I never really did much reading on 'Bigfoot' before. But your post led me into looking a little into this particular phenomenen.
I discovered the following -

This is not a new phenomenen. A similar creature was spotted in the US in the 1800's and there are a couple of newspaper items about it. I have not looked into any accounts by native americans, but it seems reasonable to assume that if this creature is real, then some record of it would be recorded somewhere in their history.

The BBC in 1998 tried to re-create the Patterson footage of 'bigfoot' but did not quite get it right. see the photo below.



When I looked at the BBC photo I immediately saw faces and images in the photo and I include some of them here just for fun.



The imprint of what appeared to be a large animal's left forearm, hip, thigh, and heel was discovered Sept22nd, 2000 in a muddy wallow near Mt. Adams in southern Washington state by a Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (www.BFRO.net) expedition in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. All who examined it concluded and agreed that it could not be attributed to any commonly known Northwest animal and may represent an unknown primate.

The man who obtained the Patterson footage, Roger Patterson, died of cancer in the early 1970's. He was emphatic to the end that he filmed a real animal in October 1967.

The man who was with Patterson at the time, Bob Gimlin, is still alive. He is also adamant that it was a real animal.

I note there is a DVD out entitled
"Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science". According to the DVD -

For the first time, scientists from many disciplines put the most compelling sasquatch evidence under the microscope and apply forensic science to the on-going mystery.
DVD includes:

The full length of the Patterson footage in digital format, allowing you to zoom in on individual frames with unprecendented clarity
More of the Freeman footage
More of the Memorial Day footage
An FAQ on the sasquatch mystery
A gallery of images related to sasquatch evidence and research.

I also note there are numerous expeditions being led to look for bigfoot in different areas of the USA this year 2007.