Pukwudgie

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A Pukwudgie is a two or three foot tall troll-like being from the Native American Wampanoag. Pukwudgies’ features resemble those of a human, but with enlarged nose, fingers and ears. Their skin is described as being grey, smooth and at times has been known to glow.

In Native American lore, Pukwudgies have the following traits and abilities;

to appear and disappear at will
to transform into other animals
they are able to use magic
they have poison arrows
they can create fire at will
Pukwudgies control Tei-Pai-Wankas which are believed to be the souls of Native Americans they have killed.

Native Americans believed that Puckwudgies were best left alone. When you see a Puckwudgie you are not supposed to mess with them, or they will repay you by playing nasty tricks on you, or following you and causing trouble. They were once friendly to humans, then they turned against them. They are known to kidnap humans, push people off of cliffs, attack their victims with short knives and spears and to use sand to blind their victim.

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Pedro Mountains Mummy

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The Pedro Mountain Mummy (also called the Dwarf Mummy of Wyoming) is a small (approximately 35 cm (14 in)) mummified corpse, that was found in 1932 by two prospectors named Cecil Main and Frank Carr in a cave in the Pedro Mountains in Wyoming.

The mummy was put on public display at Jones’ Drug in Meeteetse, Wyoming, before being sold to Ivan Goodman, a Casper, Wyoming, businessman, in the mid-1940s. Thinking it would be a good way to attract business and publicity, Goodman displayed the mummy at his used car lot for several years. The mummy was also displayed publicly at the Rialto Cigar Shop in downtown Casper for a time during the late 1940s.

In 1950, Goodman had the mummy examined by Dr. Harry Shapiro, a biological anthropologist from the American Museum of Natural History who concluded that the X-rays showed that it was a deformed (anencephalic) infant.

Goodman died in 1950 and the mummy was passed on to Leonard Wadler, a New York businessman, a July 7, 1979, article in the Casper Star-Tribune states. The mummy has not been seen in public since Wadler, who died in the 1980s, took possession of it. The mummy’s whereabouts are currently unknown. After the mummy vanished, its X-rays were examined by George Gill, an anthropology professor at the University of Wyoming in the 1970s. Gill confirmed the earlier conclusion the mummy was the remains of an anencephalic infant and that the malformation made the mummy look like a small adult.

The head was covered in a dark, gelatinous substance, leading some to accuse Main and Carr of perpetrating a hoax using an infant from a medical collection, since some of the mummy appeared to have been preserved in liquid. A second, similar mummy found in the same area has been known since around 1932. Gill suggested that both were the results of malnutrition of babies born to a tribe still adapting to the harsh conditions of the area, about three centuries ago.

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Pamola

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Pamola (also known as Pamolai, P-mol-a, Pomola, and Bmola) is a legendary bird spirit that appears in Abenaki mythology. This spirit causes cold weather.

Specifically, according to the Penobscot Indians, Pamola inhabited Mt. Katahdin, the tallest mountain in Maine. Pamola is said to be the god of Thunder and protector of the mountain. The Indians described him as having the head of a moose, the body of a man and the wings and feet of an eagle. Pamola was both feared and respected by the Indians, and his presence was one of the main reasons that climbing the mountain was considered taboo.

The spirit resented mortals intruding from down below. Because of this, the mountain was off limits to all below. It is also thought that it took its prisoners to Alomkik, located near Katahdin.

Pamola’s name is now preserved on Pamola Peak, a summit on Katahdin at the eastern edge of the Knife Edge ridge. The Pamola Lodge of the Order of the Arrow is an honor camping society of the Boy Scouts of America; Pamola’s image is commonly used on several of the society’s insignia.

Roy Dudley, probably the most notable of the early guides on Katahdin, was known for his campfire yarns about Pamola.

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Nimerigar

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The Nimerigar are legendary race of little people found in the folklore of the Shoshone people of North America’s Rocky Mountains.

According to Shoshone tales, the Nimerigar were an aggressive people who would shoot poisoned arrows from tiny bows. Nimerigar were said to have lived in the Wind River and Pedro ranges of Wyoming.

Although thought to be mythical, the reality of Nimerigar tales was called into question in 1932 with the discovery of the Pedro Mountains Mummy, a 14-inch-tall mummy found in a cave 60 miles south of Casper, Wyoming, which was thought by some researchers to be that of an adult male. However, a more recent interpretation is that the mummy is an anencephalic infant. Uncertain whereabouts of the anomaly leave the verdict open.

Nearly every Native American culture tells of a race of little people. Comanche referred to Nunnupis, Cherokee to the Yumwi, and Hawaii have the Menehune.

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Kushtaka

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Kushtaka are mythical creatures found in the stories of the Tlingit and Tsimshian Indians of Southeastern Alaska. Loosely translated, kushtaka means, “land otter man”.

They are similar to the Nat’ina of the Dan’aina Indians of South Central Alaska, and the Urayuli of the Eskimos in Northern Alaska.

Physically, kushtaka are shape-shifters capable of assuming either human form or the form of an otter. In some accounts, a kushtaka is able to assume the form of any species of otter; in others, only one. Accounts of their behaviour seem to conflict with one another. In some stories, kushtaka are cruel creatures who take delight in tricking poor Tlingit sailors to their deaths. In others, they are friendly and helpful, frequently saving the lost from death by freezing. In many stories, the kushtaka save the lost individual by distracting them with curiously otter-like illusions of their family and friends as they transform their subject into a fellow kushtaka, thus allowing him to survive in the cold. Naturally, this is counted a mixed blessing. However, kushtaka legends are not always pleasant. In some legends it is said the kushtaka will imitate the cries of a baby or the screams of a woman to lure victims to the river. Once there, the kushtaka either kills the person and tears them to shreds or will turn them into another kushtaka.

Legends have it kushtaka can be warded off through copper, urine, and in some stories fire.

Since the kushtaka mainly preys on small children, it has been thought by some that it was used by Tlingit mothers to keep their children from wandering close to the ocean by themselves.

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Jenu

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In Mi’kmaq folklore, a Jenu is a wild and cannibalistic hairy giant.

Jenua are comparable to the Wendigo of Anishinaabe and Cree mythology (and, to a lesser extent, Sasquatch).

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Ishigaq

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In Inuit mythology, the Ishigaq are little people, similar to fairies. They were about 30 cm (1 ft) tall and left no footprints in the snow because they were either too light or floated above the ground.

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Horned Serpent

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A Horned Serpent in a Barrier Canyon Style pictograph, Western San Rafael Swell region of Utah.The Horned Serpent appears in the mythologies of many Native Americans. Details vary among tribes, with many of the stories associating the mystical figure with water, rain, lightning and/or thunder. Horned Serpents were major components of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex of North American prehistory.

Horned serpents also appear in European and Near Eastern mythology.

The Horned Serpent was venerated, in various forms, by the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Creek, just to name a few. Some myths say it is invisible, or that it brought rain and made a noise similar to (but not the same as) thunder.

Among the Eastern and Western Cherokee Indians, the horned serpent known as Uktena was venerated. Anthropologist James Mooney, describes it thus:

“Those who know say the Uktena is a great snake, as large around as a tree trunk, with horns on its head, and a bright blazing crest like a diamond on its forehead, and scales glowing like sparks of fire. It has rings or spots of color along its whole length, and can not be wounded except by shooting in the seventh spot from the head, because under this spot are its heart and its life. The blazing diamond is called Ulun’suti — “Transparent” — and he who can win it may become the greatest wonder worker of the tribe. But it is worth a man’s life to attempt it, for whoever is seen by the Uktena is so dazed by the bright light that he runs toward the snake instead of trying to escape. As if this were not enough, the breath of the Uktena is so pestilential, that no living creature can survive should they inhale the tiniest bit of the foul air expelled by the Uktena. Even to see the Uktena asleep is death, not to the hunter himself, but to his family.”

Horned serpents (rattlesnakes) tied together on a Mississippian sandstone plate from the Moundville Archaeological SiteAccording to Sioux belief, the Unktehila (Ųȟcéǧila) are dangerous reptilian water monsters that lived in old times. They were of various shapes. In the end the Thunderbirds destroyed them, except for small species like snakes and lizards. This belief may have been inspired by finds of dinosaur fossils in Sioux tribal territory. The Thunderbird may have been inspired partly by finds of pterosaur skeletons.

Other known names
Misi-kinepikw (“great snake”) – Cree
Msi-kinepikwa (“great snake”) – Shawnee
Misi-ginebig (“great snake”) – Oji-Cree
Mishi-ginebig (“great snake”) – Ojibwe
Pita-skog (“great snake”) – Abenaki
Sinti lapitta – Choctaw
Unktehi or Unktehila – Dakota

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Haietlik

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A mythical water serpent of the Nootka, the name Haietlik means Lightning Snake.

According to the legend, the Lightning Snakes were sent off by the Thunderbirds to kill orcas for food. Once he saw a whale, Haietlik attacked it. Haietlik’s head was as sharp as a knife and its tongue shot lightning bolts. This would injure the whale enough for Haietlik to carry it as prey.

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Gaasyendietha

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Gaasyendietha, according to Seneca mythology, is a dragon that dwells in the deep areas of rivers and lakes of Canada, especially Lake Ontario. This dragon could fly on a trail of fire, and it could also spew fire. It must live in the deepest lakes and rivers because if it spends too much time out, its sparks could set the world on fire.

The name “Gaasyendietha” was offered by native people to French explorer Jacques Cartier when he inquired about a creature briefly sighted by him and his crew in the St. Lawrence River. They described the creature as “a giant finned snake” that moved like a caterpillar.

Gaasyendietha is referred to as the “meteor fire dragon”.

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Deer Woman

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Deer Woman, sometimes also known as Deer Lady, is a shape-shifting woman in Native American mythology, in and around Oklahoma, The Western United States and The Pacific Northwest.

She allegedly appears at various times as an old woman, or a young maiden, or a deer. Some descriptions assign her a human female upper body and the lower body of a white-tailed deer.

The Deer Woman is said to sometimes be seen as a beautiful woman just off the trail or behind a bush, calling to men to come over. Deer Woman is often said to have all the features of a normal young woman, except her feet which are shaped like deer hooves and her brown deer’s eyes. Men who are lured into her presence often notice too late that she is not a natural woman and are then stomped to death. Other stories and traditions describe the sighting of Deer Woman to be a sign of personal transformation or a warning. Deer Woman is also said to be fond of dancing and will sometimes join a communal dance unnoticed leaving only when the drum beating ceases.

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Colo Colo

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The Colo Colo or Colocolo, is a malignant creature of mapuche mythology.

The Colo Colo’s aspects differ slightly according to which zone of Chile. In Mapuche the Colo Colo has a serpent form with legs, similar to a long rat with feathers. Whereas in the south of Chile, the Huilliche culture represents them as a long mouse with the head similar to a head of a rooster.

The Colo Colo are born from an egg that was incubated by a “rooster”, and would feed by taking the saliva from sleeping people. Commonly living in the corners or cracks of houses; the malignant creature would be identified as living in the home by listening for an animal that cries like a new born baby.

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