Dorothy Westerman
Northern News Services

Aklavik (Oct 04/04) - Aklavik residents are scratching their heads after several very large and unidentifiable footprints were found outside the community last month.

Described as human-like, the large footprints were found about three to four feet apart from each other. They were discovered in mid to late September about 50 kilometres northwest of Aklavik in a dried-out lakebed outside the west channel.

Mayor Billie Archie was hesitant to comment on the discovery, but said it was "no joke."

"We don't want to be put into the situation where people say it is human tracks but it is not," Archie said.

"It's something strange."

Archie said he sent several elders out to the location of the tracks, one of whom said they were neither grizzly bear or moose tracks.

"They look like big, big, big human tracks," said Archie.

Archie said it is a popular area to go for those who venture onto the land.

He said numerous people saw the tracks and photographed them.

"A lot of them were quite curious to see what they were," he said.

The tracks went partway across the dried-out lakebed and then across to the land, he said.

Rob Pascal said the tracks were found by a hunter and an elder and trapper went out to investigate.

"There is also a photograph around that shows the depth to which the track sunk in compared to other prints around it," Pascal said.

The distance between each track was too far apart to be made by a human, he said.

Pascal's brother Eugene said talk among residents of Aklavik have some believing something strange may be lurking in the hills, perhaps a sasquatch-like creature, while others are more skeptical.

"But there have been some stories in the past 10 or 20 years of something being seen in the hills," said Eugene Pascal.