Beatrice Lavallee on Spirits and Spirituality
Beatrice Lavallee tells the tale of bigfoot and the little people
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And as children sometimes we’d get fidgety and want to play around, fool around and play with the fire light, you know, put the stick in the fire and run around with it, but no we, they didn’t allow us to do that either. They would say there was a, a big hairy leg in the bushes, in the coolies in the Qu’Appelle Valley and he had a helper, a big old owl with the big ears. He had great big ears they used to tell us so that made us run back to our grandmas and our grandpas and sit by their side. We didn’t want hairy leg to come out of those bushes. Now that kept us, made us behave.
Also the significance of the Qu’ Appelle Valley too I guess would be uhhh we always had our sun dance and rain dance lodges. Even to this day we still have them out in the Valley there; a very powerful, spiritual time for asking for life and praying for health and praying for good luck and health for all our families and relatives. But also we used to hear stories about, at that time, about these little people. They call them (*inaudible), little people and this Big Foot. I guess at one time they say and I believe it. I know before the Europeans came they said that Big Foot, the giant spirit, the giant and the little people were amongst the people, but when they saw others coming they told the people at that time we’re not gonna leave you, we’re just gonna go hiding, we’re just gonna go hiding. So the little people also live in the, in the Valley there where we go there in the summertime and offer fish and candy and anything, any little toys, we leave little toys there. And we also go there to ask for their blessings and it’s close to where we have, where we have our sun dance and rain dance lodges. These are very special for us people still to this day. Uhmmm they’re called (*inaudible) little, little people and believe it or not uhhh they’ve come to my house a couple of times and turned a radio on when there’s uhhh nobody’s home downstairs early in the morning. When I’m walking down the steps and as soon as I get down to the last step the radio goes off.
We have ceremonies where we ask questions and I ask why and they said they want you to feed them. They want fish. So I bought some salmon or sardines took it down to their little place where they go. It’s a little walk for me to go from the end of the bush to the coolie where they, where they have their little tree. A lot of people go there. A lot of people go there to pray, bring fish cause they like fish.
Uhmmm I’ve never seen a hairy leg or the Big Foot or the Giant, still but I hear sometimes news on the news that uhhh they’ve seen tracks somewhere up north. You know so he must still be around too. But I know the little people are very close by. And you know about and I thought about them the little people that some of the students have come from the college they’re uhhh, they’re not only hearing (*inaudible) they’re all over the place. They’re in Ontario too. They feel them, they see them. They don’t ever see them, but they see them on the side, you know, never come face to face with them. But they, they feel their presence.
So as the First Nations people of this land these were things that we grew up with and learned about very early in my life anyway …
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