Legends of Mount Shasta: “The Abode of the Devil” Part 3 – Prehistoric Traditions of Giants and Mysterious Beings, Part One

There are countless Native American legends describing prehistoric giants, flood myths, lost civilizations, cataclysms, the star people, and other mysterious beings who belonged to some remote and forgotten era in California’s past, suggesting a radically different chronology and ancient history than what is generally known today.

Lucy Thompson wrote about prehistoric giants and other mysterious beings who inhabited the Pacific coast in ancient times—among them the Wa-Gas (designated as Woge, Woga, or even “Little People” or the “Star People” in other variations of the legend).

Thomas Buckely, a recognized expert on Yurok spirituality (Standing Ground: Yurok Indian Spirituality, 1850-1990), states that Lucy—fearful of being misunderstood by a powerful and still-dangerous white audience—filtered ancient Yurok traditions through a lens of Biblical and Masonic imagery with the help of her husband, which appears to have been both a precaution to avoid persecution, and also a strategy to make the book more sympathetic and comprehensible to a largely white audience.

Much of the prehistoric lore Lucy Thompson talks about in To The American Indian can also be found, under various guises, in the traditions of other northwestern tribes.

The Ancient Woga

There are many northwestern traditions which talk about a race of giants dwelling in the remote mountains of northern California, and also a mysterious spirit-people, the “Woga,” who inhabited these lands in ancient times and then mysteriously vanished.