When Magellan sailed thru Patagonia they witnessed giants.
It was chronicled by Pigafetta.
https://www.thearchaeologist.org/blog/the-last-ancient-giants-the-patagones
There are several Biblical accounts of giants, too.
“Patagonia” means “big foot.” IIRC, it’s from the footprints the Spanish encountered.
accusing ‘others’ of being cannibals, i.e, demonizing them, was probably the excuse used down generations to rationalize why a competing group was hunted to exterminaton by invading ‘indians’.
‘giants’ weren’t that unusual in pre-historic Europe and still aren’t that unusual in Africa - the Tutsi, Maasai and Dinka are the most commonly known, but there are other tribes throughout Africa that are also very tall, especially next to a 5’5” european male or 5’8” Plains Indian in the 1500’s to 1600’s. Gauls-Celts and Germanic tribes were tall and often red-haired. The Maasai are also known for their red hair. American Indians obviously weren’t the first to cross the Bering Bridge since their own fireside stories do tell of preexisting humans. So it doesn’t seem that farfetched to imagine that other ‘giants,’ some with red hair, existed not only within the African continent but throughout Europe.
https://genomicatlas.org/2021/04/26/human-height-in-prehistoric-europe/
https://earthlymission.com/dinka-tallest-people-in-africa-probably-entire-world-sudan/
https://kenyalogue.com/tallest-tribes-in-africa/
https://african.nativetribe.info/red-haired-tribe-of-africa-embracing-the-unique-beauty-of-the-wodaabe-people/#google_vignette
The Mound People who inhabited areas along and thence into the interior, of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, were giants.
In Ohio, digging into the mounds was prohibited, back in the early 19th century, because the findings would upset the new locals.
Many of the Mound People were “rubbed out” by various “Indian” tribes that entered the [eventual U.S.A.] territory from the far northwest and the northeast.
A lot of the old guys were “rubbed out” by the new guys, though the modern “enlightened” historians who would have everybody believe that the Sioux and Cherokee were administrators of some Great Environmental Protection Agency.