Thursday, October 12, 2006

15-foot tall people, 18-inch tall people

Early settlers in Augusta, Kentucky on the Ohio River kept finding large bones as they dug into the earth to build their homes and plant their crops. They determined the bones were left over from some large prehistoric battle. They also determined that the bones they found there were so large that the people must have been 15-feet tall.
For the longest time, I did not find anything more about these tall, tall people. Then I chanced on an account of a soldier in the Army of the West, Mexican War. The soldier recounted stories from an Indian village in New Mexico located at Pecos that also had bones of very tall people. These people also were said to be 15 feet tall.
Also in Pecos, there were tales among the Indians of another group of people, ones they called "Little People" who had big heads, were only 18 inches tall and were very fierce.
Well, if you read the journals of Lewis and Clark, you will run across an account of "Little People" they heard from Indians at Mandan, South Dakota. Those "Little People" were said to be very fierce and 18 inches tall with large heads.
Lewis and Clark or some of their number investigated a mound where the "Little People" were thought to live. They found only a hole in the mound, but they found no signs of any creature occupying the mound or the hole.
I wrote a ranger at a park that includes that same near Mandan mound and ask him about the "Little People." He knew of stories about them, but, furthermore, and most interesting, he said Indians of the present day still believe in the "Little People."
Great stories.