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I’m curious to know if the beliefs about the Little people, and about conjure people were passed down in other Saponi descended families ?
My Mother’s family believed in the Little people, small Indians who lived in the woods, meadows, along creek banks etc. who made mischief, but also helped lost children,,,The Cherokees, Catawbas, and other southeastern tribes had the legends/beliefs about the Little People…
The Conjure men or women were people in the community who were like root doctors and could work magic/roots on people for good or bad purposes, this is a belief found among the Cherokees, Catawbas, Lumbees, etc.
I think you might be able to assume that the Saponi new of the little people. My husband knew some Lakotas that spoke of them and claimed to have seen them.They told my husband that they had these beliefs for many years back. This might be a east, west link?….
Hmmmm….interesting…I have never before heard of the Little People…but it sounds reasonable enough to me…looking at my own maternal family, who were of NA ancestry they were most definately small in size compared to many others…my mother was 4’8″…her mother was 4’6″ and her gram was a mere 4’3″…can’t get much tinier than that. Anyways……….have a great day~~~~Laurie
As to “conjure people”…I know that the stories about them were pretty widespread…I just assume we all have had our own family tree “witchy women” and such…many of whom worked delivering babies…tending to the sick or infirmed…poulticing and collecting various natural “remedies”….I’ve even heard of what others may consider very ODD remedies…sheeps pee tea….urine in ears for earaches…the list goes on and on….burying potatoes to remove a wart….all were most likely (working or not) just adaptive medicine in the absence of formal doctoring…in other words: need. I do know that soem of the women, on particular, in my tree were not allowed to be buried in this cemetery or that one because they were publicly percieved as being “witches or witch doctors”….now how silly is that!?! Violet Morgan wrote about and interviewed one such gal: Elizabeth “Liz/Lizzie” Dunn (Gibson, Nichols) and wrote of it too….she also authored a Pseudo-Romantic accounting based on her character when she penned “Squaw Winter”. My cousins (older gents) recall singing an adapted version of the folk song using Liz as the character of the ditty when they sang: “Going up Cripple Creek…going ona run….going up Criplle Creek to see Liz Dunn…roll my britches up to my knees….going up Cripple Creek when I please….” Liz, Frankie, Flora were just a few of the women in the family who others (outside of the Carmel Community) percieved in a “mysterious” light because of their affinity to searching nature for remedies….whereas, I percieve them as ingenious and rescourceful! Take care~~~Laurie
Google “cherokee little people” or look at Thomas Mails book “Cherokee People” which has a chapter on the little people. There is also an island nation over around Asia that has a little people legend…. They recently found remains in a cave that may support the legend?….
I think I vaguely remember my Granpa saying something about little people.
But he might have been referring to his own family, too!:D
Especially the women–little, little women! Like Laurie’s family!
Got at least one healer, too. Old lady Dunlap–or who was my grandfather’s aunt (she was the younger sister of my great-grandmother, Mary Jenkins Brown). Georgann lived next to a cemetery in a little old house all by herself. She would be out ‘sweeping her yard’. Had hair long enough to sit on (if you happened to see it–she kept it braided, tied up, and topped with a kerchief–all the family women did).
If you got sick, then you went to see ‘old lady Dunlap’ and she would put her hands on you and give you medicine in the form of herbs. Maybe this is why I have such a deep interest in herbal medicine. The neighborhood kids were terrified of her and said she was a witch. I found this out from my Mom because she grew up in the same neighborhood–she was a little kid and Georgann was very old by that time.
My cousin lives on that property now and the cemetery is still in use today. The house she lived in is long gone (probably torn down when I-95 came through).
Hmm, I just thought of something–many of the people on my Dad’s side lived for 80+ years.
I remember something about the little people but can’t remember fully.
I know about a legend of a very tall tribe where all the people of the tribe was like 7 foot or more…..I believe this tribe was in kentucky…..bones of these people have been found. The indian legend on the tall people tribes was that they ate the other tribal people due to canabalism…..so the tribes in kentucky ended up all attacking and killing off the tall people tribe. Whats weird about the tall people tribe is that they was found buried wearing clothing not from North america….they also had weapons not normal with North America.
I live in the west, MO. I have very strong ties to OK area. We have been taught about these little people from childhood. These little people, I have been taught, were to never be spoken about at night. This is one reason I have taken so long to get into this topic. I’m generally up on here only at night. I remember that if there was something moved or out of place, lost in your home, etc, it was blamed on the little people. (Littleones). I was taught that if you talked about them at night they were impish enough to harm or actually be hurtful. There is much in print about these littlepeople in Cherokee writings.
Our Osage people were said to be very tall and large bodied. I’m just 6’3″ and wt about 250lbs. I’m a small one. I really don’t know of anyone who is over 7′ tall. We do have shorter Osages than I am.
I have heard of “little people” in many cultures…wiki has a good summary…
Excerpt:
Native Legends often talk of the little people playing pranks on people such as singing and then hiding when an inquisitive person searches for the music. It is often said that the little people love children and would take them away from bad/abusive parents or if the child was without parents and left in the woods to fend for themselves.
Hmmm…some days I have no doubt as to their presence:)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_people_(mythology)
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