The term Sasquatch, an anglicized derivative of the word "Sésquac", meaning "wild man". The original word, in the Stó:lõ dialect of the Halkomelem language, is used by the Coast Salish.

Nearly every tribe of Native Americans to have populated the areas of sasquatch sightings have legends and traditions regarding "wild men" of the forest. While each tribe had its own understanding of the creature, there are numerous similarities among hundreds of documented stories by anthropologists and folklorists. Sasquatches were at the least something to be cautious of, at the most evil and an omen of death. Stories prevail of them stealing children and animals to eat, and of terrorizing those who were lost in the forest. Often they were believed to be feral humans, their long hair seen as a step backwards in primitivism.

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