Nimerigar

Lore & Background

According to Shoshone tales, the Nimerigar were an aggressive people who would shoot poisoned arrows from tiny bows. The name Nimerigar roughly translates from Shoshone and Paiute languages as 'people eaters'. They were believed to kill their own people with a blow to the head if they became too ill to be a participating member of their society. Historical accounts from the missionary David Zeisberger in 1778 also point to the possible existence of Nimerigar or other little peoples in North America. Near Coshocton, Ohio, Zeisberger wrote of a burial ground that reportedly had numerous remains of a pygmy race, approximately 3 ft (91 cm) in height. The long rows of graves were regularly arranged with heads to the west, giving rise to the theory that these people were sun-worshippers. These burial grounds are no longer in existence as a result of extensive farming and modern inhabitation of the land.

Reader's Guide

The Nimerigar are significant primarily through their connection to the San Pedro Mountains mummy, discovered in 1932 in a cave 60 miles south of Casper, Wyoming. This 14-inch-tall mummy initially sparked debate about the reality of the Nimerigar tales. Extensive tests were carried out, with the American Museum of Natural History and Harvard University's Anthropology Department certifying it as a genuine full-grown adult approximately 65 years old, with a damaged spine, broken collarbone, and smashed skull suggesting violent death. However, later examination by the University of Wyoming identified it as an anencephalic infant whose cranial deformity gave it the appearance of a miniature adult. A second mummy examined in the 1990s by University of Wyoming anthropologist George Gill and the Denver Children's Hospital was also shown to be an anencephalic infant; DNA testing showed it to be Native American and radiocarbon dating dated it to about 1700. The legacy of the Nimerigar thus remains ambiguous, with the archaeological evidence disputed between mythical little people and natural infant deformities. The historical account from missionary David Zeisberger in 1778 adds another layer, describing a burial ground of a pygmy race near Coshocton, Ohio, though those grounds no longer exist.

Did You Know?

• The San Pedro Mountains mummy was 14 inches tall and found in a cave 60 miles south of Casper, Wyoming.
• The mummy's smashed skull, broken collarbone, and damaged spine suggested it had been violently killed.

Folklore & Cultural Identity

The Nimerigar occupy a distinctive place in the oral traditions of the Shoshone people of North America's Rocky Mountains, where they are remembered as a race of remarkably small human beings. Their name, drawn from both Shoshone and Paiute linguistic roots, translates roughly to "people eaters," a label that underscores the fear and hostility with which neighboring groups regarded them. In the tales passed down through generations, the Nimerigar are portrayed as a fiercely aggressive people. They are said to have wielded tiny bows and loosed arrows tipped with poison, making even a minor skirmish potentially lethal. Perhaps the most unsettling detail in the Shoshone accounts is the practice attributed to the Nimerigar of ending the lives of their own members who grew too sick to remain active participants in their community. A single blow to the head was considered sufficient. This grim custom, embedded in the folklore, paints a picture of a society that valued physical capability above all else and brooked no weakness among its ranks. The Nimerigar thus stand as one of the most vivid and disturbing figures in Rocky Mountain indigenous mythology.

The San Pedro Mummy & Archaeological Mystery

In 1932, a cave roughly sixty miles south of Casper, Wyoming, yielded a mummy standing just fourteen inches tall, or about six and a half inches when seated. Many initially dismissed the find as a hoax, prompting extensive scientific scrutiny. Researchers at the American Museum of Natural History and Harvard's Anthropology Department ultimately certified the specimen as genuine, estimating it to be the body of a full-grown adult around sixty-five years old. The physical evidence was harrowing: a damaged spine, a fractured collarbone, and a shattered skull exposing brain tissue and congealed blood, all suggesting a violent death. The mummy also displayed a full set of canine teeth that were unusually pointed. Yet when the University of Wyoming examined the remains, the conclusion was far more prosaic. The body belonged to a deceased anencephalic infant whose cranial deformity had given it the deceptive appearance of a miniature adult. A second mummy, studied in the 1990s by anthropologist George Gill and researchers at Denver Children's Hospital, proved to be another anencephalic infant. DNA analysis confirmed Native American ancestry, and radiocarbon dating placed the specimen at approximately the year 1700.

Zeisberger's Account & the Coshocton Burial Ground

Long before the Wyoming mummy stirred public imagination, a missionary named David Zeisberger recorded observations in 1778 that pointed toward the possible existence of small-statured peoples in North America. Near Coshocton, Ohio, Zeisberger described a burial ground containing numerous remains of what he called a pygmy race, individuals standing approximately three feet in height. The graves were arranged in long, orderly rows with the heads oriented toward the west. This detail inspired a theory that these people were sun-worshippers, positioning themselves to face the daily approach of the sun god rising over the eastern hills. Zeisberger cautioned that accepting this interpretation did not necessarily mean the group descended from the river-people of Hindustan or Egypt, noting instead that primeval humans, wherever found, appeared to have been sun-worshippers. Beyond the burial arrangement, Zeisberger observed that these people understood the use of the stone ax, produced good pottery, and divided land areas into squares. Tragically, the burial grounds themselves no longer exist, having been erased by extensive farming and modern habitation of the land. Beyond this small body of information, the story of this enigmatic race remains largely untold.

Legacy & the Unresolved Question

The Nimerigar endure as one of the most tantalizing unresolved questions in North American folklore and early anthropology. They sit at the uneasy intersection of myth and material evidence: a legendary race of small, aggressive people in Shoshone tradition, a mysterious mummy that briefly seemed to confirm their existence before medical science offered a more mundane explanation, and a vanished burial ground in Ohio whose physical traces have been lost to agriculture and settlement. The Nimerigar are not isolated in the global imagination of small peoples. They share a conceptual space with Caroline Crachami, a woman standing roughly nineteen and a half inches tall; with dwarfs and pygmies referenced in ancient Egyptian records; with the Koro-pok-guru of Ainu folklore; with the Menehune of Hawaiian tradition; and with the various pygmy peoples documented across the world. Each of these figures and groups raises the same fundamental question: where does cultural storytelling end and biological reality begin? For the Nimerigar specifically, the answer remains frustratingly incomplete. The burial grounds are gone, the mummies have been reinterpreted, and the oral traditions persist without the physical corroboration that might settle the debate. The story, in the end, remains untold.