Giants Walked the Earth?

Do you believe that giants ever walked the earth? With countless stories of giants in mythology and folklore like the infamous Cyclops and Bigfoot, there is no doubt that the possibility of their existence fascinates us. What may seem like a distant fantasy only possible in fiction might be more real—and more close—-than you ever imagined.

According to a Native American tribe indigenous to parts of California, Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Nevada, red-haired, white ‘barbarian’ giants battled their ancestors centuries ago. The Paiute tribe call these beings “Si-Te-Cah,” and in 1882 Paiute lecturer Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins translated the tribe’s oral tradition of this legend in her book Life Among the Paiutes: Their Wrongs and Claims. The “giants” described in these accounts were savage, ruthless, and even cannibalistic. According to the Paiutes, an epic battle between the Si-Te-Cah and their tribe took place at Lovelock Cave located in modern-day Nevada. When the Paiutes trapped the remaining Si-Te-Cah inside of the cave, they piled the opening with brush and set it on fire, suffocating the remaining giants.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, miners came across mummified remains of large skulls, and human remains with rust-like hair at the mouth of Lovelock Cave. One of the mummified specimens was a man measuring about six feet six inches tall with bright orange hair still intact. Those who found these remains kept it a secret, and the majority of remains were either lost or destroyed. The best example of the exhumed mummies was boiled and destroyed as part of an initiation ritual by a local fraternity lodge. Even though the specimens are not available for examination, several other rumored artifacts recovered in the cave could provide substantial evidence of the Si-Te-Cah. Objects such as large clothes, tools, and a pair of sandals measuring over 15-inches long were said to have been on display for a short time at the Nevada Historical Society museum in Reno and are now mysteriously gone.

Archeologists have worked hard to debunk the legend of the Si-Te-Cah claiming that natural occurrences or misunderstandings could explain the condition of the remains and their other-worldly characteristics. Experts have said that animal bones to the untrained eye could have been mistaken for human giant remains. Also, they claim factors such as temperature and soil could pigment hair long after death.

The artifacts recovered along with the mummified remains still defy explanation. Whether you believe in giants or not, the ancient Paiute legend of the Si-Te-Cah still captures our curious and adventurous imaginations. It is up to you to decide whether or not humans once existed alongside giants.