The "Little People" in Southeast Native American folklore

The folklore of the native peoples of North America provides a very large recurrence of legends about a "little race of men" who lived deep in the woods, near ancient burial mounds or on rocks near streams or the Great Lakes. In mythic narratives, they are often described as "hairy-faced dwarfs", while some petroglyphs depict them with horns traveling in a canoe in groups of five or seven. Among Amerindian peoples, people refer to them by the names of Kanaka'wasa, Nuh-na-yie, Iyaganasha and others. According to traditional narratives, they are a population of very small beings, less than a meter tall. Apart from information on their small size, little is known about their physical appearance (however, many testimonies describe them as having long hoary beards and wearing clothes of very ancient workmanshipโ€”similar to the European tradition of Gnomes and the like), since they remain mostly invisible, except for the people they spontaneously decide to show themselves to (children or medicine men).

The belief in the Little People is widespread not only in Europe, but also among the native peoples of North America. In this article we analyze the body of beliefs relating to the "hidden people" in the traditionsย Cherokee, Choctaw, Creek, Seminole and Chickasaw

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The belief in the existence of the "Little People" is an integral part of the folklore of numerous ancient traditions, among which the best known are those of Northern Europe (Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia and Germany). The existence of the "Hidden People" it has been handed down orally, over the millennia, within all these cultures. According to the legends, their attitude is (as often happens in the case of supernatural beings of the type Trickster) twofold: on the one hand they confer wisdom and occult knowledge on man, on the other they provoke him with spite, causing him to be lost in the woods, frightening him and even causing his death.

The folklore of the native peoples of North America provides a very large recurrence of legends on one "Little race of men" that lives deep in the woods, near the ancient burial mounds or rocks near waterways or the Great Lakes. In mythical narratives, they are often described as "shaggy-faced dwarves" ( "hairy-faced dwarfsโ€), While some petroglyphs depict them with horns traveling in a canoe in groups of five or seven.ย Among the Amerindian peoples, people refer to them by the names of Kanaka'wasa,ย ย Nuh-na-yie,ย Iyaganasha e others. According to traditional narratives, it is a population of very small beings, less than a meter tall. Apart from the information about their small size, little is known about their physical appearance (however, many testimonies describe them as having long white beards and wearing very old-fashioned clothes -similar to the European tradition of Gnomes et similia), since they remain mostly invisible, except for people to whom they spontaneously decide to show themselves (children or medicine men).

It is also told of how they play pranks to man, for example by intoning a tune and then hiding or making themselves invisible when someone, intrigued by the melody, looks for its source. The the Little People's predilection for children: it is said that they help them in case of parental abuse, or if they get lost in the woods. Other legends report that, if they were seen by an adult, they would advise him not to talk about their existence and would reward those who are able to keep their word by helping him in cases of difficulty. The disposition of character of the Small People, therefore, changes according to the geographical origin of the various narratives, from tribe to tribe, and not infrequently - as we shall see - we will find a singular heterogeneity of attitudes within the Small People even in the testimonies of individual tribe.

This article will examine the folkloric and mythical testimonies and beliefs handed down by members of the native tribes who originally inhabited the southeastern part of North America, namely what George Washington and Henry Knox had called "5 civilized tribes": the Cherokee, the Choctaw, the Creek, the Seminole and the Chickasaw. They were all deported by the American authorities to the Indian Territory, the future Oklahoma, on the so-called "Path of Tears".

Trails_of_Tears_en

Choctaws

In ancient times, when the Choctaw Indians lived in Mississippi, legends have it that some supernatural beings, or spirits (known as Kanaka'wasa o "Forest dwellers"), shared the territory with the tribal communities. They were "two or three feet high" and they lived in the densest parts of the woods, living in caves hidden under large boulders. The Indians never entered these caves in order not to disturb their "neighbors". Many of the elders they still firmly believe in the existence of the forest people, although the younger generations are more often than not led to regard these stories as pure fiction.

How_Morning_Star_Lost_her_Fish _-_ from_Stories_the_Iroquois_Tell_Their_Children_by_Mabel_Powers_1917The Choctaw Indians tell of a three-year-old boy who wandered through the woods, running after or playing with some small animal. When he got too far from the village, Kowi Anukasha, the vigilante of the People of the Forests, grabbed him and led him away, into the cave where the Hidden People lived. It is said that the cave where Kowi Anukasha took the child was quite far from the places inhabited by the tribal communities, to the point that the two had to travel for a long time, overcome several hills and ford numerous streams. When they finally reached the cave, Kowi Anukasha led him inside, where he made the acquaintance of three other spirits, all very old and with long white beards.ย The first handed the boy a knife; the second a bunch of poisonous herbs; the third a bunch of herbs considered "good medicine". If the child had accepted the knife, he certainly would have become a wicked man and might even, in the future, kill his friends and family. If he accepted the poisonous herbs, he could never help or heal his people in an emergency. However, if he accepted the beneficial herbs as a gift, the child would be destined to become a medicine man, a relevant personality within his community. When he chose the latter as a gift, the spirits revealed their healing secrets to him and taught him to obtain medicines from those and from the roots and barks of certain trees to treat and cure various ailments such as fever, aches and other diseases.

This is essentially the reason, according to the Choctaw Indians, why i kanaka'wasa they kidnap children and lead them to the hidden places where they live. The child stayed there for three days with the "spirits", then returned home to the tribal village. He did not tell anyone where he had been or what he had seen or heard. Until he became an adult, he could not make use of the secret knowledge gained from meeting the People of the Forests and, not even once he grew up and became a man, would he be allowed to reveal to others how he had acquired such acquaintances. Sometimes it is told of how many children, frightened, refuse the gift of kanaka'wasa, and it is for this reason โ€” argue the eldersโ€”That there are fewer and fewer medicine men in native communities. It is also said that, normally, none of the Choctaw Indians come across these mysterious creatures, except for those who are destined to become prophets or shamans; the latter, even today, maintain the truthfulness of the mythical narratives and claim to still converse with the spirits of the forests.ย On the other hand, the duplicityย del Piccolo Popolo is also reflected, as Carolyn Dunn reports, in the customs of ethno-tribal communities:

The function of the Little People is similar to the function of the fairies of Europe; sometimes to the bogeyman of America. There are stories we were told when we were younger โ€” that the Little People would come from the earth and swallow us up if we weren't good.

We therefore recognize the idea that, although often the encounter with the Little People can be evaluated as a positive experience, nevertheless the opinion persists that one should approach it with respect and "delicacy", if not even with a sort of timor religious tourism leading to terror sacred on which the German theologian and historian of religions Rudolf Otto spent rivers of ink.

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Cherokee

cherokee little peopleIn the Cherokee tradition,ย there is an explicit subdivision within the Piccolo Popolo. The existence, in fact, of a more benevolent and powerful race, calledย Nuh-na-yie o Nunnehiย ("Those who live everywhere") and another group with a more heterogeneous and sometimes at least dubious morality calledย Yunwi Tsunsdi, (the "Little People" proper).ย The latter, whose members have the typical characteristics of Trickster North American, is in turn divided into three clans:

  1. Il Clan of the Rockย (Rock Clan) is the most malicious. Some say their annoyance comes from the perception that they have been invaded. As in many tales of European folklore, it is believed that its members are used to kidnap children.
  2. Il Clan of the Laurel (Laurel Clan) is considered benevolent, playful and in a good mood, resulting at the most spiteful.
  3. Il Clan of the Sanguinella (Dogwood Clan) is the one best disposed towards mankind, although its members are austere, serious and prefer solitude. Presumably, they are adย iniziare the natives to occult knowledge.

However, some argue that:

Nunnehi is a term not only for the โ€œlittle peopleโ€ but for those who commune with them: shamans, healers, medicine men, etc. So there is at least a passing association with healing roots, herbs, and so forth.

However, even according to the Cherokees, the members of the Little People consist ofo of short stature (โ€œknee-highโ€) e they live "in a village inside a cave". Their primary diet consists of shaker tea and soup nixtamal (a particular Mesoamerican food). An oral tale of the Cherokees tells how the Nuh-na-yie had taught them, in ancestral times, to make a blowpipe for the first time. We are told of how they asked Hawkeye (the protagonist of the episode) to never try to track them down from the cave they live in, since they do not like to be disturbed by unwelcome guests. They also told him that although they were invisible, he could sense their proximity by hearing their sounds (Greywolf and Eaglespirit 1998).

There are numerous mythical tales regarding the Nuh-na-yie, including one titled "The Oldest Story Ever Told" collected by Lynn King Lossiah in his work The Secrets and Mysteries of the Cherokee Little People Yunwi Tsunsdi. Also, about the "Little-People-who-wear-in-white" ("Little-People-Who-Wore-Whiteโ€), Lossiah writes that they are handed down to have narrated the death of Jesus Christ โ€” in all probability a contamination of the myth of Catholic origin and, therefore, relatively recent. It is, on the other hand, curious that the Cherokees tell ofย multiple stone crosses scattered around the most inaccessible forest areas. According to the stories reported in the Lossiah, similar stone formations can still be seen today in Fairyland Park, Virginia, and at Tallulah Falls, Georgia (Lossiah 1980). Furthermore it is handed down that children born in singular situations, as in the case of twins, are encouraged to wander alone in the woods in search of contact with the Little People, so that, once adults, they can become shamans, medicine man and spiritual leaders of tribal communities.ย It is also said that the Little People tend to hide objects (Conley 2005):

I had heard before and read somewhere that the Little People liked to hang around Cherokee medicine men. They helped them in their work, but they were also mischievous, liking especially to hide things from the medicine manโ€ฆ They might be asked to protect people in their homes. We ask the Little People to help take care of the old people. Like with anyone else, there are mean ones and good ones. They can turn a person crazy, or "they can go after a real pretty woman for you".

Seminole

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In the folklore of the Seminรณle Indiansย we talkย often of a race of "petty people"; invisible most of the time, occasionally allowing themselves to be seen by children or daughters medicine men. According to the Seminรณle "they are similar in appearance to Indians" and speak the Muskogee language. Often they are said to wear "ancient Indian clothes" made from deerskin. Also according to the Seminรณles, they show themselves to children who wander alone in the woods, take care of them and they teach how to use healing herbs. For this reason, the adults of the community do not worry if a child disappears from time to time, as it is believed to be in the company of the Little People, and will certainly reappear safe and sound within two or three days (Howard 1984).ย Chickasaw author Dorothy Milligan adds that native tales are not simply the fruit of a wild imagination and reports, in support of her thesis, that she has heard first-hand testimony about the abductions of children by members of the Little People. (Milligan 1980), which we report here:

When I first heard stories of the Little People I assumed they were like the fairies that danced among the moonlit dewdrops of my own childhood or like the Leprechauns of Irish folklore. I dismissed them as statements of the imagination of children-creatures that disappeared in mist as adulthood and reality forced themselves upon the childrenโ€ฆ Not so. I heard many stories of family members who have been stolen away by Little People and returned days later, well fed, though without visible food, and dry despite rainstorms, warm the midst of snow-covered fields. Always, to the child had become wise as the Ancients. He knew things he could not possibly have learned about mortal means.

The missing children, in the testimonies reported by Milligan, have always returned to the villages, sometimes presenting themselves in perfectly dry clothes despite the fact that it had rained heavily during the period of the disappearance. Furthermore, the author reports, in all cases, the children โ€œhave become wise like the Ancients", Since inexplicably they had come into possession of a certain type of occult knowledge usually inaccessible to ordinary people.ย La elder Chickasaw Adeline Brown addsย (Milligan 1980):ย 

I always hoped to see the little people, but I was never smart enough. Only a few are chosen for this. My great uncle, the medicine man, tells me they are about so high and in all colors-white men, brown men, and black men. The little people take the chosen child into the woods and teach him all their wisdom about him. Sometimes when I walk in the woods, they throw chips at me. I know that's a sign they are near, but I never get to see them. Great uncle tells me Little People love the excitement of thunderstorms. When high winds come, they know it's going to storm, and they jump and holler on the creek bank, and you can hear them. Sometimes little people ride deer. You can tell [when] this happens. Hair of deer will be twisted. "

Brown, therefore, confirms that only a few are allowed to meet the Hidden People, also underlining their predilection for thunderstorms.โ€”a possible connection with those mysterious supernatural beings called "Birds of Thunder" (Thunderbirds) present in almost all the mythical corpus of the Amerindian tribes? In the Sioux tradition, for example, we find it said that "in Ancient Times" the "Birds of Thunder" had defeated and exterminated the monstrous reptiles called Unktehila. Both the Muskogee tribes and their Cherokee neighbors share the belief that invisible "ghost warriors" inhabit ancient mounds and that it is sometimes possible to hear them singing and dancing at dawn (identical beliefs are found everywhere in Northern Europe, from Iceland to the British Isles). In an interview with Muskogee-Creek leader Mose Lasley, the Little People are said to "only appear to sick people who fall under their influence or spell." Lasley also explains that:

The Little People make their homes in the trees of the woods and those homes can be distinguished by the extra thick growth with small twigs of branches in the trees.

Creek

The folklore of the Mikasuki tribe also speaks of a named dwarf Fastacheeย ("Little giver"), who mythically gave man corn and healing herbs. It is the equivalent, among the Seminole, ofย Este Fasta ("Person-give"). William S. Lyon describes this legendary figure in his ownย Encyclopedia of Native American Healing:

Little is known of Seminole shamanism, but the medicines contained in a medicine bundle are given to the Seminole by Este Fasta, โ€œPerson-giveโ€, who acts as an intermediary between the Creator and the people. When a new medicine is needed, it is Este Fasta who brings it to Earth and places it in the shaman's medicine bundle.ย 

This figure is opposed by another, similar but complementary, calledย Este Lopocke (or Este Lubutke). As reported by Jack B. Martin and Margaret McKane Mauldin in Dictionary of Creek / Muskogee it's about a "little person who makes people go astray in the woods". We are again faced with a heterogeneity of legendary figures ascribable to the Little People, which can be divided into categories defined exactly as proposed by the Cherokee tradition. Also in this case, while some groups can be trusted, it is also advisable to stay away from others. In Native American Legends of the Southeast George E. Lankford reports:

The Creek Indiansโ€ฆ call them i'sti lupu'tski, or "little people," but distinguish two sorts, the one being longer, the others shorter, in stature. The taller ones are called, from this very peculiarity, i'sti tsa'ptsagi [ie, este cvpcvke, โ€œtall peopleโ€]; the shorter, or dwarfish ones, subdivide themselves again into (a) itu'-uf-asa'ki and (b) i'sti tsa'htsa'na... The i'sti tsa'htsa'na they are the cause of a crazed condition of mind, which makes Indians run away from their lodges.ย 

chickasaw

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The scholar John Swanton, in his workย Chickasaw Society and Religion, describes the already mentionedย Iyaganashaย as invisible beings living under the highest banks of rivers. Following the usual leitmotivย of the stories already reported, we read with the author (Swanton 2006):

When they saw a person whom they liked, a man of good health, dreaming good dreams, they would make a doctor out of him. Having selected him, they would lead him off into the woods where others could not find himโ€ฆ After a certain time, however, the little people would conduct him to a place near his home di lui, and tell him to return to his family. Sometimes, when a child disappeared, the people knew that the little people had carried him off and they would not trouble to look for him for several days, knowing who had him and that they would bring him back.ย 

The Chickasaws describe them as skilled hunters, not infrequently helping the natives to track down game while hunting. Despite their smallness, they are very vigorous, and are recognized as having the incredible ability to jump over very wide rivers, rather than wading them. It seems that they live in forests, in caves hidden under large boulders or along the banks of waterways. It is said โ€” curiously enough โ€” that their main enemy is wasps and that they fear their hives.

In addition to all this information, Swanton also talks about the feedลญs that the Little People entertain with the natives started. In fact, he tells that some medicine menย they speak of these beings and describe them to "laymen" and that they are seen as sorcerers.ย Furthermore, because of their "ease of speech", these "sorcerers" attract upon themselves the discontent of Iyahanasha, to the point that sometimes the latter warpโ€”not only to deprive him of the occult powers previously conferred, but even- to kill them. However, if at first glance this attitude on the part of the Little People could be considered reprehensible, with good reason, the author immediately specifies that "These sorcerers-doctors they owe theirs origin"(In the esoteric sense of initiatory birth or rather of ancestral descent?) "To the Little People" and that they themselves cause the suffering of the innocent themselves, for example by deliberately slowing down their healing, in order to receive a higher reward:ย 

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In this way, the Chickasaw Indians recognize theย Iyahanashaย the power to confer a sort of "investiture" (or initiatory admission, if you prefer) to whom it provesย virtually able to use occult knowledge for noble purposes, only to reserve the right to "rethink" if the beneficiary makes a selfish use of it. The question, on the human level of "morality", is overturned in an instant: the choice of good and evil remains a purely human burden, and the Little People simply recognize the ability to strike, as if by retaliation, anyone who chooses to use the supernatural gift bestowed by them for nefarious purposes. "He who sows wind, reap storms" โ€”if you mean it.

Finally, an even more hermetic revelation is provided by Jean Hill Chadhuri, when he writes that when the members of the Little People (who are "great trickster ") are present, "everything is right and safe as it should be ". Iroquois_fairies_from_Stories_the_Iroquois_Tell_Their_Children_by_Mabel_Powers_1917The Little People, he adds soon after, "revealed to the Creek that the Plant of the World is alive and well" and that "the Little People will move when disaster is about to happen." Reminiscences from ancestral times of a cataclysm that caused, "in Ancient Times ", the inclination of the Earth's orbit and the fall of theAxis of the worldย (cosmic tree, sacred mountain, pole, vine, etc) which previously would have allowed theaccess to Heavenโ€”present in the myths of almost all archaic planetary traditions? Prophecies about a future Biblical cataclysm? Or just superstitions of no account, whose original meaning has been lost along the way, in the sands of millennia, just like that bizarre find called by scientists "St. Pedro's mummy", found in 1934 by two gold miners Cecil Mayne and Frank Carr in Carbon County, Pennsylvania [name which โ€” ironically โ€” would almost seem to be etymologically composed of Bread- and -Selvans, deity of the woods and wild nature, the first Hellenic, the second Etruscan-Latin]?


Bibliography:

  • Conley, Robert Jr. 2005. Cherokee Medicine Man: The Life and Work of a Modern-Day Healer. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press).
  • Greywolf, Alan and John Eaglespirit. 1998. Blowgum A Gift of the Little People: A Story of how the Cherokee Began Using Their Blowguns. (Birchwood: Red Clay Publications).
  • Howard, James H. 1984. Oklahoma Seminoles: Medicines, Magic, and Religion. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press).
  • Lossiah, Lynn King. 1980. The Secrets and Mysteries of the Cherokee Little People Yunwi Tsunsdi. (Summertown, TN: Book Publishing Company).
  • Milligan, Dorothy. 1980. The How Book of Being Indian. (Burnet, TX: Eakin Press).
  • Swanton, John. 2006. Chickasaw Society and Religion. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press).

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