Summer Harvest

Knowing we’d be deep in the heart of Bigfoot/Sasquatch territory (southeast Alaska), I made it a point to ask each of our guides whether they’d had any encounters with the hairy beast. Unfortunately, most of our guides were young college-aged bucks up from the lower 48 for the summer who thought such tales scoffable and didn’t really have anything to say.

One fellow, however, did make one cryptic remark as he guided us up the bear-poop littered Chilkoot Trail just outside of Skagway. “I haven’t really heard anything about bigfoot, but there is something called Kushtaka that we’re not really allowed to talk about.” When pressed for details, he continued. “It’s this half-man, half-otter creature that people supposedly see further southeast. But I can’t really say more than that.” (Spookiness aside, we figured his reticence to discuss this cryptid likely came from his higher-ups who were intent on “professionalism” and such.)

Intrigued, we began to do a bit of research. Not much is out there, but what is, is definitely intriguing. The critter known as Kushtaka (and by about a dozen other names) first appears in Tlingit mythology, and are freaking terrifying:

Physically, kushtaka are shape-shifters capable of assuming either human form or the form of an otter. In some accounts, a kushtaka is able to assume the form of any species of otter; in others, only one. Accounts of their behaviour seem to conflict with one another. In some stories, kushtaka are cruel creatures who take delight in tricking poor Tlingit sailors to their deaths. In others, they are friendly and helpful, frequently saving the lost from death by freezing. In many stories, the kushtaka save the lost individual by distracting them with curiously otter-like illusions of their family and friends as they transform their subject into a fellow kushtaka, thus allowing him to survive in the cold. Naturally, this is counted a mixed blessing. However, kushtaka legends are not always pleasant. In some legends it is said the kushtaka will imitate the cries of a baby or the screams of a woman to lure victims to the river. Once there, the kushtaka either kills the person and tears them to shreds or will turn them into another kushtaka.

Creepy city! Personally, the idea of a half-human half-otter gives me the willies from the get-go, but if this is the kind of insanity these beasties are up to, then count me out. Otters are supposed to be cute, dammit!

So anyhow, there have been actual sightings of the Kushtaka (or at least a furry half-man, half-critter near a place with about a dozen geographical features called “Kushtaka”) by non-native Alaskan residents, as well:

Harry D. Colp described a miner’s encounter with the Kushtaka, in an account, which was later published as “The Strangest Story Ever Told.” He also referred to the Thomas Bay Devils in Thomas Bay, Alaska. Colp and three other prospectors teamed up in 1900 at Wrangell. They sent Charlie, one of the four, to Thomas Bay to look over a gold prospect, while the others sought grubstakes to pay their expenses. Charlie went about 50 miles up the coast to this location. There the rains kept him confined to his tent for several days. He then went out, trying to locate the landmarks given to him by an Indian. By chance, he found a gold-flecked quartz ledge and loosened a piece with his gun, breaking his gunstock in the process.

As he was taking his bearings, he said, a couple of creatures he called “devils,” that looked like both men and monkeys, came after him. These shaggy beasts, with long, coarse hair, stinking and covered with sores, pursued him back to his canoe. During the chase, they screamed and scraped his back with “long claw like fingernails.”

Charlie said he came to in his canoe, which was drifting at sea. He was cold, hungry and thirsty. He returned to his comrades with nothing but the clothes on his back, his canoe and oars, and the chunk of gold quartz. He declared he had enough of Alaska. In exchange for his passage back to Seattle, he told his tale to the
other three. Two more of Colp’s partners returned to the site of the gold-speckled quartz ledge. Once again, they returned with strange tales of “devils.” One of the partners was said to have gone mad. Other prospectors who scouted the same area were reported by Colp to have suffered frightening experiences and to have behaved in a strange manner afterwards. Mysterious happenings occurred as late as 1925, when a farmer reported losing a dog in the hills there, but finding strange tracks, with the hind feet resembling a cross between a bear’s and a human’s footprints. A trapper in the area disappeared. Searchers found his outfit and tracks, but no trace of the man.

Funnily enough (for readers of this site, or of Jeff Wells or Cabinet of Wonders), there are also possible connections between the Kushtaka and “fairies” of this previous post, who abduct human children and leave changelings in their place. Here’s an account by a native Tlingit in which the similarities are recounted:

My people are called Tlingits [clink-its]. We’re a Native Alaskan Indian nation. Our creature similar to a fairy is called a Kushtaka. They are mythical creatures that have the appearance of a land otter, but are usually around the size of a man. Like changelings, they are known for kidnapping human babies. Once they have a human baby for a long time that baby will become a kushtaka, too. Kushtakas are usually known to be malevolent, always at war with a village’s shaman, but there are a few tales where they were actually beneficial to the Tlingits.

This, of course, makes it all the more sinister that Campfire USA has a summer camp for kids called, you guessed it, Camp Kushtaka. Now, maybe it’s just me, but sending your child to a summer camp named after a terrifying half-human, half-otter with a bad habit of kidnapping youngsters and ripping fishermen to shreds doesn’t seem like a very good idea. Maybe next summer you should consider “Camp Evil Zombie” instead.