Megalithic Marvels - Giants of Lovelock Cave: the Legend (part 1)

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

In this episode, Derek Olson of Megalithic Marvels takes you on an ancient expedition back in time to Lovelock cave in Nevada where a supposed tribe of red-haired cannibalistic giants once roamed the plains - you are not going to want to miss this! SHOW NOTES Egypt Tour Lovelock Cave Giant Article Series Previous Olmec episode  Follow Megalithic Marvels on the following platforms: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/megalithicm... Blog - https://megalithicmarvels.com/ Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpiP... Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/megalithicma... TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@megalithicmarvels Facebook group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/10186... Twitter - https://twitter.com/MegMarvels

Marvels. Derek Olson here to reconstruct the prehistoric past with you. So in this episode, we're going to go on an ancient expedition back in time to Lovelock Cave in Nevada, where a supposed tribe of red-haired cannibalistic giants once roamed the planes. You are not going to want to miss this episode. But before we get into the episode, a couple quick announcements. want to let everybody know, hey, follow us on social media.

I am on Instagram, YouTube. We got a Facebook page and a Facebook group. We're on Twitter and TikTok. Just search for Megalithic Marvels. I think on TikTok we're Marvels and Mysteries. So search for us there on TikTok, but everywhere else, we're at Megalithic Marvels. and I'm always featuring high-definition videos from my trips to Egypt. I feature anomalies on Instagram and really on all the channels.

I just featured a very interesting photo of King Pekal of Palenke, who was a Mayan ruler. And I asked the question, was Pekal a giant? Because when you look at this Mayan depiction of him, It shows him in between two other figures who are miniature in comparison with him. And there's so much mystery surrounding Pekal. So I post that picture and then I link to a really fascinating article written by a fellow researcher, Mark Carpenter, about all the mystery and anomalies surrounding Pekal and the archaeological cover-ups. So again, just another reason to go follow us on social media.

so you're not missing out on all these cool photos, videos, and articles, and just exciting information in the archaeological and ancient history world. Also, if you haven't heard, registration is live for our second annual Megalithic Marvels of Egypt tour coming up this May. It's coming fast, and I want to invite you to join me and renowned Egyptologist and tour guide Muhammad Ibrahim for the Adventure of a Lifetime. A 12-day expedition to see and touch the world's greatest superstructures. And for a limited time only, you can receive $300 off your registration by using code Egypt 2023. That's all caps in together.

Egypt, 2020. I really hope you will consider joining us. I'm going to have the link below in the show notes of this podcast. Or you can go to megalithmic marvels. com forward slash tours. And also for social media, all those links will be in the show notes below. Okay, let's talk about the giants of Lovelock Cave and all the mystery and intrigues surrounding them now. This is going to be a three-part series for this podcast that I'm titling Unlocking Lovelock.

And I'm going to link in the show notes the article series that I wrote several years ago that this is based off of. So again, just click the show notes. If you want to actually read this and see the photos that go with it as well. So this is part one of unlocking Lovelock. And we're going to talk about the oral tradition first and then get into the written account of the giants of Lovelock Cave. And personally, I believe when it comes to Giant lore of North America, this is one of the greatest stories and accounts we have when you consider all of the tangible evidence that backs up this oral tradition. So let's get into this. The oral tradition. The northern piutes of Nevada have an ancient oral tradition that they have passed down basically from generation to generation

that usually causes the hearer to pause and bewilderment. The payutes state that long ago in ages past. So this could literally be not just hundreds of years ago, but thousands of years ago, 10,000 years ago. In ages past, they state that they went to war against a ferocious enemy known as the sitica. Now here is where this prehistoric tale becomes quite fascinating. According to the payutes, the sitika were a race of red-haired, cannibalistic, giant. that would literally devour the flesh of their foes. And the Chronicle states that after three years of blood-weary battles, a coalition of regional tribes finally unify together.

It's almost like they put aside their differences and their own warring against amongst themselves. They come together to defeat this bloodthirsty enemy. the savage enemy. So the legend goes that the allied tribes bravely begin to push the Sittika back into the depths of a very large cave and they quickly cover the entrance

with brush piles. And then they set ablaze the brush piles with fire to suffocate the giants. And any would-be escaping giants were quickly shot with a fury of fire-piercing arrows. And in the end, the giant cannibalistic carnivores

finally met their grim fate in this blazing cavernous inferno. Quite the legend. Quite the oral tradition. It's fascinating. And I remember first reading this and just being taken back by history, but then I began to do some more research,

and here's what I found. Cytica is said to be translated as tool eaters. Now, in the northern piet language. Now, tool is a species of water plant that grows in marshes across North America, and it would have grown in Lake Lahontan, which was an ancient prehistoric lake that once covered much of northwestern Nevada around 12,000 years ago. So according to the oral tradition, the giants used the tool to weave rafts in which to navigate the lake to flee surprise attacks from the piutes but worst of all they used these tool rafts to capture the piute specifically i believe the piute women who would be gathering tool near the shore of a humble lake picture thousands of years ago Nevada is not the dry necessities

the arid place it is now, but there was this massive lake covering the northwestern part of what we would call the state of Nevada now. And so it was much different. So that is the oral tradition. Now let's talk about the written account. So the legend of the red-haired giants began to rapidly spread in 1883. When Sarah Winamucka, daughter of Paiute chief, Winamaka. She wrote the first known autobiography by a Native American woman called Life Among the Paiutes,

their wrongs and claims. And in her book, Winamaka discusses a tribe of barbarians that she says were known as, quote, the people leaders, end quote, who lived along the Humboldt River and who would whey her people and eat them.

And she states the following in her memoirs in this book. Quote, My people say that the tribe we exterminated had reddish hair. I have some of their hair, which has been handed down from father to son. I have a dress, which has been in our family a great many years trimmed with this reddish hair. I am going to wear it sometime when I lecture. It is called a morning dress. dress and no one has such a dress but my family end quote okay so that quote is coming from the piute chief

winemaka's daughter sarah winemaka uh the first native american woman to ever write a book and the book again was called life among the piutes so that's why this story takes on a fascinating twist is it's not just an oral tradition or legend but we have an actual piute chief daughter here talking about the oral tradition in print, but also saying she has this dress trimmed with this red hair. And in the article, again, we're going to link it in the show notes here on Megalithic Marvels. I feature this photo of Sarah Winamaca. I think I found this on Wikimedia.

And you can, if you Google Sarah Winamaca, you'll find photos of her. But in this photo, she is in the address. And I'm wondering if this is the dress she's referencing here in her book that's trimmed with this red hair. So giant stature and red hair would obviously be considered genetic anomalies in the context of this account. So to the skeptics who say the sitica were not actually giants, but just a tall enemy tribe, I would ask the following questions. One, why did the sitica have red hair and not black hair like the other indigenous tribes of the area? And two, why would one of the most influential Paiute families of the region save the red hair of their enemy and carefully pass it down from generation to generation and then trim one of their most treasured garments with it

if it was just the hair from a normal human being? and why would Sarah Winamaka take space in her book to reference this? Intriguing questions to say the least. I hope you enjoyed part one of this podcast. Again, the series is called Unlocking Lovelock. So again today, we talked about the oral tradition and the written account. So be sure to stay tuned for part two of Unlocking Lovelock coming soon. Well, we're going to get deeper into this mystery.

and talk about the discovery of Lovelock Cave and the specimens and artifacts that were found inside. You're not going to want to miss this. And I'm also going to tell you about my personal journey to Lovelock Cave. I've been there twice. I was just there this last summer. And so I want to tell you about my experience inside there. It's a very crazy place to visit.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure to subscribe to this podcast and check out my last two episodes where I feature a two-part interview series I previously did with author and researcher Hugh Newman regarding Mexico's mysterious Omec culture. You can click the link in the show notes below or just find the last two episodes from wherever you're listening and I'll see you over there. Until next time, keep exploring.