When you think of bigfoot, no doubt your mind conjures up images of the elusive cryptid in heavily forested and mountainous terrain. But what would you consider a bigfoot family who lived in the wide-open prairies of America's heartland?
The topic came up recently on the Michigan Bigfoot Report and Data Facebook group. The discussion surrounded distinctions between 'forest people,' your traditional bigfoot and the 'prairie people.'
While the term may be new to you, it does hold some merit. Consider the American prairie has been and largely remains sparsely populated with miles of uncultivated grasslands. Consider as well the once-prosperous bison herds of the region would provide ample sustenance for the bigfoot Prairie People.
The Native American Connection and the Yam-Ko-Desh
On the other hand, should Prairie People exist, wouldn't they be better documented in the oral traditions of the native peoples of the lands, as many other creatures have been?
Perhaps it's not traditional bigfoot, but a lost group of people once known as the Yam-Ko-Desh, which translates to the 'prairie people' has been documented. Native American tradition tells of burial sites of the Yam-Ko-Desh.
A news article from 1956 describes a conversation with an elderly Indian who refused to take an archaeologist to an ancient mound site because of the ghosts of Yam-Ko-Desh
This commenter on the Michigan bigfoot group shares a
name from the Ottawa was Yam-Ko-Desh, which means prairie people. They were a different kind of race to the Ojibwa, Ottawa and Potawatomi The Council of Three Fires who all fought this enemy to the brink. They came together and conquered Michigan from the Yam-Ko-Desh. They said these people built many mounds and stone gardens [whose] spirits still haunted those areas. Bringing bad luck to those who trespassed. While some giant skeletons have been found in these mounds, wearing jewelry and with copper tools, with giant copper axes. Being people of high social status. The tribes seemed to not be referring to Bigfoot and the Prairie people as being the same things.
Are There Feral People in the Prarie?
Another conjecture is that there may be a group of feral humans surviving on the prairie living in burrows and cave systems.
Or could it be that any non-humans have been pushed out of their native habitats? Another commenter states,
Most were pushed to upper Canada up past the mountains so they would be safe from us but people say we will be safe from those types
Whether a relative to the bigfoot or not, the prairies of America would seem to be lush searching grounds to further the legend for this cryptid.