‘Little People’ Guarded Hickory Nut Gorge Path Vital to the Cherokee

Geology and hydrology go a long way toward explaining the rugged landscape of the Hickory Nut Gorge, southeast of Asheville. But science can only go so far toward helping us understand the mystique of that area.

When the writer and artist Charles Lanman traveled the Southern Appalachians in 1848, he spent time among the Cherokee.  From them, he learned how the ancients brought back tobacco through the Hickory Nut Gorge. Said Lanman, “I heard it from the lips of a chief who glories in the two names of All Bones and Flying Squirrel, and occupied no less than two hours in telling the story.”

Long, long ago, a wandering stranger from the east introduced tobacco to the Cherokee. They grew quite fond of smoking the sacred herb from their large stone pipes. When the supply dwindled, they were anxious to obtain more tobacco. This herb of the distant past was not the common tobacco of commerce in later times, Nicotiana tabacum, but a wild form, Nicotiana rustica. The Cherokee used the plant for many ritual and medicinal purposes, as a sacred incense, as a guarantee of any solemn oath, and as a means of seeking omens or driving away witches and evil spirits.

Traveling from the mountains to the flatlands where tobacco grew in abundance was no easy task. Hickory Nut Gap was one of the few passes to the east, gateway to the most direct route for finding the plant.

Unfortunately, the gap and the gorge were constantly guarded by a multitude of Little People and other spirit beings. Whatever Chief Flying Squirrel might have said about the Little People, Lanman omitted from his retelling. Ethnographer James Mooney, in the course of his work among the Cherokee decades later, collected many accounts of the Little People. These creatures, known as Yunwi Tsunsdi in the Cherokee language, lived in rock caves on the sides of mountains. Small of stature, they barely reached up to a man’s knee, they were well-proportioned and they had hair so long it almost touched the ground. With a strong affection for music, they spent half their time drumming and dancing. 

Ordinarily, they were helpful and generous, and had been known to lead lost children back to their parents. But the Little People did not like to be disturbed at home and would cast spells over strangers who discovered their habitations. The hapless intruders, bewitched and bewildered, were doomed to wander about in a daze forever after.

Hickory Nut Gorge was one of the places the Little People considered their own, and they wielded many magical powers to expel trespassers. For the Cherokee, a journey through the gorge was essential for bringing back the tobacco they craved. The wise men of the nation held council to discuss the challenge, knowing that extreme peril faced anyone bringing even a knapsack full of tobacco through the gorge.

One young man, determined to prove himself, stepped forward to volunteer for the mission. Full of confidence, the young warrior departed, never to return.

With their stores of tobacco almost exhausted, the elders reconvened. This time a clever magician rose to offer his services, promising that he would find a way to bring back the tobacco and satisfy the demand for the weed.

The magician turned himself into a mole, a ploy which almost succeeded, until the guardian spirits detected his tunneling and chased him back home without any spoil.

Changing form again, the magician turned himself into a hummingbird, threading his way through the gorge. As a mere hummingbird, though, he could only carry a tiny amount of treasure.

His friends back home were at the point of death for want of tobacco. The magician filled a pipe with the small portion he had smuggled through, he blew the smoke into their nostrils, and they were all revived and happy.

The magician was quite certain he could do better. He vowed to avenge the loss of the young warrior and to gain sole possession of the tobacco growing beyond the gorge. This time he turned himself into a whirlwind. Spinning violently through Hickory Nut Gorge, the whirlwind stripped the trees and shrubs from the mountainsides, scattered huge boulders up and down the rivers and streams, and exposed the rock cliffs still visible from Hickory Nut Gap to Chimney Rock and Lake Lure.

The storm was so intense that all the Little People fled. Free from the interference of the spirit guards, the magician searched and searched until he found the bones of the young warrior in the river bed and brought him back to life. The two of them returned home to the mountains heavily laden with      tobacco. Ever since that time, tobacco has been plentiful throughout the land of the Cherokee, and Hickory Nut Gorge has never been the same.