These days, Bigfoot sleuths are deploying high-tech tools in their search for the truth about the massive, man-like cryptid that Canadians call it Sasquatch. Some of those tools include DNA testing, night vision tools, forward-looking infrared devices, forensic accumulation tools and ultra-sensitive listening devices. Yet despite this advanced arsenal, Bigfoot remains elusive.
Researcher Don Sherman says that the question he gets asked most frequently is why no conclusive evidence of Bigfoot’s existence has been found. His response is straightforward.
“Ever find a bear skeleton? Nature takes care of it.”
Sasquatch Sleuthing
David Paulides, author of “The Hoopa Project” and “Tribal Bigfoot” and executive director of the research-based North America Bigfoot Search (NABS), has a background in law enforcement and experience with high-tech tools. NABS asked him to form a research team and scientifically prove or disprove the existence of Bigfoot.
“When NABS started on our quest, we did not have any special interest in where our research took us,” Paulides says. “Remember, when the original researchers started to claim the biped was an ape, there was no DNA testing. When NABS entered the scene, we scientifically walked the path of proof… We researched every DNA test completed on purported Sasquatch/Bigfoot samples and found that they had come back as ‘human,’ every one.”
He goes on. “NABS went into the field and spoke with many Native American groups about their beliefs regarding the biped. Every Native American tribe we interviewed stated that the biped was a human. They had communicated with them, they thought a little different than us, but they were not an animal. We never found one group that claimed they were animals. Why or how early researchers ignored the overwhelming evidence from Native Americans is beyond us.”
More academics are becoming involved in finding answers about Bigfoot, including scientists in the Northern Wilds. “Tribal Bigfoot” outlines DNA research on dried blood carried out by University of Minnesota microbiologist Dr. Curt Nelson and on hair samples by wildlife biologist Dr. Lynn Rogers of the Wildlife Research Institute in Ely.
Three years ago, NABS obtained funding to conduct their own tests on the DNA they had accumulated.
“Along the route of doing our testing, other interested parties joined our group and the list of specimens now is at 32,” Paulides says. “Our science team is writing a white paper on the results and that will be submitted to a scientific journal for peer review and later public release. We are not releasing any details of the study at this point.”
Bigfoot Hotspot
Two well-known Bigfoot investigators in Minnesota are Don Sherman and Bob Olson. Don is a facilities manager at Cass Lake Hospital and a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe while Bob is an auto body repairman in Deer Lake. The two men launched the Northern Minnesota Bigfoot Research Team in the fall of 2006 after several “huge, human-type footprints” were observed on the shoulder of Six Mile Lake Road by a grader operator.
“It has been an amazing journey ever since,” said Sherman.
Olson and Sherman received national attention with their investigation of a 2009 Bigfoot sighting. A motion-activated trail camera north of Remer in Cass County took a night image of a “tall, hunched figure resembling Bigfoot.”
In Minnesota, according to Sherman, the hotspot for Bigfoot sightings seems to be around the small town of Ball Club near Cass Lake in Itasca County. He invites anyone anyone who thinks they may have had an Bigfoot encounter to call him at 218-308-1451.
