All through Native North America one can find the belief in the existence of a race of beings of small stature, inhabiting the most isolated and wild regions, in the woods and in the places where the remains of tombs or constructions of the past could be found. They were regarded as powerful beings, and partly fearsome. Not necessarily hostile and malicious, they were deemed as having an unpredictable and impulsive character, which could drive them into committing pranks and malignancies at the expenses of the unfortunate who met them.

The Crow of the Great Plains regarded the Little Peoples (called by them  awakkule) as fundamentally benevolent beings, though they could indulge in jokes and disturbances. They lived in colonies, in the most remote mountain areas. In some places, reputed to be frequented by them, offerings and gifts were left for them, to attract their blessing. They could foretell to a pregnant woman the sex of the future child: the woman left in a definite place two toys, one typically male and the other female. When she returned to the spot the next day, the “dwarfs” should have left only one of them, that pertaining to the sex of the unborn child (Frey 1987: 68).

Among the Lakota the little beings of the woods were called “Tree Dwellers”  (čanotila), were malevolent entities who lured humans into the woods where they lost their senses. If one person saw one of these beings it could mean that one relative of that individual was going to die in the near future.

Illustration showing the Little People dancing in circle around a tree (from: Mabel Powers, Stories the Iroquois tell their children, New York, American Book Company, 1917)

Among the Iroquois, the Little People was made by beings with extraordinary powers, living in the woodlands and having the duty to control the forces of nature. According to a tale, one day a hunter encountered some of these beings, who invited him to share their meal. During the feast they performed in the occasion, the man could assist to the dances and ceremonies performed by the Little People and, once come back to his village, he reproduced them, introducing the Dark Dance. When he came back to his village, he discovered that long time had elapsed from when he had gone away, and the people was convinced he was already dead. What seems a period of few days in the world of the Little People corresponds to many years in the human world. The ceremony of the Dark Dance has to be performed in the dark, in night time, in a building where all the lights have been switched-off, with the purpose of curing a sick person, and it involves invocations to the spirits of the dead. The Little People, living in the depth of the earth, in a sort of “other world”, is strictly associated with the world of the dead.

The Seneca call the Little People ohdowa and regard them as spirits inhabiting the underworld. They were called the “hunters” because they fought against the monsters which haunted the earth and were regarded as the guardians of the gates to the underworld. In the places where they had held their dances and feasts it was possible to detect rings in the trodden grass.

Everyday scenes of the Little People, while a girl is looking at them (illustration from: Mabel Powers, Stories the Iroquois tell their children, New York, American Book Company, 1917)

Entrance to the Devils Hole cave, New York State. The Little People inhabited places like this one, regarded as a gate to the underworld. The paintings on the rock wall are contemporary graffiti