Hawk Littlejohn
Born
Larry Snyder[1][2]

1941[3]
Ohio[2]
DiedDecember 14, 2000(2000-12-14) (aged 58–59)[3]
Old Fort, North Carolina, U.S.[3]
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Flute maker, medicine man, adjunct professor
SpouseGeri Littlejohn[4]

Hawk Littlejohn (1941 – December 14, 2000)[3] was an American musician and carver of Native American flutes.

He worked as an adjunct professor in Social and Administrative Medicine from 1982 to 1983 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Background

Hawk Littlejohn's given name was Larry Snyder,[1] and he was born in Ohio[2] in 1941.[3] His mother was Garnette A. Snyder (1918–1998) from Milledgeville, Ohio, and his father was Lawrence H. Snyder (died 1993).[5]

In 1972 Littlejohn's official biography said he was born on a reservation in North Carolina.[6] The Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is actually a land trust rather than a reservation. An 1975 essay that Littlejohn wrote for the Appalachian Journal states that "Hawk Littlejohn was born in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, and is a member of the Western Band of Cherokees."[7]

The Tennessee Valley Authority requested that the FBI investigate Littlejohn's background. The FBI did not confirm or deny this investigation, but the investigation was widely leaked and fueled many rumors.[8] These included that Hawk Littlejohn was not Native American and was born in Akron, Ohio.[8]

Activism

In 1972, Littlejohn publicly opposed the flooding of historic Cherokee sites by the construction of the Tellico Dam.[6]

Consultancy and writing

The Smithsonian Institution and the North Carolina Museum of History both consulted with him.[3] He published a column "Good Medicine" in the Katuah Journal.[3] He published an essay "The Reawakening of the Cherokees" in the Appalachian Journal in 1975.[7] Littlejohn was a friend and advisor to Barbara Duncan, the education director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian[9] in Cherokee, North Carolina.

Littlejohn and his student David Winston led sweat lodge ceremonies for the Friends General Conference, a Quaker gathering, that was held in Boone, North Carolina in 1988. George Price, a Quaker who went on to develop the Quaker Sweat ceremony,[10] described Littlejohn as "the last traditionally trained Eastern Cherokee medicine man."[11]

Personal

Littlejohn married a nurse from a Knoxville hospital.[8] Later he married Geri Littlejohn, who apprenticed with him learning to carve flutes.[4]

Films

  • Songkeepers (1999, 48 min.). Directed by Bob Hercules and Bob Jackson. Produced by Dan King. Lake Forest, Illinois: America's Flute Productions. Five distinguished traditional flute artists - Tom Mauchahty-Ware, Sonny Nevaquaya, R. Carlos Nakai, Hawk Littlejohn, Kevin Locke – talk about their instrument and their songs and the role of the flute and its music in their tribes.[12]

Death

At the time of his death, Littlejohn was living in Old Fort, North Carolina.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 "Duncan v. Duncan". Casetext. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 Gilmer, Robert A. (May 2011). "In the Shadow of Removal: Historical Memory, Indianness, and the Tellico Dam Project". University of Minnesota. p. 166. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Miller, Marcianne (24 January 2001). "A prayer for Hawk LittleJohn". Mountain Xpress. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Geri Littlejohn, Season 3". A Craftsman's Legacy. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  5. ↑ "Garnette A. Snyder". Chillicothe Gazette. January 26, 1998. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  6. 1 2 Wheeler and McDonald, TVA and the Tellico Dam, p. 152.
  7. 1 2 Littlejohn, Hawk (Summer 1975). "The Reawakening of the Cherokees". Appalachian Journal. 2 (4): 276–79. JSTOR 40932061.
  8. 1 2 3 Wheeler and McDonald, TVA and the Tellico Dam, p. 153.
  9. ↑ Weiser, Kimberly G. (2017). Back to the Blanket. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. p. 49. ISBN 9780806161464.
  10. ↑ Aldred, Benjamin Gratham. "'Quaker Sweat' as Intangible Heritage". International Journal of Intangible Heritage. 6: 72–83. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  11. ↑ Price, George (1 February 2002). "The Quaker Sweat Lodge". Friends Journal. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  12. ↑ Joyce-Grendahl, Kathleen. "Songkeepers: A Video Review". worldflutes.org. Suffolk: International Native American Flute Association. Archived from the original on 2006-03-03. Retrieved 2010-08-13. And: National Museum of the American Indian. Archived September 1, 2006, at the Wayback Machine

References

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