Now one of your pudding. I got a string going on here, something just cause my dog. Something killed your dog? My dog. We're flying through the or over the tree. I don't know how it did it, Okay, Damn, I'm really confused. All I saw was my dog coming over the fence and he was dead. And once you hit the ground like, I didn't see any cars. All I saw was my dog coming over the fence. Sat, what are you putting? We got some wonder or something crawling around out here? Did you see what it was?
Or was it was?
Standing enough? I'm out here looking through the window now and I don't see anything. I don't want to go outside. Jesus quice you better, y Hello, hit somebody out here? What quin on the out there? It's got a bitches about pick for nine? I don't know easy out there. Yeah, I'm welcome right head.
Oh greetings, thanks for joining me. Today is bread and Alaska. What I wanted to share today is an example of how superstitious beliefs are perpetuated and continue. It'll give a better understanding regardless of coincidences and what have you. It's one of those things where it's something that's held on to very strongly because of situations. So Joseph, this was back in nineteen eighty seven. Joseph, he was early twenties at the time, Bristol Bay Boy. I won't get into
the exact specifics of where at whatever, that's irrelevant. He was at fish Camp. It was on one of the major beaches where a lot of set and etters do their thing down there. He had a couple of younger cousins visiting from out of state because of some other relatives that his moved out of state had kids and they never been to Alaska.
So our first trip to visit.
So there was about a five day closure in the period and fishing season. He decided he's going to take these young cousins on the skiff and take them up to Togyak River and then up to Togak Lake just to check out the wilds of Alaska, maybe see a bear, something like that, exciting moose, whatever.
So they take off. He makes his web the river and web up the river.
They were able to see a couple of bears and stuff like that, so it was real exciting.
It was a beautiful day.
Joseph said that his young cousins were very eager to get closer to a bear but not be in danger. And he said, look, we're not going to do any such thing. We got close enough, you saw him. That's what it is. We're not going to tempt anything. So they get up to Toyak Lake and this is near an area where a couple other guys had some issues. So they end up on basically the north side of the lake and it runs at an angle or what have you.
So anyway, they were on the northernmost side of the lake.
They pulled up the shore and he shortened anchor, tied it off and stuck it up in the ground. Where they were at there was a bunch of tall grass around, so he went up top, had a shotgun and made sure that there was no immediate dangers or whatever. Because his cousins wanted to try sport fishing for trout, he got them geared up, had him right there on the shore and they were casting away having a good time, not catching anything because it wasn't really a good spot
for fishing right there. He just wanted them to have fun, and so Joseph said he was just standing guard with the shotgun as they were doing so heard a strange whistle from behind him, right, so he got his attention.
He turned around. He figured see a local.
Village or something coming through from doing whatever. Looks around, because he said it sounded like a human whistle, just getting his attention to just a couple of short whistles. He's looking around, he's not seeing anything. His little cousins are all wrapped up in what they're doing. They're about twelve and fifteen. They weren't paying attention, so they thought he was one whistling.
Right.
So he's about fifteen feet behind them, offset off to their left hand side as they're fishing from shore, and he's just keeping an eye out. A little while later, he here's a whistle again, so he turns around and he asks the kids, Hey, you guys over there whistling and they're like, no, we thought you were whistling. So he's hun so he starts looking around. He gets a
real bad sickening feeling. And you guys, get your gear, get in the skiff, they said, okay, So they get the fishing poles into the skiff and what have you. And he's standing with the shotgun and he's looking in the direction of where this whistle could have came from, because he said it sounded relatively close, within maybe thirty forty feet. And he's looking around and he notices darkness within the grass. Right sees this dark movement in the grass.
So immediately he's that's a bear because that's all his reference point, the height of it at the time, the distance and just seeing darkness movement in the grass, most logical thing. Tells the kids, Hey, come grab this anchor. Put the anchor in the skiff. I'll be right there. Just get that anchor in the skiff. You guys, get in the skiff and I'll be right there. So he's standing guard, he hears the anchor hit the skiff, so he turns around and goes over to the skiff and
the boys are in there. The boys went to the back of the skiff. It so happened.
They were in pretty shallow stuff right there.
And so when he goes to push, the stern kind of dug in right, and so he's come forward a little bit because the weight he had to shift it to bring it make a little more buoyant in the back. This is a big ass, heavy aluminum skiff custom built for setting net fishing.
Pull The net across the bow. It's not just a standard fishing boat.
And so they come forward and he's looking over his shoulder and once a while, but he had the shotgun into the bow, right, he's looking back every once in a while, and the kids move forward, and as they're coming forward, they both stop and the eyes get real big. So immediately he grabs a shotgun and turns around because he figures the bears right there as he turns around,
because it's a little bit higher of a bank. So he said, he's five foot seven, so standing the bank would have came up to about the top of his chest, tight difference between the water and the bank, and he turned around. He didn't see anything, and he tells the boys, what the hell, that's not funny, and they both were just quiet and in shock.
Right, he goes back up a little bit, so he.
Turns around, puts the gun back in, pushes off, jumps in. He gets to the back of the skiff, drops a kicker down right, fires it up, and starts reversing out real slow, because again it's pretty shallow and he didn't want to damage his prop or anything like that.
He still had fishing season to deal with.
And as he's backing up his cousins, he mess went about ten fifteen feet, he said, and his cousin's light up.
Screaming why.
He turns around and looks and sees this dark object right looking through the grass.
Right. He said.
His hands were down, and he said there were hands, big hands. It looked like cave man, but it was dark ashen gray, almost to the point where you'd start calling it. I'm almost black.
Right.
He was in shock, and the kicker is still running. He said he'd just had this weird shock, like tunnel vision. And this thing's looking at the kids at this time that they's still moving backwards. The outboard had started kicking on the side because he was zoning, and it had dawned on him. Oh, I need attend to the outboard. He straightened out. As they're back and way, he tells the kids, get down, get down, Get low.
Kids, got low.
He put it in neutral, ran forward, grabbed a shotgun because he left it laying right in front of the bow. Grabbed a shotgun, raised it up, started yelling get out of here, get out of here, because he said this thing looked like ak man, like a Neanderthal, and was just giving this evil stare. And he said he raised
the shotgun and it folted, took off. He said it was on all it looked like it was hunched over on all fours deal for a little bit, disappeared into the grass and he'd seen it standing up and running off into's some trees off to the left, about maybe a hundred yards away, and he said it was gone.
Freaked him out. Kids were screaming still.
He was telling him calm down, goes to the back of the skiff, puts it in forward and does a big loop and comes back just to get see if it was still around there. Because he was in shock. He was like, what the hell. He figured there is a safe distance. His cousins are freaking out, crying and stuff. He's calm down, we're safe, we're safe, we got a gun.
We're offshore. And so the kids get up and start looking around two and they were stays and real low heads barely above the freeboard on the side on the side of the skiff. The way the skiff was set up towards the bow, there's a couple small rollers here and a couple of small rollers here, so where they could pull the net up over the bow and run it along the front of the skiff and pick the fish out.
And there's bins, just small bins on the.
Sides where they put their fish bags in for offloading.
And all that. So the kids were low enough.
They're holding onto the side of the bin and looking over and they're watching and watching, and one of the he said it was the youngest one point and said it's right there.
It's right there.
And sure enough, as he looks over, he notices this thing and it's in the same position it was when he saw it and grabbed the gun.
So he turned sideways.
As they're staring at this thing, the wind's pushing them towards shore, and he wasn't going to have any of that. So he yelled again and he picks up the shotgun and pops around, not even in its direction, just off the side boom, and he said it stood up.
And he said when it stood up, it was huge. The silhouette that outline of it, and it was down in the.
Grass, was just barely out of the grass like it was when he first saw it. He said, when this thing stood up after he popped around in the air, he said, it was massive. It was every bit of like ten leven feet tall, four and a half five foot wide and hulky. And he said it just looked like he got the sense of disgust, like hatred and disgust. Those are his words. I always ask people, how'd you feel? He said, after he shot and it stood up and
he got that, you know that feeling, he said. It wasn't a very long mere seconds and this thing turned and walked away, just casually like a Sunday store, just walked away. Kid started freaking out again when it stood up right, but he was in such tunnel vision shock. Their screams didn't come back into focus until this thing was started walking away and he came out of that little bit of a transfer, tells him quiet down, grabs a hold of the outboard arm, puts Beck in drive,
and they head out of there. So random urns they had no control over it. Now he gets them back to fish camp and everything. They get back and there's about four other family members there. One is their dad, the other is his brother, and another cousin. So when he gets back, the kids are already telling me, we saw harry Man, we saw harry Man this, and that it was bigfoot this and that right, and so they
asked Joseph, hey, what the hell what's going on? And he said yeah and told him everything I just shared with you. And his brother says a little bit later, tomorrow, let's go back over that. I want to check that area out. This is Joseph's younger brother, late teen. Joseph was like, we got a closure, I guess, so we'll bring more guns and I ain't going to shore.
Brothers. Don't worry about it. We'll be okay.
I said, all right, So next day I type pum, They're gone. They get back up there, and the whole way up his brother kept asking him to slow down because he wanted to see around. He wanted to not miss anything, and he kept he was like, I'm just going to where it was, that's it, because Joseph didn't want any part of it. So he gets up there and when they get to the same spot, his brother's
hold on his brother. Instead of grabbing the bow line with the anchor, he just jumped off the skid with his rifle and ran up the bank right, and he's looking around. Joseph's, hey, come get the anchor. What the hell it goes? I'm just checking make sure it's safe. First said all right, So he comes grabs anchor sticks it in the ground. He basically stuck it in the same spot where Joseph had it, right, And his brother's up there looking around and goes, get up here and
help me. And so Joseph reluctantly grabs his shotgun and gets up on the shore with his brother. His brother had thirty odd six, and so his brother is basically walking the direction you could see in the grass where this thing made its bolt earlier the day before. And Joseph told his brother, Hey, we shouldn't be doing this. His brother goes, don't worry, we're both armed. When Joseph was like, hey, this thing was real low to the
ground when it whistled at me. I don't know if we'll be able to see it in this tall grass because they aren't like the saw grass man.
Its up to their shoulders. They can barely see over the top of it.
Dangerous conditions when you got something creeping around a bearer otherwise, So his brother just one track minded he starts following, and Joseph reluctantly is few paces behind him, maybe fifteen twenty feet, he said, And he said, there's a bunch of alders before the rest of the trees, where this thing had bolted towards the tree line the day before. He said, as they were getting close to it, his brother was about ten feet from this wall of brush.
Because this Alaska, it just grows thick.
His brother turns towards him and looks at him and goes, I don't feel safe.
Maybe we shouldn't be here. Those words came out of his mouth.
And a stick He wasn't sure where it came from, but it just boom and hit on the ground by them. He said, he doesn't know where the stick came from. It looked like an old piece dead birch towards the top. They both saw that, and they turn and book it back towards the skiff. Now, as they're running along, Joseph Lessay was motivated. He had covered way more ground and his brother because his brother kept turning around. Joseph was so freaked out. He wasn't hearing everything his brother was.
His brother was behind him, was hearing grunts and just this weird thrashing around like it was come out of the brush, and Joseph didn't hear it because he's out of there right.
The only thing that stopped Joseph was hearing his brother's scream and then here's a gunshot. Bam. Turns around.
His brother is about thirty yards behind him and standing there pointing his gun into the brush, and all he saw was brush moving, and he said, get come on, let's go. Let's go, and he goes. He tried to run out at me. I'm not turning my back on it. So Joseph gets a little closer and says, walk backwards. I'm gonna watch with you, and I have my gun ready. His brother's walking backwards, and as he's doing so, he just turns to run to catch up to his brother
real quick. Since he calmed down a little bit, he turns his back and starts running. Another stick comes flying, and Joseph said it was a Dannis, saying it looked like the brush opened real quick. Stick flung and brush closed. It was like he said, it happened real fast. And this stick was looked like a bigger end of the same broken one piece of spruce or whatever it was, pine, whatever it was, came flying and almost hit his brother right.
His brother freaked out again. Joseph said, keep running his brother stumbled, fell down, popped back up, and he's facing the trees again and the brush is moving. His brother just back an buyers a shot into the brush. They hear the sound tear off, and he said it sounded like a freight train, and it got about he's guessing maybe fifty yards this thrashing noise, and then a loud scream wow, and then went high pitched. So they turned and they both bolt to the skiff right, he said.
When they got over to the skiff, his little brother was in the skiff already and had a gun trained in the direction of the tree line. Joseph grabbed the anchor, put it in, set the shotgun down and pushed out, got past his brother, fired up the outboard, backed out slow, got into deeper water, put it in, and they did a big loop like he did the day before, that big loop as he was coming back around and straightened back out about a couple hundred yards from shore, facing
the direction of that tree line. This stick what looked like the bigger one. They've seen it flinging through the air.
And stay tuned for more sasquatch out to sea.
We'll be right back after the east.
Messages and it lands right in front of the skiff, hitting the water. His little brother looked back at him and said, fuck that, let's go cut out there right then it back at camp, and that day the little cousins were going somewhere else, visiting some other relatives in Alaska. Within three days of them seeing this thing with their cousin and then leaving in Joseph and his brother going the next day.
It was actually the day Joseph and his brother left.
They left camp to go visit other relatives in the state, but within three days, the youngest cousin and up drowning coincidentally, when they're playing by a river visiting other relatives, younger cousin passed away rip one of the elders who heard about what had happened.
Here, they saw it.
They came back, and then Joseph and brothers sought it out. He heard about that and came told Joseph, this is what happens when you go after him. You caused your little cousin to die. That's a bad omen. You caused that bad omen and Joseph didn't own it. It's coincidental, but that is an example of how those superstitious things perpetuate.
I can't dispute it.
I can have a logical argument against it with coincidentally what have you, But that doesn't matter when it's viewed under that lens of you did this it caused that. It's cut and dry, and a lot of people's minds that share that same superstitious belief about bad omens bringing it upon yourself when you seek them out.
I started somewhere. I would never disrespect it.
I don't necessarily agree, However, that's not my place to tell them they're wrong or anything like that. I just I come from the standpoint of public safety. There's little nuances with each and every encounter that can help someone who hasn't had an experience avoid one, and that's the main goal, that's overall driving force. But I just wanted to share an example, a real life example of how that superstitious belief continues to get perpetuated in ways. Here
and there again rest in peace to his little cousin. Again, Joseph didn't own it. It wasn't in his enough. His cousin drowned with him in the skiff. He said, of course he'd feel horrible, but that wasn't the case. He wasn't even near him and whatnot, so he didn't own it, thankfully, but still that's an example of how superstitious beliefs can be held onto. Wrong or indifferent, coincidental, what have you. It doesn't matter. It's viewed as you went after it.
This happened because of it. Yeah, crying shame.
Today heard from Mayr cousin Niico. Like Chris, he's still under the weather. He's doing a lot better, but he really doesn't feel like being recorded or any of that. However, he gave me permission to use his name share his experience. This happened just a couple of years ago. He went up on the New Yek Couk with a couple other relatives. They were going to go up there and just look around, do some I think they were woodland caribou, looking for
caribou or something, just scouting around. It was in the fall, probably early September, I think he said mid sept probably right around the same time of year I was up there in six Anyway, they ended up staying at the very first Sam Accounting little cabin, which is bigger than the one we stayed in. Further after New York Cook by the New York Cook Falls, so they were when they had got there, and this particular shock counting shack had an actual shed and it also had the bunk house.
So when they got there, there was some other guys there in the bunk house, and they just left them alone. They gott in that shed. It happened the year before that story I shared with you about the guys leaving the middle of the night and then they went into the cabin and then the haryman came in, peeked over the door and tried to snatch the guy. This happened the year after that or the year before, roughly within the same short timeframe we had been talking about us.
I got him mixed up a little bit. But the guys in the cabin, they weren't going anywhere. Two of them were fishing game officers, I guess, So they're kicking it in that shed. It was about two three in the morning. They had been sitting up discussing because they'd gotten there relatively late in the day, riding on the river all day. Trust me, it takes it out of you.
You just took the dou.
Bumping around it. It's not a joy ride, let's say. So as they're chilling out, of course they're armed. This is Alaska, remote Alaska on a Bear river. Come on, they were heavily armed. So as they're sitting there, they're on either side of the shack in these little makeshift cots, right, they hear this heavy breathing going around the shack and what the hell is that? Something was off? He said that when he was talking, kept saying it's a hairy man out there, and he was like, nah, it's not.
It's probably just a bear, which pretty standard response around here, and go out thinking it's a bear. So they go and listen at the door, and as he's going to open the door, they felt it jiggle, so they held it because bears don't jiggle doors. So this makeshift shed had a actual doorknob and three hinges on the door, and was utilitarian. It was basically a hollow shell. I think there was shelving in the back, he said. So they're standing there and all of a sudden it's just
getting banged on really hard, and they're nervous. So of course they get their guns and they got them like, hey, we're in here, announce yourself. Who's there? We have guns, we're armed, nothing more circling around, and it felt heavy in the ground, they said. So as they're sitting there, they're discussing, who the hell is that we got fishing game troopers right five feet away. It wasn't adding up
what was going on. So as they're sitting there, they kept hearing this huffing and puffing going around, and it sounded like at one point it was breathing on.
Top of the shed.
They heard the heavy breathing coming from above big and so they decided, let's confront this thing. Let's confront it. We'll shoot it. Whatever. Hey, when you're in the woods and something's terrifying you, you got a gun. Guess what, you're gonna freaking shoot it. That's just how it is. I don't care who it is, if you're in the woods and something freaky's going on and you got a gun.
So they peek out, they saw nothing. They shut the door again, and as they shut the door, it was trying to be forced back in, so they pushed real hard they got it shut. They lasted a little thing that they had there. It was like a little wood piece that kind of flung over onto a little l bracket and nothing and nothing walked this place is it was just a hollow shed, so it was a one sided roof on this shed and it was about a
five to twelve pitch, not too steep. They keep hearing it going around, and they get nervous because as it's going around, it starts slapping the side of that shed that they were in. And they had finally had enough, and just as they were getting up to gumpstion to go back out again, bang there's banging at the door.
The third guy with them turned on his headlamp. They all put on their headlamps, just watching this door just slowly, just get beat to shit, and then bam, the thing flies back past him and there's this hairy man squatted down looking at him, just looking at him in there, and it was staring at him, and they were frozen in fear. They couldn't believe what they were seeing here.
One of the guys with them started trying to speak yupik, trying to say to my trying to see if there was some kind of communication to be had, and this thing just it showed his teeth and put its hands on either side of the shed, was pushing against it making this weird noise. So his cousin across the way clicked the safety off and it ran off around the shed. So they're free doubt. They froze up from holy oh shit factor, and then they hear it run around and there,
expecting it to come to the doorway. So they're all sitting there like three stooges, no offense. They're just sitting there just waiting for this thing to come around.
But it doesn't.
It jumps on the roof. Now, he said. When it jumped on the roof, all they heard was the pressure of its weight. So this thing was so nimble it jumped up and just landed there smoothly. It didn't come bump or none of that. It just and it was up there and they felt the they heard the weight there, and so they're like, oh shit, freak out mode. Totally understandable,
been there. So they said after a second or two and it wasn't moving, They're like, let's shoot it, let's get it, because they were they wanted to run to the other cabin and get the fishing game troopers involved. Why wouldn't shift, They're right there, I would too, shit. So they run out and they turned around and point up. They see it, and they start blasting away at this thing and it just jumps off the backside. They hear it land and it just it was gone. All the shots.
Wake up everyone in the other bunk. Now, this is what he told me. I'm not going to name the troopers. I'm gonna put them on blasts like that. But they all came out. They were all armed. They're trying to figure out, WTF. Who's shooting in the middle of night.
Is there a bear?
Do we need to be concerned kind of thing? Or is it a drunk guy that we need to arrest. Taking a cussy has stop for hurting anybody. So as they come out, of course they're freaking. They're like, hey, the harry Man, it was just over there whatever, And everyone was calm. They're like, oh, Nikola, I didn't know these people. He knew he'd seen the troopers around, but he didn't know and we don't. Hey buddy, we have relatives that are in there. But anyway, so they're all
kind of introducing each other. So I'm so and so from some such whatever, and they're saying, hey, the harry Man tried to get us, that's why we're shooting, and the guys go, well, calm down. It did the same thing to us. We did the same thing. And they're like, what do you mean it did the same thing to you. You still have the door and he said no. It was jumping on the roof, jumping off, banging the walls,
looking in the windows at us. So this thing for two days prior had been doing the same thing, looking for a way to get somebody. It was predatory behavior. They're sitting there doing their own thing. These were wildlife troopers. They're not out doing nefarious shit. They were up there doing some type of research. I think that they were getting ready to go in the field and check hunting licenses for the hunters they came across out in the
bush hunt for caribout Hey, they're doing their job. But they said, for two days this thing was lurking around this place, banging at night. It only happened at night. They saw it one time during the day up in a lagoon and it ran across the lagoon. So they were pan face. They were like, yeah, it was here, and it left a good thing. It left, and they said do you think.
You hit it?
And Nikolai was like, yeah, I hit it. I know how to shoot, and they said okay, okay, and they the way he took it, they were so like nonchalant about it, like it was just another day, which essentially it is. But these things on the New Yeakuk River, like that is the only place I've ever been. Now, I've been to plenty of other places in Alaska, and anytime I've come across something, it's always made it self known. Shook a tree, break something, maybe throw something, little pebbles
at you. You don't even realize it's following you at first. But on that New Yeakuk River, from like the village of Koalignik up to New Yorkuk where it wraps around and it goes back up to tik Chik and narrows and past the New Yorkuk Falls, that area up there is no joke. I shared a photographers encounter at the New Yorkok Falls just the other day, same area, probably thirty five forty five miles away from there. But my point being is there's these places in remote Alaska.
Whether you accept it or not.
It's irrelevant. If you were to go to the village of Kalignik and bring up the Harryman. A that probably wouldn't even talk to you about it, or B they would just look at you like, yeah, it's like talking to them about a moose across the river.
It's just what it is.
And for a lot of people hearing stuff like that, it's hard to accept. It's hard to just go, wait a minute. All these years, these things are running around terrorizing people and nothing is being done. And that's exactly right. Nothing is being done. They take whatever precautions they got worked out. I've talked to a few of them, but I haven't had a chance to really delve deep. It's
just been a little cursory conversations prepping for interviews. But it's typically not talked about, Like I've said, before they get back to the village. It's just another day unless someone asks, oh, did you see a Harry Man? Or they may share with the immediate family, but outside of that immediate family dynamic, it's like saying, oh, I saw a moose cross the road up here. It's something that happens all the time, so it's not news. It's not worthy of running around, Oh my god, get you going,
there's Harry Man. It's not even like that, which to me, it boggles my mind because I had to get better Dodge. To be honest with you, I couldn't stick around knowing that they're that aggressive up that way.
I have some.
Encounters coming soon from the actual village of kleig Nick, less than one hundred year round residents there, great people. I have more relatives there than I realized, just reaching out and then oh he looked me in our cousins and just beware. On the New York cut, that ship's real out there.
They say you don't gotta go home, but you can't stay, and I don't want to be world out.
Try this trot that chart, everything going ping back. No joy for me, Joy, stay right, you come in right away? Still still, stay side side, still toss as bass start plays, arsts, things fast, usas ps