(pine needles crunching) - I really enjoy the woods.

Just being out there and looking at the animals, the rocks, the plants.

And the smells and just walking and walking.

It's just a sense of calmness for me.

I'm really fascinated with Sasquatch.

Just hearing different stories, different things from elders.

A lot of it was just being respectful when you go into the woods and that, you know, you're going into this space that isn't our home.

Knowing that there's other entities out there that we need to be respectful for 'cause they're watching us.

So going out there with a good heart.

(ax thuds) (gravel crunching) My name is Charlene Moody and my Indian name is Sunnit.

I live in Simnasho, which is in Warm Springs on the reservation.

I'm a artist, a part of the show at the High Desert Museum titled Sensing Sasquatch.

Well, I'm just going to wait for that to get going for a bit.

The show is about the different interpretation of Native artists and what their ideas and beliefs are of Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

All these different ideas were popping up in my head.

So I drew up a sketch, and then had the idea of incorporating buffalo hide because of the big, thick texture that this animal has on its body and being similar to what is described what Sasquatch has.

Right here is where the tuft is on the hump of the buffalo.

And when you look at it, it's a little darker and thicker and it kind of goes lighter away from it.

(gravel crunching) I got it from the Yakima Nation.

They have a herd there.

(power washer buzzing) So when I first got it home, the fur is really dirty, you know, 'cause, you know, buffaloes are pretty dirty creatures, you know, rolling around, doing buffalo things.

Dirty.

I scrubbed it for pretty much a whole day of just repeating, cleaning, washing it.

(power washer buzzing) It's just the size of it and appreciating, you know, how big this creature was and like, wow, I'm actually able to do this.

(fire crackling) The reason I'm smoking it with juniper and cedar root is I really like the smell.

They're both medicinal to our people.

And so I'm making sure I'm just putting that good medicine into this artwork.

So I'm an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, but I'm also Yakima, Modoc, Miwok, and Southern Piaute.

(knife rustling) I just want to make sure I'm respectful to those different tribes that I represent in this one art piece.

(rake rattling) I'm raking out the fur, so that way, making sure that smoke and that smell gets in all the little fibers of it.

(rake rattling) My impression or interpretation of Sasquatch is from a personal experience that I've had while out in the woods.

It's more or less like a sense versus, you know, like physically describing it.

It's just, it's hard to explain.

It's kind of like that, oh, you know?

It's like something that hits you to the core.

(gentle music) One time, huckleberry picking, I was looking down at this bush because it was just loaded with huckleberries and what I thought was my mom, it was standing right there.

But for some reason something inside of me told me not to look up.

When I was talking to it and just picking and she wasn't responding, but I could see it right there.

And it just kind of, like, walked back into the trees.

And I was like, "Mom!

Mom!"

And I started yelling.

And I could just hear her way down there, "What?"

Then that sense of like, (gasps), and then we hear that (grunts).

And then we all stopped and kind of listened, and I was like, let's get out of here.

And we got in the van and left and found somewhere else to go.

(gentle music continues) So I'm painting, it's like a silhouette of Bigfoot or Sasquatch and with the forest and showing the image of the mountain.

(gentle music) The face in the sky, kind of always watching over this area of which, you know, a lot of our sacred foods come from, our water, and kind of protecting that.

(gentle music continues) And then, of course, the little family sharing around a campfire.

Maybe they're sharing stories of this being that's out there and it's protecting this land.

(gentle music continues) I feel calm.

(gentle music continues) I just get into the zone and it's just my little calm place.

(gentle music continues) That traditional teaching of working on it, when you have that good spirit, I think that's why I'm calm 'cause I wait 'til I have that good energy.

(gentle music continues) (upbeat music) (paint hissing) My mural, it's based off of our basket-weaving designs.

If you look at a cedar basket, it's kind of like blocks, the way you twist it, line after line.

And so that's what I based off the landscape of, similar to what you would see on a basket.

But also incorporating those big bright colors on it and kind of giving that modern twist to it.

(upbeat music continues) I'm excited to see it up and everything, but I'm also going to be a nervous wreck 'cause I'll be like, oh no, what are people are going to think?

(upbeat music continues) It's a mixture of everything.

I'll be relieved that it's done.

(upbeat music continues) (guests chattering) - [Guest] Here's another one.

- The title of this exhibit is called Sensing Sasquatch.

It's a artistic endeavor to kind of capture the imagination surrounding this being.

(guests chattering) - With the fur facing towards you as you walk up to it, it's almost going to be like a silhouette of something to what I seen.

(gentle music) - It's really exciting because many of the artists do have some kind of experience and knowledge to draw upon when depicting or giving creativity to the idea of Sasquatch.

(gentle music continues) (seabirds shrieking) - [Charlene] All of our tribes have different stories and teachings of it, and so also interesting getting the interpretations from the different artists from different areas.

(gentle music continues) - Rarely outside the community does this idea get expressed.

So we're getting a a firsthand glimpse of what the artists bring to this idea.

- [Guest] Can you touch it?

- Yeah.

It's meant to be interactive.

(guests chattering) I do want people to touch it, and then when you're that close, you should be able to smell it.

And so being able to be like, oh, what is that?

It might be cedar, it might be juniper, it might be Doug, who knows?

Or sage.

Sasquatch is kind of looking into the sunset.

But when you come here looking this way, then you get to see a little story of my childhood and everything being out in the woods.

- [Guest] What kind of hide?

- [Charlene] Buffalo.

- [Guest] Buffalo?

Okay.

- Yeah.

Hopefully this will spark a little interest on people educating themselves on the Native peoples of the areas they live, understanding their tribes and their treaties.

And you know about Sasquatch, let's learn about the tribes here, the Oregon.

- Very cool.

- Are you explaining all this.

- I was, yes.

When people approach my work, I want 'em to have an experience that comes from within, like, their heart.

- [Guest] Wonderful.

I love it.

- Thank you.

For me, it's not necessarily, like, knowing exactly what Sasquatch is, but understanding that hey, this creature, this being is from the forest.

And so when you do go to the forest, you need to be respectful.

And so that's what I kind of hope comes from this.

(no audio) (no audio)