June 21, 2010

Native Little People

Most have heard of the Irish Little People but did you know that the Native Americans also have small folk?

When I was a little girl, maybe about four or five I would spend hours in the bathroom talking to my imaginary friends. Some children have one, most have none but I had three. Three has always been my favorite number, not sure if it is due to my amount of friends or if I had a trio of them because of loving that digit.

At any rate my friends were not your ordinary mates. My best buds were small, maybe about a foot tall; hard to say since I was knee high to a grasshopper at the time.

One was an old man with long gray hair, one was a woman and the third one I don’t remember as much but I think he was a younger man. I mostly remember the elder one. I don’t remember what they said but I recall having many conversations with them.

At bath time I would stay in until my fingers and toes looked like raisins because I was having long discussions with my neighbors that lived in the toilie room. My grandmother would ask, “Are you ready to get out yet?”

“Not yet.”

One day my grandmother asked me who I was talking to in the bathroom and why I was in there so long. I’m sure she’s thinking I might need medical attention or at the very least a remedy for constipation.

I told her that I had friends in there that I talked to. She asked me about them and I described my wee pals that lived in the bathtub.

She told me I was truly blessed to have a visit from the little people.

Here’s a link if you want more information about the native forest folk:

http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TheLittlePeople-Choctaw.html