Each of us at one time or another have heard a word or two about Matilda, the sleeping sasquatch and the Erickson Project.
Realizing there is so much more to this story than a video of something "breathing" and a few photos of a Chewbecca look alike, I started looking around in an attempt to try to piece things together.
I think as a first step, perhaps we should get to know the "players". Trying to understand a person and his reasons for things can go far in attempting to see a larger picture than what was once before our eyes.
For those of you who were there and witnessed first hand these events, or who may even have played a part in them, hopefully you will take my attempts at reconstructing them in stride. I'm certain some of my interpretations of events and people will not agree with yours. I have tried to approach this from as many angles as I could discover; from both supporters and detractors; from believers to skeptics. And I'm certain I've missed many.
So for part one of this series, I will introduce the key player in this event : Adrian Erickson.
Adrian Erickson comes from Northern Alberta, where he grew up on a small farm. Even as a child, he hunted and trapped with his father to help supplement the family's small income. He became familar with the woods and wildlife contained within. At age 7, he saw his first sasquatch. His reaction was that it was something "normal", nothing odd, just one of the creatures in the woods.
While still in high school, age 16, he became a guide for hunters looking for moose. After graduating, he expanded that guiding and outfitting business into reclamation work for the oil and gas industry.
By age 26, he had turned in his gun for a bow. It was nothing for him to go into the wilderness and camp there alone, in all kinds of weather and conditions.
In 2001, near Jasper, something crossed his path. He admits he initially tried to dismiss it as a cow moose, but knew in his heart that the "lumbering, hairy brown creature" was no moose. This appears to be when he took his first steps into investigating sasquatch. Through the internet, he discovered the BFRO; he examined the Patterson Film; and learned from John Green's records of encounters.
He signed up with BRFO as a researcher and began talking with those who were reporting encounters. This instilled the big question for him : "Why is the sasquatch shunned by science?"
In 2005, he turned that question into the Erickson Project, named the first multi-state field study of sasquatch in Canada and the United States with the goal to have it recognized as a species. "It is to vindicate the thousands of people who have been ridiculed."
He then hired two people for the project: Dr. Leila Hadj-Chikh and Dennis Pfohl. Dennis Pfohl was named Project Manager, Dr. Leila Hadj-Chikh Project Scientist and later on in the project Dr. Melba Ketchum and DNA Diagnostics Inc were added for DNA testing.
The project ran from 2005 to 2010.
Dennis Pfohl, the Project Manager, is an outdoorsman from Colorado, where he lives with his family. He, and they, admit to "strange" encounters while camping. He hunts sasquatch with a camera, baiting the areas with food in order to optain DNA and other evidence. Many would disagree with his method of leaving dog food and sugary people snacks to tempt them to interact. He laughed while admitting it with the flip remark he was probably hardening their arteries and ruining their teeth.
Pfohl is also an investigator for BFRO; in 2012 he became part of the Olympic Project team. He is also listed as taking part in the following : 2004 New Mexico Expedition (Mescalero {IR}), 2005 New Mexico Expedition (Mescalero), 2005 California Sierras Expedition, 2005/2008 Oklahoma exp., 2008 Texas Experiditon; organizer of the first Colorado BRFO expedition in 2006 and organized the 06, 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and (non public) Colorado Expeditions.
Dr. Leila Hadj-Chikh has a nice profile on LinkedIn. Her work history includes the Erickson Project as Project Scientist from November 2005 to June 2010. She remained mostly in the background for the project, with few public statements or apparent appearances. She did participate in the May 2005 Redwood Expeditions with the BFRO, at the time, listing herself as "PhD Evolutionary Biology".
She said in an email to the BFRO : "I was especially excited to be able to learn so much from other expedition members who have been doing this for some time." And : "I felt honored to have the opportunity to get some first-hand experience in investigating these animals with you."
She also wrote the forward for Dr. John Bindernagel's 2010 book : The Discovery of Sasquatch".
Her LinkedIn profile lists these degrees for her : PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University; a Post-Baccalaurate certificate in Geographic Information Systems from Penn State; and a B.S. in Biology from Wilkes University. She currently works in non-sasquatch related fields.
Tomorrow : The Erickson Project
Nancy
"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."
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