Friday, December 07, 2007
Cherokee leprechauns
I find the WPA Guides make good bedtime reading. Always well-written and objective, and they occasionally yield a surprising little gem of knowledge. This is from the Oklahoma guide:
These legends are so widespread and so similar that I sometimes wonder if there's an underlying reality. A human subspecies that coexisted with Sapiens for a while? Extraterrestrials? A gate to a parallel universe? ¶ 9:48 AM
Some three miles south of Salina a small creek flows from the east into the Grand River at the foot of a range of rocky bluffs. High on the cliffs is the spot which Cherokee Indian legends say is the home of the "Little People" who have been a part of Cherokee traditional lore since ancient times. When the tribe lived in the East, they believed in the "Little People", who were supposed to be no more than knee-high, but well formed, handsome and exceedingly clever. They lived far back in the mountains and were never seen except at dusk or by solitary individuals.
Some Cherokees, at the time of the Removal, still believed in the legendary figures and moved their "Little People" to the new nation and to this site. Tribal members would stop fishing at a certain spot on the Grand River if stones happened to roll down the bluffs into the water, usually with the remark "Let's move downstream, I see the Little People live here and want the fish for their own use."
These legends are so widespread and so similar that I sometimes wonder if there's an underlying reality. A human subspecies that coexisted with Sapiens for a while? Extraterrestrials? A gate to a parallel universe? ¶ 9:48 AM
