Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - Choctaw Indians of Mississippi have a fascinating ancient legend about the Nanih Waiya Cave Mound.
The Indians say that their ancestors emerged from an artificial underground world a very long time ago, which they consider to be the homeland of their ancestors.
During this time, the Choctaw Indians were invaded by a race of red- and blond-haired, white-skinned giants.
These huge men were dressed in thick skin and carried weapons such as axes and “sharp clubs.” It almost sounds like the Choctaw encountered foreign invaders from across the sea.
Could it have been the Vikings or other foreign people of great stature?
The Choctaw are descendants of the Hopewell and Mississippian cultures, who lived throughout the east of the Mississippi River valley.
Nanih Waiya, a fifty-foot-tall natural geological formation, is located in what is present-day central Mississippi.
The mound is said to have been built by the Hopewell people about 1,700 years ago.
Choctaw Village near the Chefuncte, by Francois Bernard, 1869, Peabody Museum – Harvard University.
Nanih Waiya is sacred to the Choctaw Indians. The great mound has several natural openings, some of which have been “sealed up.” Still, the Choctaw Indians say these openings are entrances to a vast, unknown underground realm their ancestors inhabited.
When the “white” giants with “horns” attacked their people, their ancestors were forced to hide inside the mound for generations.
According to the Choctaw Indians, the mound leads to a huge subterranean world with large series of caverns. There is an underground river there that connects to other “worlds,” or underground places.
Nanih Waiya Cave Mound. Credit: Phil Konstantin - CC BY-SA 4.0
When the Choctaw emerged after staying underground for many generations, they went to war with their enemies. They won by using darts coated with poison from mushrooms found in the caverns. Victorious, they emerged again into the sunlit world.
The Choctaw Indians still consider Nanih Waiya a place that should be treated with respect, but they also fear it a little. They say several supernatural beings inhabit the mound. One of them is the Shampe, a hair-covered, human-like giant with a terrible odor. Other mysterious beings who are believed to live inside the Nanih Waiya are dwarfs and giant serpents.
If you enjoyed this ancient legend, then you can find many similar and equally interesting stories in the book Caverns, Cauldrons & Concealed Creatures written by Wm. Michael Mott
Written by - Ellen Lloyd – AncientPages.com
Updated on November 2, 2023
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