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Cherokee
Little People
Welcome, I am SnowBird. It's always nice to have company. Please come in and make yourself at home. So, you would like to know about the Little People of the Cherokee. They are very mysterious and are good at hiding in the Smoky Mountains of the Southeastern part of the United States. This is the ancestral homeland of the Cherokee and my ancestors.
A few years ago my family and I went to the Cherokee reservation in the western part of North Carolina. The mountains are beautiful and we had a wonderful time camping near Cherokee.
I can't say whether the Little People really exist since I didn't see any while I was there but then I didn't see any black bear either that are in the area. My logical mind says that the Little People were just a myth but the generations of Cherokee blood within me says just maybe the legends really happened.
Hopefully you will go on and read about the Little People and make your own mind up whether they might be living in the caves of the Great Smoky Mountains.
Qualla Cherokee Reservation, N.C.
in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation
Cherokee Little People
Tsunsdi (yûñwï tsunsdi'), or Little People who live in rock caves on the mountain side. They are little fellows reaching up to a man's knee, but well shaped with long hair falling almost to the ground.
They are great wonder workers and are very fond of music, spending half their time drumming and dancing. They are helpful and kind-hearted, and often when people have been lost in the mountains, especially children who have strayed away from their parents, the Yunwi Tsunsdi have found them and taken care of them and brought them back to their homes.
Sometimes their drum is heard in lonely places in the mountains, but it is not safe to follow it, because the Little People do not like to be disturbed at home, and they throw a spell over the stranger so that he is bewildered and loses his way, and even if he does at last get back to the settlement he is like one dazed ever after.
Sometimes, also, they come near a house at night and the people inside hear them talking, but they must not go out, and in the morning they find the corn gathered or the field cleared as if a whole force of men had been at work. If anyone should go out to watch, he would die.
Once a hunter in winter found tracks in the snow like the tracks of little children. He wondered how they could have come there and followed them until they led him to a cave, which was full of Little People, young and old, men, women, and children. They brought him in and were kind to him, and he was with them some time; but when he left they warned him that he must not tell or he would die. He went back to the settlement and his friends were all anxious to know where he had been. For a long time he refused to say, until at last he could not hold out any longer, but told the story, and in a few days he died.
Only a few years ago two hunters from Raventown, going behind the high fall near the head of Oconaluftee on the East Cherokee reservation, found there a cave with fresh footprints of the Little People all over the floor.
During the smallpox among the East Cherokee just after the war one sick man wandered off, and his friends searched, but could not find him. After several weeks he came back and said that the Little People had found him and taken him to one of their eaves and tended him until he was cured.
About twenty-five years ago a man named Tsantäwû' was lost in the mountains on the head of Oconaluftee. It was winter time and very cold and his friends thought he must be dead, but after sixteen days he came back and said that the Little People had found him and taken him to their cave, where he had been well treated, and given plenty of everything to eat except bread. This was in large loaves, but when he took them in his hand to eat they seemed to shrink into small cakes so light and crumbly that though he might eat all day he would not be satisfied. After he was well rested they had brought him a part of the way home until they came to a small creek, about knee deep, when they told him to wade across to reach the main trail on the other side. He waded across and turned to look back, but the Little People were gone and the creek was a deep river. When he reached home his legs were frozen to the knees and he lived only a few days.
Once the Yunwi Tsunsdi had been very kind to the people of a certain settlement, helping them at night with their work and taking good care of any lost children, until something happened to offend them and they made up their minds to leave the neighborhood. Those who were watching at the time saw the whole company of Little People come down to the ford of the river and cross over and disappear into the mouth of a large cave on the other side. They were never heard of near the settlement again.
From James Mooney's book, "History, Myths, And Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees."
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A Cherokee Legend
In the old days the Cherokee Medicine Man would travel to the rock caves to meet with the Little People and share in their secrets. The medicine men would stay in the mountains for seven days and nights telling stories around the campfire. On the fist night they would tell the story of the bear and sing the songs the bear had taught the Cherokee. The songs were for good hunting. On the second night, they would dance the Green Corn Dance for good crops, singing and dancing all night long. On the third night a song was sung to invoke the deer spirit to be kind to the Cherokee hunters. The fourth, fifth and sixth nights were spent on more storytelling, dancing and singing. Each medicine man told about sacred formula that the Little People has entrusted to him. On the seventh night, at the darkest hour, as the drums beat louder and louder, the Little People or Yundi Tsundi danced into the circle. They danced and chanted sacred songs. Then the Little People told the medicine men to return the secrets that had been shared with them that year. One by one the medicine men placed the secret formulas in the hands of the Little People. The medicine men left the cave and returned to their people. They would return again and again to receive and return the spirit gifts of the Little People.
From the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
"A story about Forever Boy"
Some Little People are black, some are white and some are golden like the Cherokee. Sometimes they speak in Cherokee, but at other times they speak their own language. Some call them "Brownies".
Little people are here to teach lessons about living in harmony with nature and with others. There are three kinds of Little People. The Laurel People, the Rock People, and the Dogwood People.
The Rock People are the mean ones who practice "getting even" who steal children and the like. But they are like this because their space has been invaded.
The Laurel People play tricks and are generally mischievous. When you find children laughing in their sleep - the Laurel People are humorous and enjoy sharing joy with others.
Then there are the Dogwood People who are good and take care of people.
The lessons taught by the Little People are clear. The Rock People teach us that if you do things to other people out of meanness or intentionally, it will come back on you. We must always respect other people's limits and boundaries. The Laurel People teach us that we shouldn't take the world too seriously, and we must always have joy and share that joy with others. The lessons of the Dogwood People are simple - if you do something for someone, do it out of goodness of your heart. Don't do it to have people obligated to you or for personal gain.
In Cherokee beliefs, many stories contain references to beings called the Little People. These people are supposed to be small mythical characters, and in different beliefs they serve different purposes.
"There are a lot of stories and legends about the Little People. You can see the people out in the forest. They can talk and they look a lot like Cherokee people except they're only about two feet high, sometimes they're smaller. Now the Little People can be very helpful, and they can also play tricks on us, too. And at one time there was a boy. This boy never wanted to grow up. In fact, he told everyone that so much that they called him "Forever Boy" because he never wanted to be grown. When his friends would sit around and talk about: 'Oh when I get to be a man, and when I get to be grown I'm gonna be this and I'm gonna go here and be this,' he'd just go off and play by himself.
He didn't even want to hear it, because he never wanted to grow up. Finally his father got real tired of this, and he said,'Forever Boy, I will never call you that again. From now on you're going to learn to be a man, you're going to take responsibilty for yourself, and you're going to stop playing all day long. You have to learn these things. Starting tomorrow you're going to go to your uncle's, and he's going to teach you everything that you are going to need to know.' Forever Boy was broken hearted at what his father told him, but he could not stand the thought of growing up. He went out to the river and he cried. He cried so hard that he didn't see his animal friends gather around him. And they were trying to tell him something, and they were trying to make him feel better, and finally he thought he understood them say, 'Come here tomorrow, come here early.' Well, he thought they just wanted to say goodbye to him. And he drug his feet going home. He couldn't even sleep he was so upset. The next morning he went out early, as he had promised, to meet his friends. And he was so sad, he could not bear the thought of telling them goodbye forever. Finally he began to get the sense that they were trying to tell him something else, and that is to look behind him.
As he looked behind him, there they were, all the Little People. And they were smiling at him and laughing and running to hug him. And they said, 'Forever Boy you do not have to grow up. You can stay with us forever. You can come and be one of us and you will never have to grow up...we will ask the Creator to send a vision to your parents and let them know that you are safe and you are doing what you needto do.' Forever Boy thought about it for a long time. But that is what he decided he needed to do, and he went with the Little People.
And even today when you are out in the woods and you see something, and you look and it is not what you really thought it was, or if you are fishing and you feel something on the end of your line, and you think it is the biggest trout ever, and you pull it in, and all it is is a stick that got tangled on your hook, that is what the Little People are doing. They are playing tricks on you so you will laugh and keep young in your heart. Because that is the spirit of Little People, and Forever Boy, to keep us young in our hearts."
Story of Forever Boy from the
Western Cherokee Nation
From James Mooney's book, "History, Myths, And Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees." He was an ethnologist that worked for the Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He did fieldwork with the Cherokees in N. Carolina and Oklahoma.
Most of the material Mooney gathered was provided by elders in the Cherokee tribe who had acquired this knowledge from their elders, therefore, passing the information on from generation to generation.
I have Mooney's book and I have found it to be very helpful in learning about the history and culture of the Cherokee People. It may be purchased at: Twin Territories
I would like to show you what the Little People might look like but since I couldn't find any actual pictures, you will have to use your imagination.
Wado "Thank you for coming by.
I hope you enjoyed your stay with
the Little People.
~ SnowBird ~
from the Paint Clan
and a Tribal Member of the
Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma
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TRIPLES with EMMA |
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