sasquatch , an overview

The name "Sasquatch" loosely translated means "Wild Man of the Forest". Cultural histories of many Native American and First Nation peoples include stories and beliefs about hairy wild men. The wild man is normally described as about 7 feet( 2.2 metres)  tall and weighs about 400 pounds. It has hair all over its body, except for the pads of the feet, the hands and the face. The hair colour has been described as from a range of black, red, brown or white. The face is said to be a cross between a human and ape and the nose flat .They are biped I.E. walk upright like a human. They have also appeared as artefacts. , The anthropologist Marjorie Halpin described two wood facemasks that were collected from the Tsimshian and Nisga'a tribes (near Prince Rupert, British Columbia). One was obtained by Lieutenant G.T. Eammons in about 1914, and the other was obtained by C.M. Barbes in 1927. Halpin wrote that the masks were ape like and that physical anthropologist R.D.E. MacPhee had  examined the Eammons mask and noted that it had both monkey- and ape-like features, but could not match it exactly to any recognised species .
The sightings of these creatures over the years has lead to various theories :

http://www.ontariosasquatch.com/#/whatissasquatch/4521108283 says Common Theories are : 1)A relict hominid, such as a C. Neanderthals.2)A robust australopithecine - an archaic early hominid with a sagittal crest, either Paranthropus or Australopithecus robustus.3)Gigantopithecus blacki, a giant ape that lived in China as recently as 125,000 years ago.4)Or it could be something else that science has not yet documented. But whatever it is, the general view is that it’s a member of the primate family.

There are reports from around Canada of sightings, mainly in wild areas , near lakes and in forests. The sightings go back to the 1800s .

In 1811 the first sighting was said to occur by a fur trader by the name of David Thompson  near Jasper, Alberta, Canada.  He claimed to have found strange footprints, fourteen inches(35cms) long and eight inches(20cms) wide, with four toes, in the snow.

In 1840 Protestant missionary Reverend Elkanah Walker recorded myths of hairy giants that were persistent among Native Americans living in Spokane, Washington. These stories also came from Canada.

1850 people reported Sasquatch sightings at the mouth of Debeck Creek which runs into the north end of Pitt Lake.
1924: Albert Ostman claimed to have been kidnapped and held captive for several days by a family of sasquatch. This incident was said to have occurred summer 1924 in Toba Inlet, British Columbia.
1924: Fred Beck and four other miners claimed to have been attacked by several sasquatches in Ape Canyon in July, 1924. The creatures reportedly hurled large rocks at the miners’ cabin for several hours during the night.

1933 two men reported seeing sasquatch at the North end of Pitt Lake grazing on berries.

1941: Jeannie Chapman and her children claimed to have escaped their home when a large sasquatch, allegedly 7½ feet tall, approached their residence in Ruby Creek, British Columbia.
1955: William Roe claimed to have seen a close-up view of a female sasquatch near Mica Mountain, British Columbia. He was concealed at the time.
1965 Two loggers saw Bigfoot tracks and realized they were being watched and managed to make sketches of him before he ran off. Again near Pitt lake.

1970 At the Wild Duck Inn at Port Coquitlam British Columbia nine loggers reported their logging equipment was found turned over. In 1972, loggers again at the Wild Duck Inn talked about having their cook house pounded with large boulders.

And more recently
2005: April 16 A creature resembling a sasquatch was reportedly seen on the bank of the Nelson River in Norway House, Manitoba. Two minutes and forty seconds of footage was taken by ferry operator Bobby Clarke from across the Nelson River

April 2005 in Alberta Canada, north of Stony Plain on highway  16 a man and his 13 year old daughter were travelling towards Edmonton when an animal came out of the bush by the Highway. It was the size and shape of a large chimp light brown in colour and moved with a two armed swinging motion.
2006: December 14, Shaylane Beatty, a woman from the Dechambault Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada, was driving to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan when she saw a creature near the side of the highway at Torch River. Several men from the village went to the area and found footprints, and a tuft of brown hair and took photographs of the tracks.

Article : http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2006/12/14/sasquatch.html

Then in 2008:Berry-pickers report sasquatch sighting in northern Ontario

Monday, July 28, 2008 CBC News

Two Ontario women say they saw what might have been the legendary sasquatch in northwestern Ontario last week.Helen Pahpasay and her mother were north of Grassy Narrows, Ont., about 230 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, to pick blueberries last Tuesday when they spotted a hulking figure from their truck at about 10 a.m. CT."It was black, about eight feet long and all black, and the way it walked was upright, human-like, but more — I don't know how to describe it — more of a husky walk, I guess," she told CBC News.The creature seemed to spot them, then ran off into the woods, Pahpasay said. She and her mother debated chasing the creature to try to get a closer glimpse, but were so shaken they decided to abandon their berry-picking excursion and return home.Others returned to the area later and found a large, six-toed footprint, Pahpasay said. "What do I think it was? Right now I'm not even sure what it was. But it really scared both of us," she said."There's been talk of Bigfoot, sasquatch. And I'm still not sure what it was, but I've never seen anything like it."Pahpasay says she and her mother aren't the only people in the area with a sasquatch story. A couple of men from their community said they also saw the creature three years ago, she said, and a similar animal has been mentioned in old lore about the area.I've never believed it before, no. I'm not even quite sure what it still is today, even after what I've seen," she said. 

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2008/07/28/sasquatch.html#ixzz0tSOddeMU

more sightings :
http://cryptozoology.suite101.com/article.cfm/sasquatch_sightings_at_pitt_lake#ixzz0E4JLVnPn&A

There seems to be an overwhelming amount of eye witness testimony but little physical proof apart from grainy films and photos. ( A bit like the Loch Ness creature)The fact there have been several hoaxes(The bigfoot in the freezer immediately springs to mind) means people are sceptical. Many of the eye witnesses are reliable honest people just like with the Loch Ness creature, but eye witness testimony is not seen as valid evidence. All researchers can do is continue to collect people’s  testimony and hope that some day some physical proof will be found. 

Halpin, Marjorie and Michael Ames, editors, Manlike Monsters on Trial: Early Records and Modern Evidence, University of British Columbia Press, 1980,