Related Samoan "Little People" underground tunnel video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOo3GNO1ZgY
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September 1994 -- Pryor, Montana -- Legends of those who live in the mountains and forests are sometimes based in fact.

And the television show "Unsolved Mysteries" is setting out to prove Crow and Shoshone legends that tell of the existence of a mythological tribe of "Little people" is true.

The Unsolved Mysteries television crew was in Laramie, Wyoming last week researching and filming a segment tentatively set to air January 26. The show will focus on the legendary "Little People," a tribe the Crow and Shoshone Nations believe held superhuman powers and have existed in oral legends for centuries.

But the Crow Tribal Members are upset because the show will feature beings who often assisted them with powerful medicine. They fear, if this story is told, scavengers and media will invade the area to exploit the "Little People" they hold in reverence and respect.

Burton Pretty On Top, a public relations officer for the Crow Tribe said he felt uneasy with the idea that the Little People would be exploited on national television. He said tribal members know of places where skeletal remains lie, but keep the information secret for fear the sites will be invaded.

"I'm not too sure whether I like the idea. We have respect for Little People. If our belief are brought out and put on national television, I'm not sure of the amount of sensitivity that will be used," Mr. Pretty On Top said.

"I feel they shouldn't be bothered. People shouldn't thrive on their privacy. I would discourage that. We have done enough damage to the environment and other things," he said.

"Everything God has created is sacred and holy. That means these little People are holy too."

One cave in the Big Horn Mountains is said to be furnished in small scale proportions and is believed to be a home of the Little People.

"Robert Stack, narrator of the show will relate how a small mummy was found in Wyoming by miners in 1932 in the pedro Mountains. That mummy has since changed hands so many times its whereabouts are unknown now. The miners who found the mummy were looking for gold and blasted open a tunnel where they found a 14 - 18-inch mummified body on the ledge of the cave. The mummified body was preserved in a sitting position with its legs crossed and arms crossed on its chest.

A consultant for the TV show contends that the episode will not lack sensitivity. Earl Murray, an author from Laurel, Montana acted as a consultant for the filming. Mr. Murray wrote a book about the Little People in 1988, titled "Ghosts of the Old West." The book is now being reprinted and will be released in January to coincide with the air date of the segment on Little People.

The non-Indian author denies exploiting long held secrets of the Crow Tribe, although tribal members told him he had violated the trust they placed in him when they told him of their legends.

But Mr. Murray said the show is only going to present information from the historical aspect and appeal for the mummy that has been missing for nearly a quarter of a century, so scientists can either prove or disprove the legends, he said.

"The Little People would come to Crow Elders who had them as spirit helpers. The question was whether or not they were a representation of those spirit helpers or a race of people," he said.

"It is believed the Little People themselves live everywhere in the mountainous country. The ones most known about are in the Pryor Big Horn and Wind River Mountains," he said.

Mr. Murray said one of the miners who happened on the petrified body took it from the cave. From there it changed hands many times, eventually ending up with a used car dealer named Ivan Goodman. Mr. Goodman encased the mummy in glad and displayed it in his office, Mr. Murray said. Eventually scientists talked Mr. Goodman into allowing them to study the mummy.

The scientists however, disagreed about the authenticity of the mummy. Some believed it was merely the mummy of a child. Others said calcification deposits in the bones indicate it was the body of a juvenile or an adult in its later years. Another scientist believed bone elongation was fully developed when the mummy was interred, indicating that it was that of an adult.

In the end, the argument over whether or not the mummy represented a race of tiny people was unresolved. The last anyone saw of the mummy was in the hands of a doctor in Florida. The unsolved mystery is the mummy and what it represents.

For the show, the mummy was recreated from pictures in the archives of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History The show will appear to viewers across the country to come forward if they know the location of the mummy or any evidence that proves the Little People exist.

The Crow Tribe have protected the Little people for centuries according to tribal members. "We were told they were very small, but were superhuman," Mr. Pretty On Top said, "they were very fast, stronger, smarter. They must have been; they got ahead of the invasion of the while people," he said.

"We believe they still exist, but only in really remote areas of the Big Horns and the Rockies in isolated spots away from the influx of the modern world."

Mr. Pretty On Top said Indian people knew of the presence of the mummy in the remote cave but Crow Tribal Members chose not to bother it. He said all people who came into possession of the mummy died unexpectedly.

The only time the Crow and the Shoshone came around the mummy was to offer tobacco.

"Once it was found by non-Indians, they took it off the mountain. Within a short period four different owners of the body died," Mr. Pretty On Top said.

"The first died of a violent death. The next person died in an accident, the next one from an illness. It went from person to person. Each one eventually found it was bad for them to keep that because it had certain powers. Eventually they wanted to bring it back to the Crows and put it back."

"If that story is true, if someone out there has the petrified human form of a Little People, they should bring it back," Mr. Pretty On Top warned.

"White people don't believe in our sacred ways but in the end they find out we have power. There is power in our sacred bundles, power in our belief. They are desecrating our sacred ways."
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© Indian Country Today; Rapid City, South Dakota September 1994...
Source: From the extensive files of retired investigator Peter Guttilla 2010

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