Oklahoma Legends – The Choctaw War Against Bigfoot

Who doesn't love a good old-fashioned Oklahoma tall tale? This one is a doozy.

In 1855, after months of food theft in what would become LeFlore County, Oklahoma, the Choctaw people went to war with a band of bigfoot... as in many bigfoot. Like a whole clan of bigfoot.

Here's how the story goes.

The whole thing started in the years prior to 1855 when crops and the occasional livestock went missing from the stores of the Choctaw people. Not stores in the sense of Walmart, but in the sense of a place where you store something.

As benign as it started, eventually the thefts started happening on the outskirts of Choctaw land where the new settlers were located, and the two eventually blamed each other.

Both the Choctaw and the settlers laid out traps to catch one another in the fields. Watchmen were assigned duties overnight in the hopes of catching whoever was stealing, but the thieves were never seen or caught.

In 1855, after the disappearance of crops evolved into kidnapping young children, the Choctaw decided to put a war party together to track down the thieves.

Now, if you've ever spent the night in the wilds of Eastern Oklahoma, you may have heard some wildly spectacular sounds in the middle of the night. Every story attributes Bigfoot, and while there's no evidence to prove the existence of the beast, there are hundreds of stories to serve as evidence of its real. With tales as old as Indian Territory history, Bigfoot has also been here a very long time.

An influential and well-off half-French-half-Choctaw man named Joshua LeFlore opted to lead the party as he had immeasurable experience in the Oklahoma woods.

According to the legend, the fifteen or so Choctaw warriors chosen were giants among men. All expert horsemen standing at nearly seven feet tall and weighing upwards of 300 pounds. A force to be reckoned with.

They set out into a portion of Oklahoma known today as the McCurtain County Wilderness Area. As they tracked the bandits, they eventually came across one of Oklahoma's famous earthen mounds and the stench of death.

As they approached, they were in a state of horror to discover that the mound was built of the decomposing bodies of abducted victims. As they stood there taking it all in and collecting their thoughts, the perpetrators were spotted on the other side of the mound.

Charge!

As the war party charged toward the towering bandits, they were struck with astonishment. It was a band of bigfoot, standing their ground ready to rumble.

As the fight ensued, LeFlore was said to have killed one of the beasts with his pistol as he slashed at another with his sword. As the men around him looked in disbelief, the stumble allowed one of the beasts to grab LeFlore, at which point his head was ripped off his body.

With a surge of urgency in this life and death situation, the warriors rallied and managed to kill two more sasquatch in the tussle, while the fourth ran away into the woods.

In victory, the remaining Choctaw burried the victims and their leader LeFlore there where they lay before returning home with a tall tale to share with the tribe.

It was the Choctaw War with Bigfoot of 1855.

Historical accounts.

Tribal histories are Oklahoma history. That much is absolutely true, but a tall tale like this should have a little historical evidence to back it up, right?

That area of Oklahoma is famous for the earthen mounds. Most known are the ancient Spiro Mounds that you can read more about here. While theories exist of why the mounds were built, it's still a theory.

Joshua LeFlore was a real person. In fact, LeFlore County was named for the prominent Choctaw family LeFlore... but, Joshua was born in 1877.

Still, Bigfoot could very well be real and native to Oklahoma. Perhaps these beasts are no longer here, or perhaps they travel here from time to time, but there are so many accounts across the country, Canada, and Alaska, it's hard to argue that it is just a myth.

Was there really a Choctaw war with Bigfoot? Who knows. We only have stories and legends.