Indiana Puk-wudgies

 Though their description does not match that of the Hockomock pukwudgies and the name is commonly hyphenated in that area, they still do have similarities. They are roughly the same height but after that the physical commonalities stop. Indiana puk-wudgies have blonde hair that is cut into the 90s-esque bowl cut. They have pointed ears that stick out from their helmet of hair and are commonly spotted wearing blue "smocks". Their presence is often associated with the appearance of fireflies and thunder storms. They seem to have a much better relationship with humans than the pukwudgies of New England. People often report the diminutive creatures as seeming to be curious about humans.

Most sightings have revolved around Mounds State Park in Anderson, IN. The park has 10 ceremonial mounds built by the prehistoric Adena people and later used by the Hopewell tribe. The site is thought to have been used for religious ceremonies and has astrological alignments. There have also been burial sites discovered though at least one seems to have been looted. From 1897 to 1929, an amusement park stood also on the grounds.  

So are they the same creatures as the New England pukwudgies? My initial reaction was immediately no, but when I paused to reflect on it more I decided it couldnt be ruled out. Human appearances and behaviors vary from region to region. Why couldn't little people? "Pukwudgie" is also and Ojibwa name and not from the language of the people indigenous to either location. It could be more of a blanket term for any species of little people, much like duende is used in Central and South America.

It wasn't until I read up more on the Indiana puk-wudgies that I started to suspect there may be a connection with pukwudgies and burial sites. Remains up to 8,000 years old have been found in Hockomock. When pukwudgies are luring people through the woods, are they luring them away from the resting place of ancient people? 

Thunderbirds: Friends of the Pukwudgie?

 I think sometimes the more you talk about weird things, the more weird things happen to you. I recently have had some weird coincidences while looking into thunderbirds. I started looking into thunderbird sightings in the Bridgewater Triangle thinking it was just another weird creature sighted in a weird area, but now I'm thinking they might actually have a pukwudgie connection.

As I was in the process of researching them, someone reached out to me asking if there could possibly be pukwudgies in Illinois. And yes, there could. I used to be more by the book with the traditional definition of the name, but I've come to realize its more of a blanket term for little people in the New England and Great Lakes region, much like duende is for central and South America.

This person had also told me about a huge bird they had seen. They described it as looking like a vulture, but much bigger. It was a daytime sighting and the creature was in the middle of a 2 lane road and its wingspan was almost from one side of the road to the other. This person is familiar with turkey vultures, bald eagles and sandhill cranes so was able to rule all of those out.

This area turns out to have lots of huge bird sightings and lore. An area about an hour away has lots of bigfoot sightings also. My personal take on it is that this sighting and some of the Illinois mothman sightings are a thunderbird like creature.

So why are there thunderbirds in 2 areas that also have pukwudgie sightings (and nearby bigfoot sightings too)? I have no idea. Maybe they come through the same portals. The Bridgewater Triangle seems to just be...weird land. A thin spot maybe. The creepy stories go back almost 10,000 years there. I'm not as familiar with the mid-west but I was told that a lot of these sightings are near the cooling lake of a nuclear power plant. Does anyone know if a nuclear power plant can open a portal?

I will leave you with my favorite thunderbird stories from both areas so you can formulate your own theories.

1971

Officer Thomas Downey

Mansfield, Ma

Maple ST, Winter ST and Bird ST near Bird Hill

Late at night, Officer Downey saw a dark figure about 6 feet tall standing motionless on the side of the road. He had assumed this was a hitch hiker. As his car approached, he saw enormous wings erupt and the creature flew straight up. That was the end of the experience, but he was so sure of what he saw that he went back to the station and reported the sighting. Probably not the best career move since this got him a lot of ridicule. However, after he came forward with his story, residents near Bird Hill admitted they had been seeing this creature for years. Another interesting fact to point out is the high tension power lines (See Bill Russo sighting) also run through this area. Those are known to be a sort of highway for wildlife. Maybe less common creatures use the same trail.

1977

Marlon Lowe- age 10

Lawndale, IL

Marlon was playing in his yard while several family members sat on their porch. While he was playing, 2 huge birds appeared in the sky over head. Before anyone could react, one of the birds swooped down and grabbed the boy. It carried him off about 30-40 feet and then dropped him. He was physically okay, but i would suspect him and his family may not have been psychologically okay after this.

This occurred about 2 hours from where the Piasa bird cliff paintings were found. This was a Native American mural depicting a thunderbird like creature known as the Piasa. The difference between thunderbirds and the Piasa birds is that the latter is known for as a "the bird that devours men", especially known to go after children. They are more bite sized after all.

There are documented sightings in this area going back to 1673. I've also come across theories that the thunderbirds in this area migrate seasonally between Illinois and the Ozarks. They return in spring which aligns with pukwudgie sightings always beginning in the spring.  Other animals and old people also migrate seasonally, so why not thunderbirds and pukwudgies?

Early References

 There seems to be numerous vague references to pukwudgies in the first half of the 20th century. There were bands, plays and even little league teams with pukwudgie in the name. Although, the common spelling at that time seems to be puckwudgie. A quick search of old newspapers will pull up quite a few of these from this time period, but theres no explanation of why, where it came from or any sightings. It seemed to have just been a common knowledge term at the time. These references are mostly from New England and the mid-west, traditional pukwudgie territory, but I've also seen some from Tennessee where there have been modern day sightings. Many reference fairy lore. Was Puck from a Midsummers Nights Dream the inspiration? Was Puck a puckwudgie????

Dayton, OH 1911

Binghampton, NY 1932

Binghamton, NY 1933

Grand Forks, ND 1915

This one is just bizarre...

How to NOT find a pukwudgie

 

Maushop: The Giant and the Pygmies

 Maushop (sometimes spelled Moshop) is a creator/hero in Wampanoag lore. He created Nantucket with ashes from his pipe. Thats quite a giant pipe. To understand the attitude towards pukwudgies in this part of the country, you have to understand the history between Maushop and the pukwudgies.

There was a time when the pukwudgies lived side by side with humans in peace. When the giant, Maushop, came to the area he quickly got the attention of the Wampanoag people. The pukwudgies were jealous of this attention so much like little kids, they decided any attention is good attention and decided to act up to get the attention back on them. They began upping the ante on their mischief and pranks and just being annoying in general. They seem like real high risk/high reward types.

After a while, the Wampanoag people got fed up with the bratty behavior. And since humans have always been the same since the beginning of the universe, if you want something done, you go to the wife. They went to Squannit, Maushop's wife, with their complaints about the ankle biters. 

I want to pause here for a side story- In the book The Narrow Land by Elizabeth Reynard (1934), Squannit (called Quaunt in that book) was described as a nag to her husband and quarrelsome. She also said Squannit was "not so good-natured as these menfolk with whom she lived" talking about Maushop and their 5 sons. I'd like to call BS on this. History hasnt been kind to women, she was out numbered and we have no way to get her side of the story. From my perspective, maybe she was grouchy because she had to get all of them to act right. But anyway....

Squannit went to Maushop with the Wampanoag people's concerns. Its unclear to me if there was an escalation of events or if Maushop immediately popped off but what he did was gather up all the pukwudgies and threw them as far as he could. I've also heard that he kind of shook them to disorient them first. But he was a giant and could throw real far so they ended up all over the country.

Some of the pukwudgies found their way home but they were PISSED. After this they hated humans (and possibly had CTE or a traumatic brain injury to make them violent) and this is when they began attacking and murdering humans. There is also a story of them killing Maushop's sons but that story deserves its own post.

Who are the bad guys here? Everyone certainly sucked at communicating and could have benefited from therapy. 

But what do their feet look like?!?!

Recently I had a discussion with Joe from Beyond the Woodline Podcast about pukwudgies. When talking about the lack of physical evidence we realized that we dont even know what their feet look like to know what tracks would look like. Now I cant stop thinking about it! 

Check out the video here:

Beyond The Woodline Pukwudgie Discussion

I envision them as being a cross between human and porcupine feet

The Porcupines Are Not What They Seem

 A while back, I was lucky enough to speak to a Mashpee-Wampanoag person about pukwudgies and their connection with my ancestors. That one is a story and a half that we'll revisit another time. Knowing I was planning to go to Hockomock to look for pukwudgies, they gave me some porcupine quills as protection. At the time, I had just assumed that the significance was the correspondence between the quills and protection because those the porcupines line of defense and they're native to the area, but now I think there might be more to it.

Yesterday I was reading Wendigo Lore: Monsters, Myths and Madness by Chad Lewis and Kevin Lee Nelson (great book, definitely check it out), and read that the Ojibwe associate porcupines with the Wendigo and some other pretty scary stuff. The word pukwudgie actually comes from the Ojibwe language. Pukwudgies are also known to shapes shift into porcupines.

Reading the traditional descriptions of pukwudgies and looking at drawings, my long standing belief was that at least some of the sightings were actually people just seeing a porcupine standing up. I'm now questioning if it isnt the other way around...