7 to 8 foot tall with a double row of teeth ?

[Ninurta]

Here's a link to a short article on the giants.

Ancient Indian Giants

A modern myth has been circulating about a prehistoric tribe of gigantic, fair skinned, red haired Native Americans. It is claimed these giants were from an ancient tribe that predates the historical tribes. They are said to have been eight plus feet tall and extremely aggressive cannibals. Often this myth has the giants driven off by normal sized natives when they moved into their historic tribal lands or that they hunted them to extinction simply in order to survive.

I don't know how "modern" the story of the Azgens is. It goes back at east 30 years, which is when I first heard it, and that old Shawnee was an old man back then, telling it from stories he had heard in his youth, from other old men...

The Lovelock Cave story of the Paiutes is one I heard much more recently, but the Paiutes may believe it to be a lot older, given similar circumstances of old men telling tales.

In the article, the phrase "Matchi Manitou" is similar to the Shawnee phrase "Mot-shee Monteo", which means "bad spirit" or "evil spirit", Motshee being "bad, negative, evil" and moneto meaning "spirit" or "power". It's an old phrase from an Algonquian root language that carried forward into the languages that came from it in various similar forms. Te Shawneee Mot-shee Moneto came to be associated with the Christian Devil after interactions commenced with European missionaries. Oddly, "moneto" also means "snake", as snakes were percieved as creatures of power. For example, Black Snake's name in Shawnee was "Shi-Moneto". "Big Snake" or "Black Snake" when translated to English. Shawnees called Black Snakes "the big snake" because of their length. A direct translation from English to Shawnee of "Black Snake" would have been "Makatewa Moneto".

I've always found the association of the word "moneto" with both "snake" and "spirit power" to be interesting, in light of the biblical story of the fall of man being precipitated by the devil in the guise of a serpent.

Just as the article mentions about the perceived growth of the Lovelock Cave story, The first I heard of the Azgens (from a white guy) did not mention a giant stature, just that another tribe in KY had been wiped out by the Shawnee, but that their spirits would never allow Shawnee settlement in KY after their genocide. They would only allow hunting there when "Shawnee women and children were starving", but never settlement. I only know of a single attempt by the Shawnee to settle KY, a village named "Eskippakithiki" near the Blue Licks, It only lasted 20 years or so before it was abandoned.

It was not until I asked the old Shawnee man about the story that I head of the association of them with "giants".

Regarding the Smithsonian report of a large skeleton being found in Kanawha County, I recall a story from that area from 1774, during Lord Dunmore's War. Col. Fleming was marching his troops along the Kanawha River, towards Point Pleasant, and Indian scouts were traveling alongside them, keeping track of their progress. One evening the army scouts, keeping track of the Indians keeping track of them, reported to him the discovery of "an Indian tract a remarkable 14 1/2 inches long", which was so remarkable that he recorded it in his orderly book for that day. I always took it to be a Bigfoot track, but the people at the time, having Indians on the brain (and all around them in the woods) reported it as the track of an impressively large Indian.

A "giant", I suppose.

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