The Little People Revealed, maybe not just a Cherokee Myth!
I want to share something ground breaking. My works validate old Woodland Cherokee legend, no other Woodland Cherokee legend has been more enduring than the belief in the Yunwi Tsunsdi, the Little People.. About knee high to an adult, they were well shaped and handsome, with long hair, which reaches the ground. Considered to be wonder workers, like the Nunne’hi, they spent half their time drumming and dancing. Helpful and kind hearted; they were especially helpful to children, and frequently helped adults, unseen at night, at such things as gathering corn. Usually associated with a certain place or community, if they were offended, they would leave the place, never to be seen again! [Anthropological Institute, Journal, 6:100, 1876].
An ancient graveyard of vast proportions has been found in Coffee County. It is similar to those found in White county and other places in middle Tennessee, but is vastly more extensive, and shows that the race of pygmies who once inhabited this country were very numerous. The same peculiarities of position Observed in the White county graves are found in these. The writer of the letter says: "Some considerable excitement and curiosity took place a few days since, near Hillsboro, Coffee County, on James Brown's farm. A man was ploughing in a field which had been cultivated many years, and ploughed up a man's skull and other bones. After making further examination they found that there were about six acres in the graveyard. They were buried in a sitting or standing position. The bones show that they were a dwarf tribe of people, about three feet high. It is estimated that there were about 75,000 to 100,000 buried there. This shows that this country was inhabited hundreds of years ago."
The Little People of the Cherokee are a race of Spirits who live in rock caves on the mountain side. They are little fellows and ladies reaching almost to your knees. They are well shaped and handsome, and their hair so long it almost touches the ground. They are very helpful, kind-hearted, and great wonder workers. They love music and spend most of their time drumming, singing, and dancing. They have a very gentle nature, but do not like to be disturbed.
Sometimes their drums are heard in lonely places in the mountains, but it is not safe to follow it, for they do not like to be disturbed at home, and they will 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.
When a hunter finds anything in the woods, such as a knife or a trinket, he must say, 'Little People, I would like to take this' because it may belong to them, and if he does not ask their permission they will throw stones at him as he goes home.
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 'Indian' language. Sparta Tennessee seemed to be a hub in White County where many were exhumed and often sold as novelties at local flea markets. These were impoverished times to the poor mountain peoples. Our family found it distasteful and often got in fights over remains sold at Crossville's Largest Tennessee Flea Market ran by the Dixon family cousins of ours from way back. We did rebury many in a scared old place in Scot's Gulf as that was their homeland! It still saddens me to this day and made a rift in our family as Dixon's were Cherokee too. The owner was grandpa's cousin as lead to bad blood as he said Dixon would do anything for a buck, later saw Fate punch him out in a dispute, Dixon would run when he saw Grandpa from that day on and the Bones quit being sold!
Wa Do Grandpa Fate Lewis!
Wado, Dodvdagohvi
Mark NightWolf! 12.5.13
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