By Lee Longhorn

BIXBY, Okla. — Growing up in Oklahoma has its ups and downs. If you head in either direction from one of the largest cities in the state, you’ll find yourself in the country. The state is very beautiful. My fondest memories are walking the woods around my grandparent’s house in the small community of Little Axe, Okla. The one thing that always sticks in my mind when I do visit is “How many creatures are really out there in the woods?”

Being a kid, having lot of elders around you and your cousins at your side, is probably the best way to grow up. As a kid, I loved getting scared. Watching horror movies really did freak me out and until I was 10, I believed Michael Meyers really did come out every Halloween. What I remember the most about the stories growing up was the various creatures, supernatural beings and spirits that somehow had affected one member in my family. The interesting part to note is that my family from various tribes across the nation had their own stories about incidents with the supernatural.

Which stories do I believe?

There are so many stories I began to question some of them. I also question which culture to believe over the other. For example, stories about Bigfoot living in the area near the town of Henryetta, Okla.

This intrigues me. My dad [stepdad] told me this story one night when we were watching a television story about hunting Bigfoot:

“I was a little boy and I was following my dad outside. He went around to the side of the house and I didn’t see him. When I went to the side of the house he was on, I opened my mouth to say something when he put his hand up to silence me. He said ‘Listen.’ I listened and in the distance you could hear this screeching. It sounded like a mountain lion, but it was moving away.”

Dad told me that he thought it could be a creature like Bigfoot. But, is there really a Bigfoot creature in eastern Oklahoma? Mmmmm, it’s hard to say. I remember once, we were camping at our ceremonial ground, which is right outside of Henryetta. Dad once told me that “If you believe in the medicine and believe in the Creature, you’ll see things.” Well, one night, I woke up in my tent, looked out my window and saw a hand pass by. I could hear my parents snoring in the tent next to me and there was no one else there, which made me realize I just saw something. Well, I believe in one culture but does that mean I won’t see anything in the others because I don’t believe?

Different stories, same characters

When I stayed on the Potawatomi reservation in Kansas they had stories about little people, Deer Lady and ghosts. My cousins from the Cheyenne Reservation told me the same stories with the same kind of characters. Each one of my tribal affiliations has some kind of story that is supposed to haunt or scare you. It got me thinking that if I were to believe all these stories, I’d never want to leave my house again.

“Wash your face in the morning because the dead come and touch it at night.” It’s what my dad use to tell us as kids. Now it makes me think that no matter where I go I’ll be visited by some kind of supernatural being.

With all these ghosts, goblins, Bigfoots, Deer Women, little people and other beings poking around the woods at night, you got to ask one thing: Wouldn’t Big Foot and Deer Lady have met by now?

Lee Longhorn is an intern reporter with the Muscogee Nation News