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Mount Shasta, Photograph © Dustin Naef 2016

Legends of Mount Shasta: “The Abode of the Devil” Part 3 – Prehistoric Traditions of Giants and Mysterious Beings, Part One

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There are countless Native American legends describing prehistoric giants, flood myths, lost civilizations, cataclysms, the star people, and other mysterious beings who belonged to some remote and forgotten era in California’s past, suggesting a radically different chronology and ancient history than what is generally known today.

Lucy Thompson wrote about prehistoric giants and other mysterious beings who inhabited the Pacific coast in ancient times—among them the Wa-Gas (designated as Woge, Woga, or even “Little People” or the “Star People” in other variations of the legend).

Thomas Buckely, a recognized expert on Yurok spirituality ( Standing Ground: Yurok Indian Spirituality, 1850-1990), states that Lucy—fearful of being misunderstood by a powerful and still-dangerous white audience—filtered ancient Yurok traditions through a lens of Biblical and Masonic imagery with the help of her husband, which appears to have been both a precaution to avoid persecution, and also a strategy to make the book more sympathetic and comprehensible to a largely white audience.

Much of the prehistoric lore Lucy Thompson talks about in To The American Indian can also be found, under various guises, in the traditions of other northwestern tribes.

The Ancient Woga

There are many northwestern traditions which talk about a race of giants dwelling in the remote mountains of northern California, and also a mysterious spirit-people, the “Woga,” who inhabited these lands in ancient times and then mysteriously vanished.

In some traditions, the Woga were said to have left for the heavens from the sacred high country (presumably mountaintops) but a number of them chose to remain behind here on Earth and serve as stewards of the land and conduits to the spirit world. The Wogas resided in sacred natural dwellings which were viewed as portals to another realm through which they could pass back and forth.

“In prehistoric lore natural features of the landcape were sometimes described as places where the Woge dwelled. This basaltic facade gives the impression of a 'false doorway' entering a massive rock edifice. Sometimes these kinds of unusual geological structures are associated with portals that lead into other realms.”

“In prehistoric lore natural features of the landcape were sometimes described as places where the Woge dwelled. This basaltic facade gives the impression of a 'false doorway' entering a massive rock edifice. Sometimes these kinds of unusual geological structures are associated with portals that lead into other realms.” Photograph © Dustin Naef 2016

There are few subjects which are attacked with more fanaticism than Native American legends, or more generally non-Western accounts of pre-history.

Native-authored books such as Vine Deloria Jr’s Red Earth, White Lies (1997) and Ardy Sixkiller Clarke’s Encounters With Star People: Untold Stories of American Indians (2012), unquestionably make plain that prehistoric giants, lost civilizations, cataclysms, and the Star People encompass a far-reaching cosmology that embodies the traditions and pre-history of North America in very ancient times.

Unsurprisingly, many scholars reject these traditions outright, dismissing them as evidence of cultural contamination and Native American appropriation of modern science-fiction motifs and Biblical stories, as a consequence of centuries of contact with Europeans—rather than acknowledging them as independent eyewitness observations of a forgotten history which was globally-situated in scale.

“In 'Red Earth, White Lies' Vine Deloria Jr. writes about Chief Joseph, a Nez Perce leader, who in 1877 was found to be in possession of Middle Eastern artifacts and symbols he claimed to have inherited from his ancestors, artifacts whose provenance cannot be explained.”

“In 'Red Earth, White Lies' Vine Deloria Jr. writes about Chief Joseph, a Nez Perce leader, who in 1877 was found to be in possession of Middle Eastern artifacts and symbols he claimed to have inherited from his ancestors, artifacts whose provenance cannot be explained.” Image Credit: Assyriatimes.com

“The artifacts and symbolism found on Chief Joseph suggests there may have some kind of Mesopotamian connction between the Pacific Northwest and the Middle East, which is not fully understood today.”

“The artifacts and symbolism found on Chief Joseph suggests there may have some kind of Mesopotamian connction between the Pacific Northwest and the Middle East, which is not fully understood today.” Image Credit: Assyriatimes.com

Cultural Bias

Vine Deloria Jr, writing in Red Earth, White Lies, described by the Skeptical Inquirer as a “dishonest mutilation of science” and a “wretched piece of Native American creationism claptrap,”admits that only about ten percent of knowledge Native American elders possess about North America’s pre-history is known today outside of tribal circles because of this bias.

Deloria notes that scholars have devised a specialized language for dealing with traditions of the past and non-Western peoples, and this language is designed to cleverly divert non-scientific information into harmless categories of “myths”, where they cannot disrupt orthodox doctrines.

Myth is a loaded word overwhelmingly applied to the traditions of non-Western people, and Deloria states that this basically means a fiction created and sustained by undeveloped intellects which an educated and rational person would never in a million years believe; and which is devised primarily to entertain, to illustrate human nature, or to explain geological landmarks, waterfalls, the heavens, or birds and butterflies in creationist and supernatural terms.

Countless books have been written over the past century by scholars, which purport to re-educate Native Americans (and the general public) on how to correctly interpret the meanings of their ancestors’ oral traditions. But it is rare to find any kind of agreement or support of these books among Native Americans themselves.

The anthropologist Alfred L. Krober’s transcriptions of oral narratives, for example, have been criticized to be so heavily edited that it is impossible to discern a unique Native voice in them.

American Indian historian Jack Norton writes:

“It should be stated here that the Kroeber Handbook [of the American Indians of California] should most emphatically be re-worked, and a complete history of the tribes of the region be produced. Those now reading this work are shocked and dismayed by the evidence of ethnocentrism and prejudice shown by Kroeber, the distinguished scholar. These need to be pointed out at some time soon, for they have been picked up and made a part of the educational process, and contribute greatly to the misconceptions about native peoples of California.”

The role of oral traditions as legends in a historical story-telling context and preservation effort is rarely, if ever, acknowledged.

I’m personally not persuaded by the arguments that North American legends referring to a Great Flood, prehistoric giants, and other mysterious beings were appropriated by Native Americans from European and Biblical sources and glossed over with their own cultural nuances.

If there are common similarities in these traditions to the legends of other cultures, it’s my assumption that it’s because these legends are based on historical events that occurred in the remote past, which were witnessed, recorded, and remembered by ancient people all over the world.

Dustin Naef is author of “Mount Shasta's Forgotten History & Legends” Available on Amazon and other major online Booksellers.

(Read Part II)

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Top Image: Mount Shasta, Photograph © Dustin Naef 2016

By Dustin Naef

References

Dustin Naef (2016). Mount Shasta's Forgotten History & Legends.
Lucy Thompson (1916). To the American Indian: Reminisces of a Yurok Woman.
Thomas Buckley (2002). Standing Ground: Yurok Indian Spirituality.
Vine Deloria, Jr. (1997). Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact.
Ardy Sixkiller Clarke (2012). Encounters With Star People: Untold Stories of American Indians.
Jack Norton (2006). New Perspectives on Native North America: Cultures, Histories, and Representations.

 

Comments

Tsurugi's picture

Western culture has forgotten how to connect with myth, but I don't think it is accurate to say Native beliefs are fanatically attacked. Most westerners seem to be fascinated and interested in the beliefs of native peoples even while they don't quite know what to make of them, being unable to bring themselves to believe them but unwilling to dismiss them outright.
The Skeptical Inquiry et al certainly attack such traditional lore with fanaticism, but who is surprised by that? They are fanatics; they attack everything that goes against their dogma with fanaticism. They are not representative of the general thoughts of western peoples.

Figure it out: they were world-wide strip mining the planet.

You can bet your bottom (gold) dollar this myth originates from Mesopotamian navigators/miners, and the name "Shasta" is found in "Hindu" tales. The "dragon in the mountain" is the smelting inside, where they directed the wind to increase the temperatures of the operations...just like the "mysterious wind channels" at Caral, Peru. BTW: "Peru" or "Puru" in the Hindu (an empire with king Yayati and Ajati/Yuya and Aye) stems from the Mesopotamian name for "Elephant": Piru. Note that "Yuya" was said to come from "Elephantine" where he was "head priest." He was a Neanderthal blacksmith, from the images/photos of his mummy, and looking at Ancient Origins comparisons of modern vs Neanderthal skulls. He is the Akka Nantan, making steel from the meteor Nantan, found even today and online websites for sale. BTW: it impacted Earth in the 1500's...A.D. Go look at his "big hands": he was a mes...a smithie...like the ones at Mes Aynak, Afghanistan...the Naka/Naga Smithie Aye...Tolkien pointed right at his father: Illi/Yuya...the Hittite dragon in the mountain...Ilyanka..Ily the Naka/Naga. IlliNois means "little Illi." Michigan means "MesGani..gani are the miners..."mischievous dwarf helpers of Shiva. Cains...the metalworkers.

The Indians are right. The White Man has became atheist and does not believe in the truth. And speaks with forked tongue of the serpent. There were giants and contact with beings from space. These were Fallen Angels which produced offspring of the serpent called Nephilim or giants in Mesopotamia at Babel where they tried to recreate the PreFlood civilization.

I was a member of the Inland Archaeological Society California and was fascinated by the connections between American native rock art and pictographs that contained symbolism taken from Babel. People were scattered throughout the earth after their language was changed at Babel and carried their religion with them, the worship of the sun 666, moon and earth as the Mother Goddess.

I am not surprised that Chief Joseph had Babylonian inscriptions. The Star People are Fallen Angels and produced offspring in Mesopotamia before the earth was divided in a second major worldwide cataclysm in the Days of Peleg about 2000 BC. This is where they were trying to recreate the first civilization, an advanced civilization destroyed by a worldwide Flood before that in 2347 BC.

This is not a myth, evolution is a myth.

For documentation see my books Mysteries of History Revealed Part 1 & Part 2

Also I noticed you mention the Star Gates which are Megalithic sites created by the giants like Stonehenge where the Spirits of Demons and Fallen Angels contact men.

D.W. Naef's picture

D. W. Naef

Dustin Naef is an expert about Mount Shasta’s history and folklore, and has lived at the base of California’s legendary mountain for most of his adult life. His writings about Mount Shasta take a different tack than much of the... Read More

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