Former Officer Recounts Encounter with Lakota's Shitanka on Pine Ridge

So, I just came across this interview on the Bigfoot Society channel with Jeremiah Byron, and honestly, this one is worth sitting down for. Jeremiah sits down with a guy named Keith, who spent years working on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, and Keith has a story that will stick with you. The encounter happened back in January, sometime around 3:00 or 3:30 in the morning. And when I say it was cold, I mean it was *South Dakota in the middle of winter* cold. Keith described it as the kind of cold where trees were literally exploding from the freeze. The elders on the reservation even had a name for nights like that — they called it the "night of the popping trees." How cool is that? Anyway, Keith got a call about a woman who was out between two buildings — a house on one side and a big tribal complex on the other, with about 200 to 300 yards of open field in between. Someone reported seeing a figure squatting or kneeling down, rocking back and forth, sounding like they were crying. In that kind of cold, you don't leave someone out there, so Keith went to check. He got to the house, and about 100 yards out in the field, he could see a dark object. He started walking toward it, calling out, "Hey, you okay? Come on back inside, it's too cold out here." He got maybe 50 yards out, and the thing stood up. Keith's first words? "You are real." Now here's where it gets really interesting. The figure was about six feet tall, thin, and when it turned to look at him, it had yellow eyes. On Pine Ridge, the locals call them Shitanka — that's the Lakota name for these beings, and it's a term rooted in deep cultural tradition. Keith figured it was a younger one based on conversations he'd had with people on the reservation. Then it did something that honestly gave me chills. It was standing next to a ravine — about six feet deep, maybe 12 feet across — a flood control channel. This being just stepped off the embankment like you or I would step off a curb. Took two steps across the bottom, hopped halfway up the other side, put its foot on the top, and took off running toward the west, toward Allen, South Dakota. Back at the house, the people inside were clearly shaken. They were hanging onto each other, scared. Keith asked them if they'd seen it too, and they confirmed they had. One elderly lady in the house said something that really caught my attention — she told Keith, "Yeah, they always go that way. I think there's a portal down by the cemetery." A *portal*. On a Native American reservation, no less. If you've spent any time researching these phenomena, you know that Indigenous communities across North America have long held beliefs about portals, spirit doors, and places where the veil between worlds is thin. The Pine Ridge Reservation has a rich oral tradition around these ideas, and it's not the kind of thing people just make up casually. This wasn't some random comment — it was an elder sharing cultural knowledge as casually as if she were telling Keith which road to take to Rapid City. Keith also had a tracking dog with him that night — a dog he specifically used for following tracks. But when he tried to get the dog out of the vehicle to follow the being, the dog had turned around, buried its head into the corner of the ride, and was whimpering. He couldn't get the dog out. And knowing what we know about Sasquatch and their interactions with canines, Keith made the smart call and left the dog alone. By the time it got light enough to go back out and look for tracks, the wind and blowing snow had filled everything in. No tracks. Nothing. Just an open field and a story that nobody was going to believe. And here's the part that really got me — Keith didn't even write up a report. He told the dispatcher what he saw, and she asked if he was going to file it. His response? "How am I going to write that up?" He explained that whenever reports were written up on the reservation, people would show up from Rapid City — or at least that's what they said — to collect them. The implication being that these reports were ending up in the hands of people far outside the local law enforcement chain. So Keith just kept it to himself. This is the kind of encounter that doesn't make the news. It doesn't go viral. It just becomes another story that someone carries with them for the rest of their life, tucked away in the back of their mind. Keith had been working on Pine Ridge since 1996, and by the time this happened, he had seen enough to know that some things just aren't worth the paperwork. The interview itself is worth watching for the full context. Jeremiah also opens the episode with some personal news about a recent lymphoma diagnosis, and he's been incredibly open with his community about the journey. He's set up a CaringBridge page for anyone who wants to follow along and support him. The man's been fighting this thing since he was two years old, and his attitude about it is honestly inspiring. But back to Keith's story — the yellow eyes, the casual step off a six-foot embankment, the terrified tracking dog, and that elder's mention of a portal near the cemetery. This is the kind of account that reminds you why this subject matters. These aren't just campfire tales. These are experienced people, in real situations, seeing something they can't explain and often choosing to stay quiet about it because they know nobody will believe them anyway. Definitely check out the full interview if you get a chance. It's one of those conversations that stays with you.