THE BEAST IS REAL: Skinwalker: The Howl of the Rougarou | Full Documentary

[00:00:40]There is a story told amongst the children of the Native Americans who inhabit the southern swamp lands.

[00:00:46]A story about a perverse ritual performed by the Attacapa tribe long before white men came to these lands.

[00:00:54]A ritual so dark that other tribes dared not speak of it.

[00:00:58]The skinwalker traditions.

[00:01:01]The Attacapa were fierce warriors whose vanquished foes were consumed in a very literal sense.

[00:01:08]They ate the flesh of their enemies.

[00:01:11]As the tribe began to overtake more and more land, two tribes >> [music] >> called the Opelousas and Chitimacha decided to band together to fight back against the Attacapa. A bloody war raged and through their combined strength, the two banded tribes won the battle, driving the few remaining Attacapa deep into the swamp lands. Weakened and starving to death, the Attacapa turned to their shamans for answers. Their spiritual leaders began to seek assistance beyond the physical realm.

[00:01:40]And in the darkness, something answered them.

[00:01:44]Something evil.

[00:01:48]This evil consumed the Attacapa, granting strength in exchange for every hint of humanity that once existed within them. Over time, [music] their numbers grew and they began to move beyond the boundaries of the swamp lands they were once forced into. An animalistic nature consumed them to such a degree they took on the form of something beyond human, beyond beast.

[00:02:11]The Rougarou.

[00:02:31]>> Just back when I was young, you know, >> [music] >> people hunted different ways. There was a lot of trapping that went on around here. And there was a fur industry that, I guess, was kind of big. I was a kid when the when the fur industry was doing real well.

[00:02:46]And people hunted and trapped a lot.

[00:02:48]Well, I loved hunting and took to hunting at night, too. And there was times that I went off in the woods by myself.

[00:02:57]And this particular [music] night, I was out there I was probably every bit of 20 minutes >> [snorts] >> from the house in paddling a pirogue.

[00:03:08]Pirogue, I mean, you you can't move as fast as you think [music] you can move in it, you know. It's just a slow movement.

[00:03:18]I heard this noise, this growl.

[00:03:21]It just sounded large, like a large animal. I I had no idea what, you know, but then it made a roar. Like, I mean, it screamed like I can't even find an animal that that can even come close to what it sounded like.

[00:03:40]And I thought for a minute, "Okay, well, I'm just hearing things. This can't be real, whatever it is."

[00:03:46]As I was coasting and coming close to the land, I knew I was coming to a clearing.

[00:03:54]This point I I turn my light on to look to see whatever that that animal was.

[00:03:59]And I seen two red eyes.

[00:04:05]So now I'm really frozen. I don't know where to put myself.

[00:04:10]And if I react, I feel like I'm I'm afraid if I react to it in fear that I you know, it can come towards me.

[00:04:20]So I I leave. I get my distance.

[00:04:24]I'm about a 20-something minute paddle to the house.

[00:04:27]And where our house was was deep in the marsh.

[00:04:32]So my long journey scared I don't know where this thing could pop up on me.

[00:04:37]I get home.

[00:04:39]My dad's there like always. He's waiting on me.

[00:04:42]And he recognized that he [music] said, "Hey, what's wrong with you?"

[00:04:47]He said, "You're white as a ghost."

[00:04:50]I didn't tell him cuz I didn't think I was crazy for what I heard and what I seen.

[00:04:56]So picked up my stuff, took a shower, went to bed.

[00:05:45]>> We are at ground zero for coastal land loss in southern Louisiana.

[00:05:50]All of the soil that we're on currently is alluvial soil. So, all of this was created by the Mississippi [music] River because we're on a delta, right? And so, as it's alluvial soil, it compacts over time. So, it starts sinking. Now, [music] when the river was able to flood seasonally, the sediment would add more dirt and add more dirt. So, it wasn't a huge problem. Well, now that the Mississippi River is levied, it can't flood, and so our land is just constantly [music] sinking with nothing to replenish it.

[00:06:24]>> Where we Where we did live it's not the same. The you know, the the area's changed [music] so much.

[00:06:33]There's always, you know, potential flooding, you know, high winds like we have in the day.

[00:06:37]There's water in the ocean.

[00:06:40]And then when a storm comes, it's even worse, you know.

[00:06:43]They're kind of fighting back a little bit with the with [music] with these levee protections they coming out with.

[00:06:48]And they're building the levees bigger and stronger than what they did before.

[00:06:53]So, I mean, there's some hope for some some of the people that's inside the levee protection system. But outside the levee protection system, you know, that's that's potentially a few years that's going [music] to be no more.

[00:07:09]That's all going to be washed away.

[00:07:13]>> You live down the bayou.

[00:07:15]You going to see [music] things you've never seen before in your whole life.

[00:07:20]You know, [music] maybe you blink an eye, rub your eyes.

[00:07:24]You know, you'll see things you never seen before [music] in your life.

[00:07:28]Especially when it's pitch dark down here in Cocodrie.

[00:07:32]You snap pictures at night from across the bayou, anywhere in this area, >> [music] >> you'll see.

[00:07:38]It'll come It'll show up.

[00:07:43]Cuz this place is haunted.

[00:07:45]Okay? This place is really haunted.

[00:08:00]>> When you picture the South, most people picture Louisiana.

[00:08:04]Spanish moss, wide rivers, swamp lands, ancient forests, and fields that were once part of plantations.

[00:08:13]Truth is, Louisiana is the South, or at least some sort of strange, miniaturized picture of it. Situated in the Mississippi alluvial plain, Louisiana is defined by the rivers and waterways that make their way across the state.

[00:08:29]The northern part of the state is forests, fields, and prairies.

[00:08:33]Agriculture has a foothold here.

[00:08:39]While the southern portion is lowland, with dense swamps and [music] wetland forests, and down along the coast, seemingly endless marshes.

[00:08:53]>> We were ex- I say we, that's my that my my ancestors were expelled from um Nova Scotia in Canada. The English put the Can- the French Canadians on boats, set their houses on fire, and shipped them away.

[00:09:13]>> [music] >> The French Canadians that were expelled made their way to Louisiana in these boats, and found that there were also other French speakers, and because of New Orleans was a a French-speaking uh area at the time, it was a a good place to be.

[00:09:32]>> The Houma tribe is a tribe that broke off from Chitimacha tribe, which is uh more towards Lafayette area.

[00:09:52]You know, they they hold their their group as the homeless tribe for for a long time, and I think they're still trying to be like a recognized tribe.

[00:10:01]>> My father was a chief.

[00:10:05]And my mother's >> [music] >> grandmother was Chitimacha princess.

[00:10:13]And we were very [music] proud of being Houma Indian.

[00:10:27]But we were banished because of they call us Sabine. [music] Do you know what Sabine means?

[00:10:34]Cypress tree. So now when I hear that, I says, "Oh, cypress tree, you're the beautiful.

[00:10:39]Thank you."

[00:10:40]But back then, that was an ugly word for us.

[00:10:45]When I started the white school, I was teased, fought with, and my sister, too.

[00:10:52]And the first day I came back from that from that school, I told Mama, I says, "I'm quitting.

[00:10:57]I don't want to go back because I was teased too much."

[00:11:01]She said, "If you quit, they won."

[00:11:03]And that [music] stayed with me since that, not to turn around and and and retreat.

[00:11:10]Keep on.

[00:11:12]And that's what I did. I kept on.

[00:11:14]>> You know, we talk about the people here [music] being very resilient because we grow up going through hurricanes. People get scared of hurricanes, but I got a week to [music] run away from hurricane.

[00:11:28]You got 10 seconds to run from a tornado.

[00:11:42]>> I was born and raised here. If you If you starve over here, something wrong with you.

[00:11:47]There's food to eat all over the place.

[00:11:50]Catch food in the water. You can grow things.

[00:11:52]>> The seafood in particular, I think if you're south of I-10, uh you're probably a little bit heavier than north of I-10 because we get like all the really good seafood that you can fry and uh make jambalayas and gumbos with and seafood boils. Uh that's a huge part of the culture and traditions here.

[00:12:10]It's [music] a really special place around here.

[00:12:15]>> I I think what maybe a lot of people think of Louisiana, maybe what they picture in their head is very >> [music] >> uh slow-moving bodies of water and swamps and bayous and that's very accurate. It's a It's a very accurate way to think of Louisiana. [music] >> [music] >> That actually could be a little bit of the relation as well uh with Louisiana and the Rougarou.

[00:12:43]>> I would say Houma is one of the larger cities closest to the Gulf of Mexico.

[00:12:48]You've got by the bayou communities of Terrebonne Parish and those are smaller communities and those communities then filter up into >> [music] >> Houma, the bigger city. So, when folks need to go shopping for things, they're going to go to Houma even though they live in [music] those outlying areas along the the coast.

[00:13:12]>> There are some legends [music] that that say and and naturally so that if there were a beast, you know, living somewhere in Louisiana that fits that description, [music] it would be in these parts of Louisiana because, you know, a creature like that would want to be away from humanity and and somewhere that people can't really access. It's possible [music] that some kind of creature like the Rougarou would would choose that type of terrain to to live in.

[00:13:37]>> Most stories have the Rougarou as a wolf-like, 8 ft 9 ft tall, red eyes usually, hairy body, strong muscular, claws, red red eyes. That's the thing that I think I'm most remember about the vision I have of a Rougarou is that just these red glaring eyes at at night.

[00:14:05]I mean, something's interest- interesting to this area. We say wolf, but there are no wolves in southern Louisiana. There are coyotes and things like that.

[00:14:14]I think for those stories coming from French Canada and then also from France, coming down here, I think there were some variations of that because the animal didn't really exist in the area. It was mostly coyotes and things like that.

[00:14:35]>> So, I'm shining my light on it. I'm looking at it. It looks like two red eyes.

[00:14:38]It you know, I'm looking dead at it with the light. You got to imagine I'm looking at it straight on.

[00:14:43]And I'm staring at it, but I I'm so scared and nervous that I don't know I I don't know what to do with [music] it.

[00:14:51]So, my long journey, scared I don't know where this thing pop up on me.

[00:14:56]I get home.

[00:14:58]I don't run home. I walk.

[00:15:00]I get [music] inside.

[00:15:02]My dad's there like always. He's waiting on me.

[00:15:05]And he recognized [music] that he says, "Ain't nothing wrong with you. You see you white as a ghost."

[00:15:12]And I didn't tell him cuz I didn't think I was [music] crazy for what I heard and what I seen.

[00:15:18]I didn't tell anyone for about 2 weeks.

[00:15:21]And there was this visit we had with with some people, neighbors of ours, and some old people.

[00:15:28][music] And they talked about, you know, all these people that that in this at this time when they they they did a lot of trapping, and they was always in in the marsh.

[00:15:39]So, there was people that that seen things.

[00:15:41]Sitting there and listening to it, and listening to some of the stories, and and after they left, you know, that's when I >> [music] >> I told my dad about it.

[00:15:47]And I told him, you know, what happened to me that 2 weeks before to that.

[00:15:52]He said, "I remember that." He said, "And that's what was wrong with you," he said.

[00:15:57]See, yeah, that was wrong with me, and then he went to tell me his story about it.

[00:16:01]Now, his story when he was he seen something like like so.

[00:16:06]And when he described it what he seen, he he was actually looking at what his light.

[00:16:14]And he seen the broad shoulders.

[00:16:16]Something with narrow legs.

[00:16:18]He said, "The way [music] it looks, it was standing still at first, that it looked like a tree. But it caught him in the corner of his eye that made him look at it.

[00:16:27]And then it looked at him, and then ran away."

[00:16:31]And he said that it >> [music] >> when it moved in the marsh and ran away from the light, it didn't make a sound.

[00:16:38]>> It's hard to determine exactly when people started talking about the Rougarou.

[00:16:43]The name itself seems to have derived from the French term for werewolf, Loup-Garou.

[00:16:49]Loup is French for wolf, while garou indicates a man [music] capable of changing physical form.

[00:16:56]The term seems to have been born out of the numerous shape-shifting man-wolf legends that have permeated French folklore for hundreds of years.

[00:17:05]Eventually, the term Loup-Garou morphed into Rougarou, becoming interchangeable today.

[00:17:13]Presumably, the word came to the United States by way of French settlers [music] who were the first to move into the Louisiana bayous.

[00:17:21]Stories of half-man, canine creatures were already percolating around the outskirts of their early settlements.

[00:17:29]There are several legends surrounding Rougarou manifestations.

[00:17:34]In some cases, [music] these are people seeking out the power of shapeshifting.

[00:17:38]While in others, [music] the people have no choice regarding their fate.

[00:17:43]A man crosses the wrong [music] person and is subjected to a literal bone-twisting fate.

[00:17:49]Lent isn't followed as it should be.

[00:17:52]Someone speaks [music] of seeing a Rougarou before they are permitted.

[00:17:57]Victims of lycanthropy are shackled by lore.

[00:18:01]There are only [music] two ways to overcome this affliction.

[00:18:05]Either the Rougarou's own blood must be spilled, or the Rougarou must pass the curse on to another.

[00:18:18]>> A Rougarou looks like a half-man >> [music] >> and half-wolf. What what it is is curse.

[00:18:24]Somebody curses you and that curse becomes something that you can't live with until you are taken out of it by someone else.

[00:18:37]When I heard the story, I was flabbergasted. And it's a true story.

[00:18:44]My brother Mike would go every Thursday [music] to go to my uncle's house.

[00:18:52]Something was following him.

[00:18:57]When he got to my uncle's house, he actually told my uncle, he says, "Somebody been following me." On the second Thursday he went, he heard it, but then he heard a growl this time.

[00:19:09]And he told my uncle, he says, "That was no rabbit. That was not That was There's something that growled at me."

[00:19:16]And he jokingly said, "Well, it might be the loup-garou."

[00:19:20]So, on his third Thursday, he brought a gun and it followed him again.

[00:19:28]On the way back, he saw a shadow in the in the woods and he says, "Uh-uh.

[00:19:36]I'm going to see what that is." And he heard the growling.

[00:19:40]And there was a clearing and he saw in the clearing like that it was a wolf but walking on two legs.

[00:19:49]He hollered at him. He says, "Who are you?"

[00:19:53]It just growled at him.

[00:19:55]And he shot at it but he he didn't get it.

[00:20:00]So, it ran.

[00:20:03]So, the following Thursday, he went back, went to the clearing and it was there again.

[00:20:10]And this time it talked to him.

[00:20:13]He says, "I want you to deliver me."

[00:20:16]My brother says, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no.

[00:20:19]I am not doing that because if I do that, I become one in a year and a day."

[00:20:26]My My brother shot at him and he fell.

[00:20:32]He didn't He didn't He didn't really wound [music] him. He just He just fell to ground and he came back.

[00:20:40]He saw it was his uncle.

[00:20:43]So, he he hurried up and brought him in at at our house and told my mama to send somebody [music] to bring him cuz we didn't we didn't have a car. We had no cars at the house.

[00:20:56]So, the neighbor had a car and the the neighbor brought him to the hospital.

[00:21:02]And uh the next day, he thanked my brother for bringing him back.

[00:21:09]But he says, "No, I'll be comfy." He said, "No, as long as you don't tell anybody [music] for me a year and a day."

[00:21:19]My mama knew, but you wouldn't talk about it.

[00:21:23]And he would not talk about it to anyone.

[00:21:27]When he died, my brother wanted to go to his his his uh his little camp.

[00:21:34]He built a whole house on that little camp.

[00:21:37]My brother said, "I got to go in the house and see what's in the house."

[00:21:40]In the house, there was only one coffee pot and one chair. No bed, no nothing else.

[00:21:46]And they had a they had a uh path going in the back of his house.

[00:21:50]Like he was sleeping in the woods instead [music] of in his house.

[00:21:54]Him and him and my aunt was separated.

[00:21:57]And she cursed him. He was no more the supporter of [music] the house than when he moved across the bay in that little camp, that little house.

[00:22:06]And she cursed him.

[00:22:08]And that's what happened to him. And she told him she says, "I I I hope you become something that's very very ugly."

[00:22:16]He did.

[00:22:18]>> It's also thought that it could have been a curse, right? [music] Someone that was into witchcraft got upset at somebody and then could put a curse on that person. And then the only way of breaking that curse was for someone else to draw the blood of the Rougarou. And then the curse passed from that person to the person that would have drawn the blood.

[00:22:41]You have these stories of Rougarous going around as a cursed human and antagonizing another person and scaring them to defend themself. Also, if you see a Rougarou, you cannot talk about it for a hundred a hundred plus one days, a hundred and one days, right? Because [music] if you do, then that curse comes on you and then you're destined to become um the Rougarou yourself.

[00:23:15]>> Catholicism is a is [music] a very, you know, very prominent in in Louisiana.

[00:23:19]One of the things that again was was kind of a legend about the Rougarou is that you were going [music] to be cursed by the Rougarou if you didn't follow the rules of Lent. Um and so for those who are not Catholic and don't really [music] understand what Lent is, it's 40 days and 40 nights of fasting and you know, intentionally. On Fridays, you don't eat meat. In general, you're you're supposed to kind of uh give up something that you you enjoy for Lent. And so that was just a way to, especially [music] for kids, to tell kids to kind of have good behavior, follow the rules of Lent, and if you don't, the Rougarou the Rougarou's going to get you.

[00:23:56]>> [bell] >> Growing up here, it's used as a story to keep kids in line a lot of times. I mean, my grandparents and parents said, "Oh, you know, be good or the Rougarou's going to get you." And [music] so you were good, you know, you stayed in line.

[00:24:11]So, I think part of that folklore then changed into sort of a behavior else uh kind of thing for the local kids here.

[00:24:22]>> One of the origin stories of the Rougarou that um that it's still a werewolf, that it's but that it can uh shift its shape.

[00:24:29]There has been some stories of Yeah, I guess it draws comparisons to uh the Salem witch trials in that somebody could be among you and you wouldn't you wouldn't know if they're different. You wouldn't know if they're the Rougarou cuz it could [music] have shifted its shape to another human. Uh so you could be, you know, at the market, at church, and the Rougarou could be right next to you and you [music] wouldn't even know it.

[00:24:55]>> [music] >> Louisiana is rife with stories.

[00:24:58]Stories passed down through generations, morphing to take on a life of [music] their own.

[00:25:05]Like the waters of the rivers that seep into the vast Louisiana swamps, tall tales mingle with the reality and become something wholly unique.

[00:25:16]These stories suggest that the monsters and other dangers lurking in the bayou are not always easily recognizable.

[00:25:24]The Rougarou is restricted to manifesting in a single form.

[00:25:28]Knowing this requires extra caution when running into something that doesn't seem quite right.

[00:25:36]Rougarou has been known to utilize its ability to shapeshift for personal advantage.

[00:25:41]Stories with example of this run the gamut. A farmer transforming into livestock to help boost his personal economic boon.

[00:25:50]A Rougarou shucking oysters for a local fisherman at night while taking a generous 50% tax for himself.

[00:25:59]In other words, the curse of the Rougarou was not always used in a malicious fashion.

[00:26:05]However, folklore from the area tells us that the Rougarou can be anyone or anything.

[00:26:13]Someone under the curse could be a tree only turning back to human form after an axe pierces [music] its bark.

[00:26:20]Some Rougarou appear as white fur-covered critters in the form of dogs to rabbits.

[00:26:26]Sometimes, and maybe even more unnerving, the Rougarou looks just like you and I.

[00:26:38]>> The Rougarou, they say the Rougarou is the one that wants to trade souls.

[00:26:42]They'll take your place in human life while you take his his place in death.

[00:26:59]>> I live here in Coker City, but when I was about 7-8 years old, I used to live in a plantation called Laura Valley Plantation.

[00:27:08]And I used to live with my grandpa and my grandma, me and my my other siblings, okay?

[00:27:15]It's It's a long time ago. My brothers was the one that saw the guru.

[00:27:19]Okay, they call with the man with no head.

[00:27:24]Him and my cousin Roy went hunting one night.

[00:27:27]And they went hunting for rabbits down in the woods. So, they passed with the mini bike behind the plantation.

[00:27:34]On their way back from hunting they were riding on the mini bike, but we call the little mini bike.

[00:27:42]They were coming back from hunting.

[00:27:44]And this big tree called the moss tree.

[00:27:51]When they were coming back, they heard some noise in the tree. So, my brother just happened to look up.

[00:27:56]When my brother looked up and he saw something moving, so he told my cousin Roy to take the bull light to shine.

[00:28:04]Well, he saw something in the tree, but it was coming back and forth, back and forth.

[00:28:10]He saw a little while after, he jumped from the from the top to the bottom tree.

[00:28:15]And he shined the bull eye.

[00:28:19]And he shined it to the tree. When he shined it to the tree, he said it jumped right in front of them.

[00:28:24]So, him and my cousin Roy didn't know what to do with each other.

[00:28:27]He said the next thing he knew when he looked and he looked up with the bull eye, the man with no head they call the guru.

[00:28:34]Had blood gushing out.

[00:28:36]Blood gushing out. He dropped the guns.

[00:28:38]Dropped the rabbits. Dropped the bullets. Everything. He left everything right there.

[00:28:43]>> [screaming] >> But he took off. We had a big gate that blocked from the road to the back.

[00:28:49]Jumped over the gate. Jumped over the gate. My cousin Roy took the mini bike and he rode to the front with it. My brother go run to my papa. Daddy, DADDY, DADDY, DADDY, DADDY, DADDY. OKAY.

[00:28:59]He said, "What's wrong, son?" He said, "I saw him." He said, "I saw him. I saw him." He said, "What do you mean you saw him?" He said, "Daddy, I saw the rougarou. I saw the rougarou." He said, "Oh, come on, son." He said, "Daddy, I'm telling you. I saw the rougarou."

[00:29:11]So, my dad my dad and my mama, my [music] grandma and my grandpa, we all took off to the back. The next morning, we all get up. My mama had a camera in her hand.

[00:29:21]All was left was the shells, the gun, and the rabbits of the bone just itself.

[00:29:29]No meat, no nothing. The skin, just the bones were there. That's it. That's all that was there.

[00:29:44]>> [groaning] [music] >> My grandfather told a story of a rougarou that was a changeling that wasn't necessarily a wolf and was typically a white dog, but could also turn into another white animal.

[00:30:08]I mean, this is like back in the 1800s, right? So, there's no electricity, air conditioner. Those little shacks, right?

[00:30:15][music] And it was this couple that was trying to go to sleep and then the rougarou appears as like this white rooster that's jumping along the rafters making a whole bunch of noise and antagonizing the people. And so, they said that was the rougarou, this changeling kind of thing. And then they also said that they saw it as a white dog, this big white dog that you could see at night walking along the roads and in the swamps and everything. So, [music] that's not the traditional version of the Rougarou story, but that's one that a few of us growing up heard that the Rougarou could be like a shapeshifter kind of thing.

[00:30:52]>> There are just as many variations on how the Rougarou manifests as there are stories where it appears.

[00:30:59]A section of Louisiana Highway 57, known as Bayou Sally Road, is home to one of these variations.

[00:31:08]Due to the number of accidents that occurred on what has been dubbed the most haunted road in Louisiana, this road has become a prime location for a mix of ghost stories and Rougarou lore.

[00:31:21]Bayou Sally Road connects Dulac to Cocodrie, twisting and turning through the saltwater marshes, swamps, and remnants of oak and cypress crows.

[00:31:31]Warnings abound about traveling this road, particularly after dark.

[00:31:37]The Rougarou is said to stalk this area, sometimes seen standing in the middle of the road in its animalistic form. Other times, he manifests as a hitchhiker to entice drivers to give him a ride.

[00:31:51]Allowing the Rougarou into your vehicle puts you at severe risk.

[00:31:56]The only way to rid yourself of the creature once it enters your car is to give him something extremely important, perhaps even your soul.

[00:32:15]>> All I told you is what my grandpa that told me this when I was a young girl growing up. If you ever see anyone, I don't care what time it is, walking on the side of the road with white clothes on, never stop. Keep on going. Don't never turn around.

[00:32:32]When you turn around, you pick up this person that you don't know who it is, I don't want to be in your clothes or your skin.

[00:32:39]Okay, they want to trade their soul [music] for your soul.

[00:32:45]I did encounter one.

[00:32:48]Me and my husband was coming down the Cocodrie to come to work. We were coming from Cut Off and it just happened to be at night. My husband wanted me to drive.

[00:32:56]So, I went ahead and I took the wheel. I saw this guy.

[00:33:01]I mean, he was all in white.

[00:33:06]And I kept on going. I told the old man, I said, "You got a guy I see walking." He said, "We'll turn around and go see."

[00:33:14]Yeah, okay.

[00:33:15]I turned around. I turned around on the dime and I hauled tail back the other way.

[00:33:20]I went all the way to the public to the bridge when we pulled in to come towards Cocodrie.

[00:33:25]I turned around. I came back.

[00:33:34]He was at the red light.

[00:33:38]I jumped that bridge at 60 miles an hour. I took off. I did not stop.

[00:33:44]How can you get from the Grand Bayou Road in the middle of nowhere to the front?

[00:33:49]Explain [music] that to me.

[00:33:51]I didn't stop and ask no questions.

[00:33:53]Cuz if he'd have jumped in front of me, it wouldn't have been nice.

[00:33:57]It wouldn't have been that nice. No, no, [music] no.

[00:34:06]>> [screaming] >> I absolutely believe [music] he is a shapeshifter.

[00:34:12]I've heard stories from not just family members, but other people from Shell Beach. We can see him or the ones who have seen him can see him, but he's not really walking our [music] plane. Like, he could be anywhere. He could be hiding over there and we not know about it.

[00:34:28]And he he could be a rabbit, a a person. He could be a coyote, he could be anything and we're not going to know. I believe he's a lost soul.

[00:34:46]I want to say I was 19 at the time. I went to a home that was destroyed by Hurricane Gustav. I had a family pet who was buried against the fence and I wanted the cross that was put on his grave.

[00:35:00]Kind of a weird thing for me to do but I was really close to this pet and I wanted something that belonged to him.

[00:35:07]So me and my oldest son's dad and our cousin came to Chauvin and went to the home, picked up the cross and we're like, "We're going to go take a trip down to Cocodrie."

[00:35:19]We ended up on Bayou Sally Road which is like kind of a driveway of the street.

[00:35:23]When we took the right turn onto Bayou Sally Road, they had a woman in a white dress, black hair, dark black eyes.

[00:35:33]My first instinct was like, "We need to stop. Let's check on this person."

[00:35:37]And I for I was like, "No, you know what? Let let we just need to go."

[00:35:42]And when we got back to the stop sign, she was standing at the stop sign.

[00:35:47]>> [screaming] >> The car was at a complete stop at that point and me and my oldest son's dad kind of looked at each other and I started hitting him on the arm. We need to get out of here. Like something is not something's not right. We need to go. When she was in front of the hood, it was like she was looking into your soul.

[00:36:10]I like I literally felt like I was in danger.

[00:36:14]I want to say that was 2011, 2012 and I finally came back in 2018.

[00:36:22]That was the last time I've ever been to Bayou Sally Road.

[00:36:31]>> Shapeshifters are not new to Native American lore.

[00:36:35]Different tribes occupied Louisiana, and with the variety of cultures came various stories of humans with the ability to transform.

[00:36:44]Choctaw legend speaks of the stukini, malicious witches who look human during the day.

[00:36:51]At night, however, they transform themselves into undead owl beasts, feeding on human hearts and consuming souls that would later be regurgitated.

[00:37:02]Another Choctaw legend is the kashehotapolo, a creature that manifests with cloven hooves and deer legs on a human body.

[00:37:14]Yet another Choctaw legend warns hunters about a creature known as the nalusa falaya, a shadowy, tall, thin humanoid with pointed ears and a pointed snout. This monster patrols the woods and swamps away from populated areas.

[00:37:30]Undoubtedly, some influence on the rougarou legend [music] came from the French Canadians, particularly the Acadians, who moved into Louisiana centuries ago.

[00:37:40]The Acadians lived in Eastern Canada.

[00:37:43]They occupied areas of Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward [music] Island, and Nova Scotia.

[00:37:50]Prior to leaving Canada, the Acadians were fierce allies with the Micmac tribe during the French and Indian War.

[00:37:57]Not only [music] did these two groups fight together, but also lived together at times.

[00:38:03]Certainly, through this closeness, Micmac lore could easily weave its way [music] into stories that the Acadians would eventually bring to Louisiana.

[00:38:14]Lukes is a spiteful wolverine spirit in Micmac legend that was associated with negative behaviors.

[00:38:21]Another Micmac tale recounts a Wendigo-like creature known as a Chenoo.

[00:38:26]A Chenoo was a man possessed by an evil spirit.

[00:38:30]A man who turned against his own kind when in duress.

[00:38:34]The only escape from this curse was death.

[00:38:39]Native American lore in southern Louisiana tells of a proud warrior-like tribe that held the tradition of consuming their enemies after battle.

[00:38:48]The Attakapa legend says the tribe was defeated and forced into the remote swamps where they called upon dark spirits to grant them the powers of shapeshifting, eventually leading to their transformation into what we call the Rougarou.

[00:39:04]For decades, the tale has been retold without any attempt being made to determine if the origins are rooted in actual native legend or if it's just another modern-day addition to the origin story.

[00:39:18]>> The Attakapas were a very, very proud tribe.

[00:39:22]And when they were they they were living like in the the swamp, the uh they were like us. They weren't invited to go anywhere else.

[00:39:35]Several Several of their tribespeople became [music] Rougarous.

[00:39:41]And if And if you had went in in their tribe without being invited, they would ate you. But to them, it wasn't like they were >> [music] >> they were they they didn't see it was cannibal. They were eating you to [music] take to get your strength.

[00:39:57]Because I'm I'm a leader to them and I would never eat a person.

[00:40:01]I wasn't raised that way anyway.

[00:40:03]They made a deal with the devil.

[00:40:06]But they were proud, proud people.

[00:40:20]>> Pretty much anybody that that grows up down here, we all know about the Rougarou. And I mean, there's several little stories they tell all the kids down here. And you know, if you're not good, the Rougarou is going to get you and different things like that, especially if you live in the woods.

[00:40:38]I never had a fear of the woods, personally, but I was always attracted to it.

[00:40:48]I grew up with my my mom and papa.

[00:40:51]In that particular spot where our house was, I believe I can't confirm, but I believe that it was on Indian burial ground.

[00:41:01]They had cleared out the land for the house, right? It was it was about 5 or 6 acres. And then, at the very back of the property, there was sort of like it was flat, but then it came to a balcony sort of of like dirt. And I'm pretty sure that was part of the burial mound. We had been doing a garden every year.

[00:41:22]And everybody knows that, you know, you can't plant in the same spot every single year, otherwise, you won't, you know, get really good crops.

[00:41:31]So, we had [music] moved to an area of the property that we have never used before. And he started [music] tilling up the land.

[00:41:40]And it just made this really horrible [music] noise.

[00:41:44]And it started shooting out what looked like rocks.

[00:41:48]And we go over and we're going through everything.

[00:41:52]And we found out that it's arrowheads.

[00:41:55]And bows, arrows, pottery. He was part Native.

[00:42:02]And he immediately realized what it was. And so, he started picking up the pieces, putting them back. I thought, hey, these are really cool. I took pieces and I kind of put them in my pockets and, you know, and I brought them back in the house.

[00:42:20]And that pretty much kicked off what would be about five nights of the I I don't really know what you'd call it. I'm not even sure I'd necessarily call it the Rougarou, but it was a dogman-looking entity.

[00:42:43]The first night, I woke up just out of nowhere.

[00:42:47]There it just felt different in [music] my house.

[00:42:59]And I always slept with my door open.

[00:43:00]There was a bathroom down the hallway and there was a nightlight always in there for me.

[00:43:05]And and so it would shine down the hallway and so my bedroom door would be illuminated.

[00:43:13]And so I looked to the door and there is this figure.

[00:43:19]>> [sighs] >> Completely black.

[00:43:22]But I noticed that I compare it to Anubis now. When I was a kid, I didn't know anything about >> [music] >> Egyptian culture.

[00:43:29]I I I guess I kind of thought at first that I might have been dreaming.

[00:43:34]So I sat up in bed and I started to try to get out of bed.

[00:43:39]And I stopped because in my head it spoke to me.

[00:43:46]And it said, "Don't move."

[00:43:49]It didn't move. It didn't do anything.

[00:43:52]It just stood [music] there and it said, "The things that you picked up today, you need to put them back."

[00:43:59]And of course, you know, nobody knew I had them.

[00:44:04]And then it told me to lay down, which I did, and then I just instinctively closed my eyes and fell back asleep, and that was pretty much it. And it it pretty much did that for three nights.

[00:44:17]The same thing, exactly the same.

[00:44:23]And then the [music] very fifth night, when I woke up, it was directly beside my bed.

[00:44:43]And that kind of scared me.

[00:44:46]You know, I mean, I'm not like a visceral, just a visceral fear, I guess. And it said, "You need to honor your ancestors. You need to put these back in the ground where they had been."

[00:45:00]So, the very next morning, because it had been so close, it did scare me.

[00:45:06]And the very next morning, I went back outside.

[00:45:10]I kind of snuck out there before anybody else woke up.

[00:45:13]And I put everything back in the ground, and it never came back again.

[00:45:19]Two different nations occupied that area at some point, and I have both of those in my bloodline.

[00:45:28]Uh Choctaw and Chakchiuma.

[00:45:34]>> In this part of [music] the country, the Rougarou isn't just a regional boogeyman or a ghost given physical form.

[00:45:41]The beast is said to appear for a multitude of reasons >> [music] >> in a myriad of ways to people of all ages, but especially to children.

[00:45:52]Although most see the Rougarou as something to be feared, there are times the beast [music] transitions from the role of a monster to that of a guardian.

[00:46:02]Before stories of the French Loup-Garou crossed the Atlantic, some tales spoke of a shapeshifter that went against the stereotypical brutish nature.

[00:46:12]On the way back to his monastery, Abbot Gilbert, in a sleep-induced haze, fell from his horse and [music] was injured.

[00:46:20]His wounds were serious enough that the scent of his blood drew the attention of wildcats keen to make him their next meal.

[00:46:28]Too weak to defend himself, the Abbot survived solely due [music] to the interference of a werewolf.

[00:46:38]In the mid-1800s, in response to the Great Hunger in Ireland, immigrants found their way to America.

[00:46:45]New Orleans was one port that saw a huge influx of Irish immigrants.

[00:46:50]With these immigrants came their own stories, including tales of benevolent werewolves.

[00:46:57]In Louisiana, the Rougarou served as a guardian of children, warning them, through its mere manifestation, to avoid misbehavior.

[00:47:07]Youths have reported encountering the beast while they were trespassing or taking sacred artifacts that were uncovered [music] while exploring the land.

[00:47:16]If the Rougarou appears, perhaps you should return home >> [music] >> and promptly return anything you took without permission.

[00:47:25]>> [music] >> The Rougarou is also a protector of the land and its ecosystem.

[00:47:31]Hunters who have chosen to take a life on sacred days have lived to regret their decision.

[00:47:38]This aspect harkens back to the religious undertones that are sprinkled throughout Rougarou lore.

[00:47:44]Certain days of the year, animals should be safe from the violence of man.

[00:47:49]Dishonoring that obligation can cause [music] the Rougarou to appear.

[00:47:58]>> You know, my uncle had an encounter with a rougarou as a kid. It all wraps around Catholicism, [music] right? So, this was during a holy day of obligation. What I like about that story and how he shares it is >> [music] >> he he shares it as the rougarou being sort of a protector of the swamp and a protector of all these, you know, this the rabbit that should not have been shot on a holy day of obligation. So, any other day would have been okay to go hunt rabbits, but just not this one. And so, the rougarou is telling him that's [music] the wrong thing to do. Not in my swamp, buddy.

[00:48:38]>> Down here, a lot of people they say that the adults used the rougarou to scare the kids to keep them out the woods. I grew up in the woods.

[00:48:47]That was my second home.

[00:48:48]When I came home from school, the shoes went off and I was in the woods.

[00:48:52]We weren't allowed to wear shoes in the woods cuz we only got one pair a year, so we had to go to school with them.

[00:48:57]So, the parents would tell these stories of these creatures to scare the kids so that when the sun went down, they'd get out the woods cuz the parents wouldn't go chasing in the woods after But we knew that when the streetlights came on, you better get your butt back home.

[00:49:10]That was just a a rule.

[00:49:12]So, growing up with it, it was all around us.

[00:49:17]Did we fear it? No.

[00:49:19]Once I seen it? Yeah.

[00:49:27]I was 13 years old. Back then, we didn't have a whole lot of money and you pretty much grew your food or you shot your food because the store, when you went to the store, you got rice, bread, and just the essentials.

[00:49:42]Couldn't afford a meat except chicken every now and then. So, my sisters and all had got together, my older siblings, and they bought me a shotgun for my Christmas. Me and my wife was all excited cuz I mean now I get to go hunt me some food.

[00:49:56]So, the following year when it was time to hunt in October, I was ready. I had my box of shells. I had a hunting dog. We was out there.

[00:50:04]When I started hunting, my mama had told me that 2 days after Halloween that I'm not supposed to go hunting.

[00:50:15]Because whenever you go hunting, you can't draw blood the 2 days after of Halloween. So, if you kill something, you're taking their life.

[00:50:24]The 2 days after Halloween is All Souls and All Saints' Day.

[00:50:29]And down here on the bayou, we religious as heck. So, that was something that you didn't just take light.

[00:50:37]It was the day after Halloween and we'd went trick-or-treating the night before, so I was all excited, hopped up on candy.

[00:50:43]Come home, my mom and dad had went to the grocery store.

[00:50:46]I was by myself.

[00:50:49]Lo and behold, I had click, shotgun, dog, rabbits.

[00:50:53]Took off.

[00:50:54]Nothing seemed strange. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

[00:50:59]Hunted for probably about 2 hours.

[00:51:03]Didn't even see a squirrel.

[00:51:04]So, I started making my way back towards the house.

[00:51:08]On the side of the headland, they had these big tall grass that were growing We call them blood reeds. When you're walking in the woods, there's never a time you don't hear a bird, a lizard, something.

[00:51:21]But I had been walking all this time and I realized that like I hadn't even heard a bird.

[00:51:26]Like, man, that was odd.

[00:51:28]There was no wind.

[00:51:30]But the blood reeds started shaking.

[00:51:33]Like they were trembling, like scared.

[00:51:35]And I saw these It looked like a human hand, I guess you could say, but it was long fingers and like each joint was exaggerated.

[00:51:45]Like they was like swole up.

[00:51:47]But then on the end of the claw I call it a claw but it was like a hand.

[00:51:52]It had like this long nail.

[00:51:56]And it opened up the blood reef.

[00:51:58]And then his foot stepped out.

[00:52:01]It was It was like a human foot but made like a dog cuz when it stepped it stepped on the ball like the front.

[00:52:10]And this thing it just looked out and looked around at me. At that point I was exiting the scene.

[00:52:19]I took off.

[00:52:31]I was scared crapless.

[00:52:33]Took off.

[00:52:34]Nothing was on my mind except getting back to my house.

[00:52:38]I was running as fast as I could.

[00:52:41]But the whole time that I was running I could feel his breath and his growl and rumble right behind me.

[00:52:50]And I'm The only thing I could think of is that claw was going to cut me in half.

[00:52:55]And I'm just running and running.

[00:53:02]When I cleared the trees it stopped.

[00:53:07]When I looked down I had lost one of my boots.

[00:53:11]I had run so fast I'd run clean out my boot. My mama looked at me when I walked into the house.

[00:53:17]I don't know how she knew.

[00:53:19]But she knew.

[00:53:21]She looked at me in the face and said "You saw it. Son, I go pick up your gun and don't touch it for 9 days."

[00:53:27]She said you can't touch you can't kill nothing for 9 days.

[00:53:31]I didn't touch that thing for 9 months.

[00:53:40]>> Another cultural influence in Louisiana, reflected in both communities and lore, has Italian roots.

[00:53:48]In Italy, there is a legend of a boy who is born into a lifetime of shapeshifting due to his birth on Christmas Eve. He was doomed to shapeshift into a bloodthirsty werewolf on that day every year for the remainder of his life.

[00:54:04]This child was pitied but accepted by his village.

[00:54:07]The community made annual efforts to ensure all remain safe until the boy returned to his human form on Christmas morning.

[00:54:16]Eventually, the boy grew into a man and married.

[00:54:20]He and his wife devised a plan to keep her safe during his hours of transformation.

[00:54:26]The plan was to lock the house prior to his change and not open the door until he knocked three times.

[00:54:33]This strategy worked [music] until she became too complacent in the routine.

[00:54:38]One Christmas Eve, while in his werewolf form, the man was allowed to enter his own home.

[00:54:45]There, he slaughtered his wife during the night.

[00:54:52]Another notable influence on the Louisiana Rougarou comes from Haitian culture.

[00:54:58]Caution regarding the Lou Garou is still very prevalent in Haiti.

[00:55:03]It is a very unwelcome creature whose main goal is to steal children and suck their blood.

[00:55:10]Here, the Lou Garou can literally be any animal, and the concern over its presence grows each time homes and families are torn apart due to natural disasters such as earthquakes.

[00:55:23]Other stories in Louisiana involve children or teenagers being left alone to monitor younger siblings or to babysit other children.

[00:55:33]Once the adults leave the home, the youth in charge will hear a knock on the door.

[00:55:39]Even if at first the child refuses to answer the knocks, inevitably something enters the home.

[00:55:45]The Rougarou.

[00:55:47]In some cases, the beast seems to simply serve the purpose of instilling fear in the children.

[00:55:53]Other times, the creature enters the dwelling with a specific purpose in mind.

[00:55:59]It wants to be released from its bonds.

[00:56:02]Since blood must be spilled in order for the Rougarou to return to its normal human state, it begs the children to wound it, thereby freeing it from its curse.

[00:56:20]>> Years later, my son was in band, and a young lady that was in band with him started talking of an experience that she had while being babysitted on the same bayou.

[00:56:34]The adults was doing something, and her cousin was a teenager.

[00:56:38]And her cousin was watching her.

[00:56:40]And she said when her cousin had went to the store to go get some stuff, she was at the house, and her younger cousin, probably about 5 years younger than her, they were there alone for a few minutes.

[00:56:53]And she heard a knock outside the door.

[00:56:56]She thought it was her older cousin coming back from the store, and that she had her hands full of groceries, and needed help to get in.

[00:57:03]When she heard the knock, when she opened the door, whatever this thing was, entered.

[00:57:12]And she grabbed her cousin, and then it looked at her, and she had her and her cousin, her little cousin, within the corner.

[00:57:20]And it just looked and stood over her.

[00:57:23]And it was breathing heavy and growling.

[00:57:28]She closed her eyes, and then she heard some noise, and when she looked up, this thing was gone.

[00:57:33]She didn't go outside to see where it went or what happened to it. She just terrified. And when the other older cousin came back, she's like, "Well, what happened to the house? Why is it all tore up?" She said, "It was still sitting in the corner."

[00:57:47]Scared.

[00:57:48]So, she right away, like me, people started making fun of her because of her story.

[00:57:56]And she thought I was going to do the same thing, and I just laughed. I said, "No."

[00:58:00]I told her my story, and she's like, "Holy cow."

[00:58:03]And her, too, she was thinking that maybe she's seen something, maybe it was all in her mind.

[00:58:09]>> [music] >> I told a couple of my cousins about [music] it.

[00:58:21]Of course, you know, you get the the thing where you're full of it, you know.

[00:58:24]>> [music] >> And described, you know, the animal that I had I had seen and what I heard and all the and the sound that I couldn't describe cuz it there's no animal that comes close to it.

[00:58:34]Well, after about a couple of years [music] passed by, my dad had passed away and everything.

[00:58:40]There was this time that me and the same guys that I told the story to, we decided to go frogging.

[00:58:46]And pretty much in the close to the same [music] area.

[00:58:49]And while we was in that area, and I mean, I'm just getting my light together, [music] at that moment, the same sound came up.

[00:58:59]So loud.

[00:59:03]It was like the first time I I heard that way. I knew instantly that was my time to show them this is what I was talking about.

[00:59:11]So, we trying to be quiet. Now, we didn't see anything, but you can hear it loud and clear as day.

[00:59:17]And they're freaking out. I mean, they they're just scared as all hell. And I'm not as fearful as I was the first time. I've heard this already. Now is the time I get to show you what I heard.

[00:59:29]Let's listen to it one more time. I want y'all to listen to it one more time. We got to be clear. Hear this thing clear one more time.

[00:59:35]And and it did. It made another noise. And I mean, it was just so loud. It was it was a roar that I can't even explain.

[00:59:50]They got to hear it clear as day. And there was no stopping them this time.

[00:59:53]There was [music] not the the boat was not sitting still. We got all the way home, ran inside, freaking out, telling our story all night. Like, "I can't believe what the hell was that?" Trying to figure [music] out what was that.

[01:00:04]I really never gave it much thought after what I'm saying.

[01:00:19]>> [music] >> Folk tales shared throughout Louisiana provide us with a glimpse of the cultural tapestry that [music] makes this particular part of the South so unique.

[01:00:32]The Rougarou is a reflection [music] of this tapestry with each piece woven together while still preserving their own individualism.

[01:00:41]>> [music] >> The stories and manifestations of the swamp-dwelling werewolf have been shaped over time, morphing with the integration of each [music] distinctive piece from lore around the world.

[01:00:52]The stories of the Rougarou have varied just as much as the landscape of Louisiana itself has morphed over the centuries.

[01:01:01]Coastlines [music] are disappearing.

[01:01:03]Freshwater marshes are giving way to saltwater. Plants and animals [music] once in abundance are all but gone.

[01:01:10]A drive down Bayou Sally Road is a glimpse of what is to come in places that were once [music] home to a freshwater environment.

[01:01:19]Scattered along Louisiana's coast are ghost forests.

[01:01:23]Vast areas of dead cypress trees that cannot survive [music] due to salt water intrusion in the region.

[01:01:31]Residents along the coast [music] are being forced inland as their homes are being lost due to flooding.

[01:01:38]As this slow migration [music] occurs, it leads one to wonder what will become of the tales once told from one generation to the next.

[01:01:49]If the home of the Rougarou disappears, what will happen to the stories?

[01:02:03]>> You know, all the all the stories you hear when you when you when you're young, it's oh, you made that up. You made that up.

[01:02:09]No, you actually witnessed it. No, you didn't make it up.

[01:02:13]It actually happened. [music] I think it's the the the the swamp.

[01:02:18]The the the area itself it was all trees and it was and from this day that area there is still all woods and moss on this side of the bay. But on this side they got a levee now and it's all cleared. And a lot of them died and moved out.

[01:02:34]The house that I that I grew up in was torn down.

[01:02:39]There's no more house there.

[01:02:41]Only the property.

[01:02:44]>> Cajun people will will always be in Louisiana. It's part of the it's part [music] of the heritage because so many French Acadians migrated to Louisiana.

[01:02:51]But I think French influence was a little stronger in Louisiana a couple hundred years ago. The Rougarou probably was was >> [music] >> very prominent. We kind of live in a in a society where information is so quickly at our fingertips. Things that are probably are believed to probably [music] not be real can easily be established as as being not real.

[01:03:10]I would think [music] as long as I've been alive it probably has been less prominent in Louisiana than it than it used to be.

[01:03:19]>> One [music] of the reasons why we decided to do the festival was because so few people knew the story anymore.

[01:03:28]The children, like none of the kids knew the story of the Rougarou or what the Rougarou was. You know, what are we doing to preserve the traditions and preserve the culture as we experience this [music] coastal land loss and people are having to migrate north.

[01:03:46]And I think that's probably, >> [music] >> you know, the best thing that we could have done is put the folklore into a festival and celebrate [music] who we are as a people. And you know, when people say, "Oh, do you think is the is the Rougarou real or not?" You know, I get that question often.

[01:04:05]And you know, I I feel the correct response is that it almost it doesn't matter if you believe that the Rougarou is real or not. What matters is that this story unites a group of people that their ancestors have told these stories and have kept them going, you you know, generation after generation.

[01:04:26]And it's sort of like we we we failed for a little bit. But I feel like the festival has really picked up the torch again to keep that story alive.

[01:04:39]You know, we say if the Rougarou doesn't have a place to live then neither will we. And so that's why [music] we need to restore the swamps, protect them, so it protects us in the same at the same time. [music] >> [music] >> I tried to find it sounds that made that things that it sound.

[01:05:11]Even I I even looked it up, you know, like >> [music] >> and there's someone that came close, but almost none of them were dead on.

[01:05:21]This thing was was I I I can't even describe [music] it.

[01:05:26]But it was definitely terrifying.

[01:05:30]I definitely I'd love to hear it again, the roar.

[01:05:34]Bring back memories, for sure.

[01:05:38]I think the habitat where [music] because all that area where where was where it happened now today is is it's just open [music] marsh. When they didn't used to have trees there, they used to have big trees there.

[01:05:50]And the animals that it [music] used to have, you know, deers and rabbits and stuff, they don't have that that much anymore.

[01:05:56]You know, since the this coastal erosion is constantly changing [music] things, you know, the habitat for that is not there anymore.

[01:06:04]Definitely. Not saying they would >> [music] >> be somewhere else, but around here, no.

[01:06:49]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Mhm.

[01:10:05]>> Mhm.