Post by auntym on Dec 11, 2012 12:01:40 GMT -6
www.daily-times.com/ci_22155576
Rez monsters: Bizarre creatures and spirits attract interest on Navajo Nation
By Jenny Kane jkane@daily-times.com
Updated: 12/08/2012
FARMINGTON — A smashed watermelon is spread out in the middle of a dirt road in Upper Fruitland, a community where everything from giant pterodactyls to walking lizards to furry children have been reported.
The watermelon happens to be for Bigfoot, another one of the inhabitants of the bucolic town on the outskirts of the Navajo reservation.
"My grandma left it for him," says Felicia Frank, who lives nearby. "I said, "Grandma, you're feeding Bigfoot?'"
Down the road, Frank points out where several people have sighted the legendary, hairy being, along with other odd species.
"Things like this happen all the time on the rez," she says, noting that it is not just in Upper Fruitland that these extraordinary sightings occur.
It's just a matter of getting people to talk about it.
Talk about taboo
By driving though the Navajo reservation, no one would know that the vast tribal land is thought by cryptozoologists to be home to so many outlandish species.
"Navajo stories go way back, for years," said Leonard Dan, a self-proclaimed cryptozoologist, someone who studies animals thought to be extinct.
"There have been sightings of Pegasus, and of Griffins," Dan said, referring to two creatures thought by most to come from Greek mythology.
Lately, an unusual number of people on the reservation also have spotted Centaurs, another animal of Greek mythology that is human on top and equine on the bottom.
"I had more reports of Centaurs than Bigfoot this
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spring," said J.C. Johnson, Dan's partner and fellow self-proclaimed cryptozoologist.
Many people, however, fear talking about what they see because of the traditional taboos that surround many creatures.
J.C. Johnson, left, and Leonard Dan, right, inspect a chunk of watermelon that might have been clawed or bitten by Bigfoot before they found it in the road Saturday in Upper Fruitland. (Jenny Kane)
CONTINUE READING: www.daily-times.com/ci_22155576
Rez monsters: Bizarre creatures and spirits attract interest on Navajo Nation
By Jenny Kane jkane@daily-times.com
Updated: 12/08/2012
FARMINGTON — A smashed watermelon is spread out in the middle of a dirt road in Upper Fruitland, a community where everything from giant pterodactyls to walking lizards to furry children have been reported.
The watermelon happens to be for Bigfoot, another one of the inhabitants of the bucolic town on the outskirts of the Navajo reservation.
"My grandma left it for him," says Felicia Frank, who lives nearby. "I said, "Grandma, you're feeding Bigfoot?'"
Down the road, Frank points out where several people have sighted the legendary, hairy being, along with other odd species.
"Things like this happen all the time on the rez," she says, noting that it is not just in Upper Fruitland that these extraordinary sightings occur.
It's just a matter of getting people to talk about it.
Talk about taboo
By driving though the Navajo reservation, no one would know that the vast tribal land is thought by cryptozoologists to be home to so many outlandish species.
"Navajo stories go way back, for years," said Leonard Dan, a self-proclaimed cryptozoologist, someone who studies animals thought to be extinct.
"There have been sightings of Pegasus, and of Griffins," Dan said, referring to two creatures thought by most to come from Greek mythology.
Lately, an unusual number of people on the reservation also have spotted Centaurs, another animal of Greek mythology that is human on top and equine on the bottom.
"I had more reports of Centaurs than Bigfoot this
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spring," said J.C. Johnson, Dan's partner and fellow self-proclaimed cryptozoologist.
Many people, however, fear talking about what they see because of the traditional taboos that surround many creatures.
J.C. Johnson, left, and Leonard Dan, right, inspect a chunk of watermelon that might have been clawed or bitten by Bigfoot before they found it in the road Saturday in Upper Fruitland. (Jenny Kane)
CONTINUE READING: www.daily-times.com/ci_22155576