Shunka Warak'in

At the turn of the 20th century, the Hutchinson family, having settled in Montana, witnessed mysterious events involving an unusual beast that may have been related to canids. Ross Hutchins, one of the family's descendants, described encounters with this creature, which had hyena-like features, in his book "Crops of Nature's Mysteries." This article examines the history of the shunka warak'in, a legendary animal believed by Iowa Indians to be capable of making human sounds, and the various theories surrounding its origins.

In the late 19th century, the Hutchinson family moved to Montana and settled on the banks of the Madison River in Montana County. Shortly thereafter, reports of encounters with a mysterious beast, most likely related to a canid (Canidae), were reported. One of the descendants of this family was zoologist Ross Hutchins. In 1977, he wrote a book titled "Clues of Nature's Mysteries: The Life of a Working Naturalist." In this book, he chronicled many mysterious cryptozoological events that had occurred in North America. The following quote comes from the book: "One winter morning, my grandfather was alerted by barking dogs. He discovered that a dark, wolf-like beast was chasing my grandmother's goose. He shot at the animal with a shotgun but missed. It ran downstream, but a few days later it was seen again at dawn. It was seen several times around our house and others, about fifteen miles downstream. Whatever it was, it was an excellent walker... Those who got a good look at the animal described it as almost entirely black, with high forelegs and much lower hind legs, like those of a hyena. One morning in late January, my grandfather was again alerted by dogs, and this time he managed to kill the animal. But what the creature was was still an open question. After killing it, it was given to a man named Sherwood, who owned a chain of grocery stores and a museum in Henry Lake, Idaho. The animal's body was stuffed and displayed there for many years. It was called a ringdocus."In 1995, Iowa Native American Lance Foster informed Loren Coleman of a tradition in his tribe about an animal the Indians called shunka warak'in ("dog-taker") that made sounds like humans when killed. Foster's description closely resembled a hyena and an animal on display in an Idaho museum, proving it to be a shunka warak'in.

Coleman speculated that the animal was a prehistoric survivor of a species known as Borophagus , and there have also been theories that it may have been another officially extinct animal, the closely resembling hyena Hyaenodon montanus .