Talk:Little people (mythology)

Overview?

I feel like this article could use an overview of the general idea of "little people" in mythology. It currently has a good amount of information about little people in Native American traditions, but close to no information about little people in other cultures. For an example of how I think the article should be structured, see Flood myth, which talks about the common features of flood myths across many cultures and then provides links to specific flood myths. If there is no general information to include, I think the article should be split into two articles: "List of little people in mythology" and "Little people in Native American folklore". 72.195.132.12 (talk) 22:24, 16 June 2012 (UTC)

There is a lot of information out there on different tribes and their beliefs concerning this topic

Many stories have been heard and exchanged between Chickasaw and Choctaw along with many other tribes. There are a lot of similarities in the way they were perceived among these tribes. One example is people from different tribes have shared in the practice of putting out candy and/ or tobacco to appease the little people in order to prevent mishap or mischief. There are some differences in how the tribes discuss them. For example, some people from the Osage have said they do not believe in talking about them. There have been several people in workshops to help American Indians become doctors talk about this as one of the problems they face in doctor shortage. They would be waiting for them to come and teach them their medicine, before considering going into medicine. The Chickasaw believed their medicine came from little people, who would teach them as children after kidnapping them to live with them for awhile. One interesting thing to note, is a lot of individuals from different American Indian tribes have been told stories of little people growing up. It might have been used to keep kids from wandering or staying out after dark, that 'the little people would get them and take them away.' There are many stories of this and they are also posted on different tribal websites. This is worth curating, preferably, from someone familiar with and sensitive to different American Indian cultures.

The below posts come from tribal government websites or books, please get their permission before submitting any of this beyond this feedback board, they may not be creative commons (CC). This is from Beliefs and Usages of Chickasaw, from Chickasaw Society and Religion on Google books: https://books.google.com/books?id=Kx0cctZXE0IC&pg=PA78&lpg=PA78&dq=little+people+stories+chickasaw&source=bl&ots=ZSzgsmK4xz&sig=BrcYjqSWffpKT57Z1pS9G5n2pz0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=T4ePVZvbHsP2yQTviYLwCw&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=little%20people%20stories%20chickasaw&f=false

Choctaw Nation page: scroll to the bottom for the story "how flowers grow." http://www.choctawnation.com/culture-heritage/social-life-through-the-years/choctaw-childrens-legend/

Also, it may be of interest to contact the cultural departments of different tribes, as they can be helpful. Feel free to contact with any concerns or thoughts on this feedback:

Jennifer Williams, Chickasaw/ Choctaw: jenfrees@gmail.com — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jenfrees (talk • contribs) 06:10, 28 June 2015 (UTC)

Geow-lud-mo-sis-ing

Could anyone please tell me what tribe the "Geow-lud-mo-sis-ing" exist in the mythology of? The page doesn't say it, and a Google search just turns up copies of this page. Also, could anyone please tell me if the list it's from should have en dashes instead of spaced hyphens?--Thylacine24 (talk) 16:46, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Anishinaabe and Crow link

The link for "Anishinaabe" in the list of Native American little people links to Anishinaabe traditional beliefs rather than Anishinaabe (referring to the people themselves), while the link for "Crow" links to the language instead of the people themselves. Could anyone please tell me if I should change this?--Thylacine24 (talk) 16:54, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

"Types of little people in mythology" section probably needs cleanup

It redundantly lists "Nimerigar", despite this already being in the above "Native American little people" section, and should thus probably be removed. It also has two links for the same page (Tomte and Tonttu both link to Nisse; I've piped both) and therefore one should probably be removed. Finally, I feel like a better section title would be "Little people from other mythologies". Could anyone please tell me if I'm right about these things? (Edit: Removed bullet point left over from abandoned attempt at formatting, sorry about that.)--Thylacine24 (talk) 17:10, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Edit suggestion

Do homunculi qualify as this? Booger-mike (talk) 01:45, 2 December 2019 (UTC)

Little People in Utah

There is a story passed down by my family about my great grandfather and a couple other hiking companions discovering a few little people in a cave by a native reservation in Utah. I wish I had more information but it is said they were estimated to be a little smaller than 3ft in size and in the fettle position. A small tool was later discovered in the same cave that resembled some type of axe hammer. One of the what seemed to be a tiny human mummified body had started to what was described as crumble into a powder. It was immediately placed into a glass container and hung up in an attempt to persevere the rest of the body. It has been rumored in my family that when it was hung the glass container would spin in a circle, and wouldn’t stop oddly enough. Well, innocently and excitedly my grandfather and the gentleman with him decided to share this information first with their families, and the Smithsonian Museum. This museum shortly had visitors stop by and take all that they had discovered. They said someone would be in contact with them about what these little people could possibly be and left. My great grandfather and his hiking companions never did hear back about the little people, and never could get answers. To this day it remains a mystery to my family. 38.43.31.20 (talk) 10:31, 8 September 2024 (UTC)