The daughter of a good friend of mine, who lives in Montana, had a curious experience recently. She was walking her  golden labrador retriever, through an area of their neighborhood where some houses are due to be demolished. It was Sunday and there wasn’t any workman around. She heard knocking coming from the area of the houses. It scared her a little, and knowing it’s a not good idea to go searching too far afield when you’re alone, she walked on past wondering what was making the knocking noises.  Oddly, her dog didn’t seem to notice the knocking noises. In my opinion, her dog’s non-reaction adds a curious edge to her experience.

To me, the knocking noises is much like some of the pranks that I’ve read that nature folks do either out of amusement or trying to keep a human out of a dangerous area by scaring them. I didn’t know if there was any nature folk legends in Montana, so I looked it up and sure enough there is from the Crow Legends.

The Nirumbee or Awwakkule : 18 inches tall, large heads, sharp canine-like teeth, no neck, large round belly, strong arms and legs, very aggressive.

They’re dangerous and referred to by the Crow Tribes as ferocious dwarves. The dwarves aggressiveness and sharp canine teeth reminded me of the Nimerigar of Wyoming. Their general description varies, but the aggression is about the same.

According to the article I read, Meriwether Lewis (Lewis & Clark expedition) wrote about  little people tribes and described them as about 18 inches tall with big heads. He called them little demons whose sharp arrows could strike at great distances. The regular size tribes that came to the Spirit Mound area had a fear of the little people and were extra cautious.

I can’t imagine why Mr. Lewis would make a record of the little tribes unless there really was something to it. I’ve always thought that perhaps pygmy-type tribes here in the USA may have used excessive violence to discourage invaders and/or protect their territories. Of course on the flip side of that is that the regular size people may have over embellished the negative stories to keep their women and children at home.

Since I’ve researched about little beings in Montana, I told my friend that it was a good thing his daughter didn’t go looking for the source of the knocking because she may have encountered one the ferocious nature folks.  I’m a realist and know that the knocking sounds she heard could’ve been a woodpecker or chipmunk or even a hidden human messing around. However, when my friend invited me to come visit and go in search of the Nirumbee or Awwakkule , I  politely declined since I can’t really afford a trip right now. Doing field research does interest me, but I would much prefer to seek the calmer more friendly nature folks and not the violent sharp canine teeth ones.  My friend understood…

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Nirumbee or Awwakkule –

Crow legend

North west: Montana, Pryor Mountains

18 inches tall, large heads, sharp, canine-like teeth, no neck, large round belly, strong arms and legs
Very strong: reportedly could kill an elk and carry it off (or drag it off) with no effort which spawned the Crow expression, “strong as a dwarf,”

Sometimes known as Spirit Dwarves, ferocious dwarves and little demons.
They steal children, food, medicine and tobacco also can tear the hearts out of  horses

Like many of the nature folks they also have a positive side of teaching spiritual wisdom

source and further reading:
Little People of the Pryor Mountains – Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_People_of_the_Pryor_Mountains
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