I watched this just before bedtime last night, and I’ll say it’s just about the rummest thing I’ve ever seen–“the Little People of Wyoming.” (The video is 20 minutes and change.)
It reminds me of a classic short story, They Bite, by science-fiction great Anthony Boucher. He must have followed this “Little People” enigma in the 1930s and 40s.
Are there, or were there ever, “little people” Out West, only two feet high or even less, who came to populate Native American legends… and left behind several mummified bodies? And who could sometimes prove to be rather nasty neighbors. Were the legends true?
Beats me!
Never heard of them, and don’t really believe they existed. Another nonsense offering.
What about the mummies?
Very interesting. The majority of Indian tribes were hunters so many Indians starved in the winter cold season, and cannibalism was not uncommon. Little people do not seem to be beyond the pale.
I’ll be the first to admit that there are gaps in our history and and I don’t doubt, in the slightest, that there are people groups whom have been completely forgotten. There are Pygmies and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that at some time in the history of North America, there were pygmies on this continent. As to legends of stealing babies, etc. such legends are not all that uncommon and whether based upon a grain of truth, or not, it would only take one such event to launch a legend that would last for a very long time.
As to mummies, etc. seeing is believing. Claims of missing artifacts abound in some fields of interest, but until these are available for public scrutiny, it’s just an allegation with no visible evidence. For example, there are multitude claims of recovered wreckage of alien spacecraft, but somehow, none of this is ever available, but always alleged to be in secret labs, somewhere. Assuming that someone worked in a “secret lab” and had knowledge of such a thing, leaking such information would be an express ticket to federal prison. So with regard to mummies, let’s see them.
With regard to ancient peoples in the Americas, there are any number of sources which suggest that at one time, there were a race of red haired people occupying Central America, but these populations declined sharply. Much like the Indus Valley, little is known about these cultures, except that in the areas where they were thought to have lived, there are many ziggurats. There are legends of aggressive red haired people that more recent Native American tribes were wary of, but once again, it’s hard to pin down legends.
Two things to keep in mind when dealing with Native American legends:
Native Americans are not one homogeneous people group. While Native Americans are thought to be of Asian origin, that is not to suggest that all tribes share a common cultural history. Native Americans of the Delaware tribe, from the eastern seaboard, probably had less in common with the Apache, Navaho or O’Odham than an author from New Jersey would have in common with a Network Engineer in Arizona.
Secondly, it’s good to remember that Native Americans are people who hold their own opinions and each have their own take on things, based upon their own experiences and opinions. Just as I was exposed to various legends growing up, so were they. It doesn’t mean that every legend is universally accepted as fact, by the entire tribe. I know one Native American who used to ride a Harley and who loves to play golf. Another, knew a lot about Blues music and was a competent electric bassist. Anyone who spends time with Native Americans will tell you that they are as individualistic and any other group of people you might know.
So, with regard to these little people legends, I would take these with the same degree of seriousness as I would the legends of Americans of European ancestry: some are probably true, some are probably not and everybody loves a good story.