hot dispute over this artifact, with many claiming that it is clearly an impression made by an elk. Despite this inconclusive status, Paulides is ready to make the leap into self-validation: "This cast has validated much of the information about the physical aspects (size, weight, body structure, etc.) of Bigfoot." In fact, it really does not do this, but it is still a very interesting piece of possible evidence.

The last paragraph in this section reveals even more. "I am purposely avoiding an extensive description of the Bigfoot evidence because that is not what this book is about. There are many outstanding books in print that offer exhaustive insights into evidence that will satisfy anyone's craving in that area." Well, if this book isn't about evidence, then what IS it about? We'd really like to know. Sightings are evidence, and throughout the book he makes claims to various remains as evidence for the creature. We'd argue that without the analysis of any evidence we are left only with anecdotes. They are stories. Surely an ex-detective police investigator would know this. The stories are great, that is for sure. Some of them are very credible. But don't we want something that could "hold up in court" or convince others that this stuff is real? We need a convincing set of evidence to do this, complete with a logical and coherent system of investigation and methodology. Also, if Paulides is not going to quote or cite any of the researchers or authors of these "outstanding books" on Bigfoot, could he not at least have a Bibliography or Works Cited section? For all of its intriguing and very interesting accounts, The Hoopa Project simply comes up lacking in the end, and leaves any intelligent reader scratching his or her head in skeptical confusion on nearly every page we've reviewed here.

In Bigfooting we need to establish historical consistency, along with logic in methodology, or else we are a rudderless ship that will look like its foudering (or floundering) to the masses at large. Bigfooting needs to become more professional and serious if it is ever to gain the respect it deserves. We need PEER REVIEW, people. It cannot survive solely upon egotism and wild theoretical speculation. Sadly, with so many who just jump into it, without earning their bones and polishing their chops, it often looks like a circus. And human, all too human....

We will continue with this project on The Hoopa Project sometime in the future. Up to this point we have covered the major section of the book preceding the sightings reports. These reports are good, but soon our critical axe will fall in their direction, too. Look for our Part Two coming soon!

BIGFOOT'S BLOG interviewed David Paulides of NABS in 2009, when they released Ray Crowe's newsletter THE TRACK RECORD on CD.
Read that here:
DAVID PAULIDES, of NORTH AMERICA BIGFOOT SEARCH, Interview and Discussion with Bigfoot Books

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ANGRY BIGFOOT SPEAKS!

Me so mad, me speech-less! Me fume. Me fester. Me boil over and make stink from here to Weitchpec! Me go roll more rock down in road now. Keep Bluff Creek closed all summer long!

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This weblog, website, soapbox, or whatever you call it is copyright 2010, Steven Streufert, Bigfoot Books Intergalactic. Sharing and borrowing is allowed (and often practiced by us, too) if you give full credit and a fair and nice link back to our page. Thanks!