Bigfoot and The Lion People

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Getting into the spirit of the season for October, the NWT has some good ghost stories. There are  ghost towns on the gold regions, and ghostly victims of starvation, murder or massacre who continue to haunt the places where their bodies were found.There are also otherworldly stories that concern what I'd call Spirit with a capital "S". Spirits, at least as I define them, include a wide range of supernatural/paranormal phenomena. 

In the NWT, where powerful elemental spirits of nature still dwell, these might be critters like the Nakan, the serial killer/rapist Bigfoot of the Bush. Nakan, I guess, would be the modern day Evil Dead kind of thing crossed with a sexually predatory Ape man. (Masks resembling that rapacious, gory visage now hang in the Halloween costume section of the Big Box stores.) This scary, shaggy critter sometimes shows up--fortunately kid-sized--on my doorstep to get a candy hand out on that much loved cross-quarter celebration. It's my most favorite of all seasonal celebrations, but sadly, it's now better known as just another reason to shop.

A more agreeable local supernatural character is the traditional hero, a legendary shape-shifter hunter/wise man who can "be" (for instance) a caribou. This intimate species knowledge helps him  feed and care for his people and retain right relationship with creatures on whom he depends.  Personally, I prefer spirits such as this, shape shifters who are an emanation of the natural world. Some shifters can move between hominid and "animal," but others incarnate as particular forests, wells, stones, springs or other geological features. Some are size-obvious, such as the MacKenzie River or the giant Great Slave and great Bear Lakes, two enormous bodies of fresh water--ranked 12th and 8th in the world. 

They can also be as singular as a small peak, where, once upon a time, a couple disappeared into a mountain to hide from an irate husband. Unfortunately, he was also a powerful magician, so they were never able to get out again...and to this day you can still sometimes hear them speaking to one another, from inside the rocks...

The story of the Lion People is a recent NWT paranormal tale. One day, Madeleine Rabesca, a woman (she makes a point of saying) "past child-bearing," was with her husband, both at work gathering/hunting in the bush, when she had a strange encounter. She heard a great (unfamiliar?) roar at her back, and turned to face an "African Lion," mane blowing in the wind.   

Sekhmeht

"I was walking in the bush and all of a sudden I heard a loud roar. I looked around and saw a big lion and his long mane blowing in the wind...In a few seconds, the lion turned into a man, and a woman was standing behind him in the distance. They were dark-skinned people but not Indian...He said he only want to give me the power to make people well... I don't know why he chose me."

Afterward the visitation, she had the power to heal. The then Chief, George Erasmus, confirmed to his interviewer that Madeleine gave comfort and healing to many of their people over the years. When Madeleine Rabesca had her lion vision, there was an epidemic of some kind in the area so she was particularly grateful and humbled to receive the gift at that time. 

(1979 news article on Madeleine Rabesca of Behchokǫ̀ by Hubet Johnson.)

Now, I find this one of the oddest stories I've heard in a long time, because of, well, Sekhmeht, pictured above. We all know an Egyptian God/Goddess when we see one, so the image didn't originate in the NWT. I have no idea how lion gods came to appear in the shamanic vision of a aboriginal inhabitant of Behchok`o, although, who knows? Cross-cultural pollination can happen in today's world. I also loved the reaction of Mrs. Rabessca when she saw them. She was utterly poised, saying "I won't bother you and you won't bother me," which is exactly the correct thing to say when confronted by a being far out of your ken.

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Interestingly, if you have a taste for woo-woo (and I confess) these Lion People also spoke at some length during the 1980's with the well-regarded-in-occult-circles British author and channel, Murray Hope. She describes her visitors in almost exactly the same way. In Murray's case, both male and female entities were willing to address her and answer the questions she asked, many about the future of Mother Earth, beset as she is by our disrespect and ignorance. If you were a Star Trek fan, think back to the Organians, who proved to be pure energy--not a single crude particle of bio-chemistry in their make-up! 

These are only two of the many and varied supernatural beings of the NWT. They say the more you learn, the more you want to learn!  I'm sure I can discover more about the magic and spirit-beings who inhabit the Territories.  

by Juliet Waldron

http://www.julietwaldron.com

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