The Yehasuri (yop-sur-ee) or “wild little people” are mythical, two-foot-tall creatures from the Catawba and Lumbee nations of South Carolina. In legends and stories, they appear quite human-like, other than their short stature, although no one has ever seen one. Some stories describe the creatures as covered in hair, unlike their larger human counterparts. They are described as living in tree stumps and feeding on things they find in the woods such as acorns, frogs, bugs, and turtles. The Yehasuri appear in stories as tricksters; while they are mischievous, they are rarely malicious.
The Catawba blame the Yehasuri when things go wrong, rather like “gremlins” causing a mechanical or electrical failure. If an item is misplaced or goes missing entirely, people claim it was the Yehasuri. Women seldom leave their laundry on the line overnight to dry because the Yehasuri will cause it to fall off the line into the dirt, thus making more work for the woman. Occasionally, Yehasuri would secretly braid the mane or tail of a horse.
Catawba parents threatened their disobedient children by saying the Yehasuri would kidnap them away if they did not behave. For their part, children made brooms from a tree branch and swept the footprints from their yards before going to bed at night so that the Yehasuri would not be able to track them by their footprints and find them. If the Yehasuri played in the footprints or stole away with an item of the child’s clothing, the child would not sleep well all night. According to legend, they steal children’s shadows because the shadow is a form of the child.
According to tradition, the Yehasuri shoot invisible arrows at those they feel are mean or unkind, and these arrows kill a person by the next day. When a Yehasuri becomes vindictive, legend holds that the only way to stop it is to recite an ancient Catawba prayer while rubbing one’s hands with tobacco. The legend of the Yehasuri is alive and well. They are reported to live on the Catawba reservation, and children are still being frightened into good behavior by stories of “The Little Indians.” Beckee Garris, a Catawba native, wrote a story about the Yehasuri. Andrew Cohen illustrated this tale in comic form for a collection of trickster tales and drew the Yehasuri creating havoc with the comic panels themselves. On the Catawba Reservation in South Carolina, the hiking trail is named “The Yehasuri Trail” because the Yehasuri supposedly live along the trail.
“Little Indians” exist in many Native American traditions. The Cherokee call them Yunwi Tsunsdi. They serve to bless people or to teach wrongdoers a lesson. The Algonquin Pukwudgies are knee-high woodland creatures described as a type of fairy. These creatures trick the unwary but are considered to be mostly harmless. The Nimerigar of the Shoshone view humans as enemies and are known as dangerous and man-eating despite their small stature.
Mary L. Sellers
See also Nin-am-bea; Pukwudgie
Further Reading
Balzano, Christopher. 2013. “Pukwudgies: Myth or Monster.” Spooky Southcoast website. http://spookysouthcoast.com/pukwudgies-myth-or-monster/. Accessed October 21, 2015.
Dembicki, Matt. 2010. Trickster: Native American Tales: A Graphic Collection. Golden, CO: Fulcrum.
Lyon, William S. 1998. Encyclopedia of Native American Healing. New York: W. W. Norton.
“Native American Little People of Myth and Legend.” 2015. Native Languages of the Americas website. http://www.native-languages.org/little-people.htm. Accessed October 21, 2015.