What (or who) is in that tree?
Source: Copyright: Kitty the Dreamer
Belief in Fairies Spans Cultures
So when we hear stories and older legends about faeries, fairies, or the "wee folk", many of us usually get the picture of green pastures in Ireland or maybe the highlands of Scotland. How many people actually think of the fairies being residents of the Americas? Did you know that many (if not most) of the Native American tribes, in both the United States and Canada, had their own beliefs in fairies? They mainly called them "little people", and each tribe had their own beliefs about these little people (or what many of us refer to as fairies).
I was surprised to learn that Native Americans also believed in fairies, and then again not so surprised. It seems that almost every culture has their own version of fairies or "little people"...and with the Native Americans being so in tune with nature, why would their beliefs be any different from the ancient Celts and other Europeans?
The Little Person Mummy
There is a mystery surrounding a "little mummy" that was discovered back in the 1930s in the San Pedro Mountains. It was speculated to have been a tiny race of humans that lived in caves within the mountains, as the little mummy was discovered in a cave. This little mummy was sitting upright and had a flattened skull. It also had very tan skin and sat about 7 " tall, and so if it stood up it would have been a little over a foot tall!
Could this little mummy have been proof of the "little people" so greatly believed in by the Native Americans? Unfortunately the little mummy has disappeared since its discovery, so no further testing has been done on it since the 1950s. Most scientists who have studied the photographs taken claim that it is simply the mummy of a anencephalic fetus. But the question was posed as to why would the little mummy have a full set of adult teeth?
If someone was to turn this little mummy into science, would we find that there was such a thing as the "little people"...could they have been related to the many legends of the wee folk and faeries from the European continent across the Atlantic Ocean?
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Beliefs of Little People in the Americas
If you watch the documentary "The Fairy Faith", there is a Native American tribe in Canda called the Eskasoni who have their many legends of the Little People. There is one particular hill in Nova Scotia where the Eskasoni claim the little people have lived for centuries. Many of the townsfolk warn their children from going to this mountain for fear that the little people will take them away. Stories of the Eskasoni people coming in contact or encountering these little people can be seen in The Fairy Faith. They are truly remarkable stories.
The Shoshone tribe in the United States have their own name for the legendary little people, the Nimerigar. The Nimerigar were a race of little people who lived in the Rocky Mountains, specifically in the Pedro Mountains and were also thought to live near the Wind River. The Shoshone believed that these little people were actually quite protective of their homes and would use bows & arrows as weapons...of course they were poisoned arrows. The little mummy found in the San Pedro Mountains is actually theorized to have been one of the Nimerigar that the Shoshone tribe so strongly believed in for many years.
All the way on an island range in the Pacific, in our beautiful state of Hawaii, the Native Hawaiians also had their belief in a fairy race or "little people" that they referred to as the Menehune. Again, in very similar beliefs when compared to the Shoshone's Nimerigar and the Eskasoni's little people, the Menehune of Hawaii were thought to live in untouched forests and mountains of the Hawaiian islands. Legend has it that they were the main residents of the Hawaiian islands before Polynesian people came to reside there. They were also thought to have built the Menehune fishpond in Niumalu and also the Kikiaola ditch near Waimea.
Now the Choctaw Natives also believed in the little people and called them the Kwanokasha. They were generally quite afraid of these little people, but there was a legend that told of the Kwanokasha carrying away little boys to their caves in order to test their spirit. Three wisemen would be waiting at the cave for the kwanokasha and the little Choctaw boy and they would present the boy with three things - a knife, a bag of poisonous herbs, and a bag of healing herbs. If the boy chose the knife, he would be destined to be a killer. If he chose the bag of poisonous herbs, he would only provide bad medicine to his people. But if he chose the bag of good healing herbs, he would be a very powerful medicine man to his people. Just like the Hawaiians and Shoshone, the Choctaw also believed that the little people lived in caves. The Kwanokasha were thought to be between one and two feet tall.
There were three kinds of little people to the Cherokee tribe - the Laurels, the Rocks, and the Dogwoods. The Rock People were the malicious ones, stealing children and wreaking havoc all because they feel their space has been invaded. The Laurel People are friendly but also mischievous and like to play common tricks on us (the bigger people). They say that the Laurel people will tangle your fishing line with a stick and make you think it is a huge fish, only for you to reel it in and see it is a tiny stick...they want to make you laugh and keep you young-at-heart, just as they are. And as for the Dogwood people, it is said that they are good-hearted and enjoy taking care of us when they can. Some even relate the Dogwood people to the Scottish "brownies".
The Crow believed in little people that they called the Nirumbee. They were thought to have lived in the Pryor Mountains and have also been thought to have given visions to Plenty Coups (an early twentieth century Crow chief). The little people are even accredited with keeping the Crow people safe and together, according to some Crow Natives, because of the vision that the little people gave the Crow chief Plenty Coups. It is said by some members of the Crow that even to this day if they pass through the Pryor Gap, they will leave offerings to the Little People in remembrance of their aid to the Crow nation.
There are many more legends of the Little People told by dozens of Native American tribes. Many of them are very intriguing and include stories of how the Little People came to the Natives aid in times of great need. Much of the time the Little People were feared, as they were unpredictable and mysterious to the Native Americans, and most of the legends (if not all) tell stories of these Little People looking similar and acting similar.
In my opinion, how can we discredit all of these cultures and peoples' legends and merely brush off the idea of these "little people's" existence? Maybe the fairies of Ireland and various places in Europe were simply a type of little people as the Native Americans believed. Maybe they weren't fairies at all, but actual people who were quite small and well-knowledged in the areas of magick and healing.
Whatever these little people actually are will probably never be known, but one thing is for sure...there are too many legends and beliefs in these little people to ignore the possibility of their existence.
http://kittythedreamer.hubpages.com/hub/Native-American-Beliefs-in-the-Little-People-or-Fairies
http://kittythedreamer.hubpages.com/hub/Native-American-Beliefs-in-the-Little-People-or-Fairies
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