The name _Sasquatch_ doesn't really become important in Canada
until the 1930s, when it appeared in the works of J. W. Burns,
a British Columbian writer who used a great deal of Indian
lore in his stories. Burn's Sasquatch was a giant Indian who
lived in the wilderness. He was hairy only in the sense that
he had long hair on his head, and while this Sasquatch lived a
wild and primitive life, he was fully human.
Burns's character proved to be quite popular. There was a
Sasquatch Inn near the town of Harrison, British Columbia, and
Harrison even had a local celebration called "Sasquatch Days."
The celebration which had been dormant for years was revived
as part of British Columbia's centennial, and one of the
events was to be a Sasquatch hunt. The hunt never took place,
perhaps it was never supposed to, but the publicity about it
did bring out a number of people who said they had encountered
a Sasquatch -- not Burns's giant Indian, but the hairy apelike
creature that we have all come to know.
[ The Encyclopedia of Monsters, by Daniel Cohen ]