Teihiihan - The mysterious little beings of Arapaho lore

A hunter was traveling alone when he spotted smoke in the distance.

Someone had set up their dwelling in an isolated spot.

The man approached.

Inside was a small being.

He was much smaller than an adult man.

But the hunter quickly realized that his size did not mean he was harmless.

The little being was blind.

Yet, he knew immediately that someone had just entered.

He welcomed the visitor.

And the hunter gradually realized that he was likely not considered a simple guest.

He was alone.

Far from his own people.

And the other inhabitants of this strange dwelling would soon return.

Instead of running, he decided to observe.

That is what would save his life.

The legend of the hunter and the hidden secret

The hunter continued to talk with the little being.

He learned that the other members of his family had left.

They would return soon.

As the man looked around him, something caught his attention.

Several objects were hanging inside the dwelling.

He asked what they represented.

The answer changed the situation completely.

They were linked to the life of each member of the family.

Their strength did not depend solely on their bodies, then.

An essential part of themselves had been left in their dwelling.

The hunter had just discovered their weakness.

He also understood that he had to act before the others returned.

With what he found on the spot, he began to neutralize the objects to which their lives were linked, one by one.

Every time he destroyed one, one of the little beings far away lost his power.

Finally, only that of his strange host remained.

The little being then understood what had just happened.

It was too late.

The hunter had discovered their secret.

The one who seemed to be the victim had become the one controlling the outcome of the encounter.

When he returned among his own, his feat was remembered.

He had succeeded where strength alone would likely have failed.

He had observed.

Listened.

And understood his adversary.

What is the true origin of the Teihiihan?

The name Teihiihan is now widely used in articles devoted to indigenous legendary creatures.

But when one returns to Arapaho linguistic resources, the situation is more interesting.

The Arapaho Language Project dictionary notably documents the term hecesiiteihii to designate the "Little People."

Old transcriptions also use other spellings, because researchers in the 19th and early 20th centuries did not all have the same systems for writing the Arapaho language.

It is therefore better to understand Teihiihan as a currently popular name associated with these stories, rather than the only possible form of the traditional name.

What is much more certain is that stories of little people occupy a well-documented place in Arapaho traditions.

Arapaho accounts collected over a century ago

An important source is Traditions of the Arapaho, published for the first time in 1903 by George A. Dorsey and Alfred L. Kroeber.

The work brings together accounts collected from the Southern Arapaho in Oklahoma and the Northern Arapaho in Wyoming.

The little people appear in several different stories.

Some recount their confrontations with humans.

Others speak of abductions.

Still others recount how people succeed in escaping them through cunning.

This diversity is important.

There is no single "Teihiihan legend" with a unique character.

It is rather a matter of several accounts surrounding a people of little beings belonging to the Arapaho narrative universe.

Small did not mean weak

The accounts describe a particularly striking contrast.

The hecesiiteihii are small.

But they can be extremely powerful.

Some old descriptions speak of beings only a few feet tall, but solidly built and capable of surprising a human with their strength.

They are also presented as fast.

In some stories, escaping from one of them becomes a true ordeal.

This combination probably explains why their small size never makes them comical in the accounts.

They may seem less impressive than a huge serpent or a gigantic bear.

But the one who underestimates them is making a mistake.

Why could their life be located elsewhere?

The story of the hunter contains one of the strangest elements of these accounts.

The life of the little beings was not necessarily contained entirely within their own body.

A vital part could be kept elsewhere.

In their dwelling.

Safely.

This peculiarity explains why the hunter does not seek to confront the whole family directly.

He understands that the true way to survive is to discover where their vulnerability lies.

The account thus completely reverses the power dynamic.

The little beings seem at first to possess all the advantages.

They know the territory.

They are fast.

They are powerful.

But they leave their biggest secret within reach of a man attentive enough to discover it.

Beings sometimes dangerous to humans

The old versions do not always present the little beings as benevolent.

In some stories collected among the Arapaho, they represent a real threat.

The work of Dorsey and Kroeber even contains accounts where some of them are described as eating humans.

But this element does not summarize the whole tradition.

The stories also speak of chases, encounters, cunning, and crossings between the world of the little beings and that of humans.

Reducing them only to "little cannibals" therefore gives a much too narrow image of all the accounts.

What keeps coming back is the idea of a people different from the human world and that it can be dangerous to encounter them without caution.

Stories of women taken by the little beings

Other accounts address a different theme.

The encounter between the little beings and human women.

In one story, a little being tries to take a young woman with him.

She understands the danger and seeks a way to escape him.

Rather than confronting him directly, she also uses cunning.

She finally manages to hide until she can find her own people.

In another story, the outcome is different, and a woman lives for a certain time among the little beings before returning to her people.

These stories show that the hecesiiteihii are not simply monsters that heroes must eliminate.

They belong to a world parallel to the human world.

A world that characters can sometimes encounter, traverse, or leave.

Why is it said that they disappeared?

Some accounts also tell how the conflicts between humans and little beings supposedly came to an end.

In one of these stories, the clashes become so significant that a community seeks a way to definitively end the danger.

The little beings finally find themselves surrounded in a place from which they cannot easily escape.

The account thus explains their disappearance from the world as humans know it today.

This type of story answers a question that many traditional accounts address:

If these beings once existed, why don't we encounter them like before?

The answer is then found in the story itself.

The current world would be different from the world of ancient accounts.

Little beings exist in many Nations

The Arapaho are not the only Indigenous peoples of North America to possess stories concerning little beings.

Similar traditions are found in many regions.

But these beings should not all be considered identical.

Some are dangerous.

Others can help humans.

Some live in the mountains.

Others are associated with rocks, forests, or certain specific places.

Each Nation possesses its own names and its own stories.

The hecesiiteihii therefore belong to a specific Arapaho context.

Calling them simply "the Indigenous little peoples" would make the differences between the traditions disappear.

Teihiihan or hecesiiteihii?

The name Teihiihan is today the one often encountered in lists of legendary creatures.

It is also a term that Internet users can search for.

But the modern dictionary of the Arapaho Language Project gives hecesiiteihii for "Little People."

Another form, cesiteih'ii, is also given for the mythical little beings.

This difference is important.

It reminds us that Indigenous names circulating on the Internet are not always reproduced with precision.

Languages also change according to the writing systems used and the eras in which they were transcribed.

In this article, Teihiihan therefore allows for identifying the creature under its most widespread modern name, while hecesiiteihii allows for returning to the documented Arapaho vocabulary.

What the Internet has transformed

Today, Teihiihan is sometimes described as a creature possessing a long list of powers.

According to the sites, supernatural speed, incredible strength, invisibility, or different fantastic capabilities are attributed to him.

The problem is that these descriptions often end up mixing several traditions of little beings.

The old Arapaho accounts are already fascinating enough without the need to add new characteristics to them.

They speak of beings small but powerful.

Of dangerous encounters.

Of human characters who must think quickly.

And especially of a world that is not always limited to what humans see around them.

This version is less spectacular than a monster full of powers.

But it is much closer to the transmitted accounts.

When intelligence becomes more important than strength

The hunter's account finally holds a particularly strong idea.

The man is not the most powerful.

He finds himself alone in the middle of a territory that he does not control.

His adversaries know their environment and possess a strength that he likely cannot equal.

Yet, he survives.

Because he does not panic.

He observes.

He asks questions.

He understands the secret that lies before him.

And he acts at the right moment.

The strength of his adversaries is then no longer enough.

This is probably one of the most interesting elements of the account.

The hero does not need to become stronger than what he is confronting.

He simply has to understand what the other had never imagined he would discover.

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