This week I dedicated my research time to finding out more about the cryptids I hope to incorporate into my museum; however, the cryptid with by far the most information available was Bigfoot. I spent time reading academic papers trying to both prove and disprove his existence, watching sighting videos (the most important being the iconic Patterson-Gimlin Film that started the Bigfoot hype in 1967), and learning about Bigfoot’s origins from Native American myth. Out of all of this, what I found to be the most important was not whether or not he was real, but that I recreate Bigfoot in a way that respects the Native American lore.
Originally I wanted to include the Wendigo in my museum, but during the initial concept phase I learned how Wendigos are formed by the possession of the body by Native American spirits that seeks to cannibalize and harm others. Being a white woman, this is not my story to tell. On top of that, if I portrayed the Wendigo wrong I could risk creating negative stereotypes about Native Americans; therefore, I decided to cut it from the museum. The difference between the Wendigo and Bigfoot is that Bigfoot lore is extremely varied – Native American tribes all have completely different ideas of who he is, if he’s a simple creature just trying to survive or a bloodthirsty ape that attacks anything that comes too close. This vast difference in storytelling means there’s really no wrong way to portray him (as long as he isn’t meant to stereotype a real group of people), since there’s no one “correct” way of portraying him either.
Unlike Bigfoot and the Wendigo, my research into the Jersey Devil and Mothman found that their legends are rather simple. The Mothman’s origin is simply that someone saw a flying man moth creature in West Virginia, while the Jersey Devil is said to be the 13th son of the Leeds family who was cursed by his mother to become the devil. These two get up to light mischief, at most killing a goat every now and then. I would even argue that Mothman is a neutral party and the Jersey Devil is to be pitied as an abandoned child acting out. Either way, their vague histories allows for a great leeway in personal interpretation that has convinced me to have the Jersey Devil be the cryptid that comes to life in the museum, rather than my original plan for Bigfoot to do so. The Jersey Devil makes the most sense since his story can be interpreted as literal devil or a child with physical deformities abandoned by his mother. I intend to fuse the concepts together and create a kind of Hellboy scenario with a devil child that runs around the museum causing chaos.