A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.
Overview
Mooney describes Nunnehi as usually invisible spirit people who can appear and speak like their human neighbours. Their townhouses are associated with specific mountains and the Nikwasi mound. Drumming and dance songs move out of reach when a listener tries to find them. They offer hospitality to lost people and sometimes appear as defenders during danger.
A boy from Nottely accepts a stranger's invitation to a comfortable house, eats and plays with other children, then returns home the next morning. Looking back, he can no longer see the orchard, field or house. A familiar diner says he was actually searching for the missing boy, suggesting the hosts had adopted his appearance. The episode makes hospitality and uncertainty coexist. Mooney distinguishes these immortals from the smaller Yunwi Tsunsdi, so their shared invisibility does not erase different identities.
Two further townhouse accounts connect refuge with later separation. The first, credited in Mooney's notes to John Ax, has a community lifted with its townhouse toward a mountain. A frightened shout causes part to fall, explaining the Setsi mound, while the rest becomes a rock formation and the inhabitants remain immortal. A second, obtained from Salali, places a removed community beneath Hiwassee water near Shooting Creek. Voices and a catching fish-drag maintain their relatives' sense of contact. Mooney links the later forced removal westward with grief at leaving these kin behind; this is not merely a tale of abandoned architecture.
Swimmer's Nikwasi defence narrative describes warriors emerging from the mound when human defenders are overwhelmed. Outside the settlement the helpers become invisible, and their missiles reach attackers hiding behind rocks. A few defeated survivors are deliberately spared to report what happened. The spirits return to the mound. Mooney appends a separate Civil War-era claim that apparent guards prevented an attack; this later report is kept distinct from the earlier invasion narrative and is not treated as independently verified military history.
Origins & earliest records
The inspected 1902 collection records Nunnehi narratives in story 78 and adjoining townhouse and defender stories. Some testimony is transmitted through the Cherokee interlocutor Wafford, including a Nottely childhood encounter. These attributed written witnesses do not establish a first oral origin, and the collector's term immortals is an English rendering rather than a biological classification.
Records & interpretation
The read passage supports hidden townhouses, shifting music, hospitality and the Nottely boy's account. Mooney names routes, places and intermediaries, but the narrative does not independently prove invisible dwellings. His explicit separation of Nunnehi from Yunwi Tsunsdi is retained. Contemporary Cherokee public interpretation remains a needed addition to this historical account. The narrative endings and appended source notes distinguish named transmission, regional variation and collector interpretation.
In the literature
“the people are invisible and immortal.”
Story79; 335–336; note476–477
Invited communities depart with the Immortals; a dropped part of a lifted townhouse becomes a mound while the rest is rock on a peak, and another community remains under Hiwassee water. The account emphasizes relatives left behind at Removal. A separate Gusti bank collapse carries a dance gathering underwater. Practical fasting, silence and offerings omitted; no archaeological proof of the supernatural transfer.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Myths of the Cherokee
Story 78, The Nunnehi and Other Spirit Folk, printed pp. 330–335; selected Nunnehi episodes inspected. Complete stories79-80, beginning on printed pp.335 and336, plus notes crediting John Ax, Salali and Swimmer, also inspected.
- 02
Myths of the Cherokee — Nunnehi selected sequence
Selected Washington Government Printing Office1902 offprint, Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; title independently read.
Family & connections
A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.
Located primary passages
Specific passages supporting details in this entry, grouped by their published witness.
Myths of the Cherokee — Nunnehi selected sequence
Selected Washington Government Printing Office1902 offprint, Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; title independently read.
- Nunnehi are distinguished from Little People. Complete selected Nunnehi sequence includes an entertained boy and apparent familiar guest, four disappearing dancers, shifting music, heated opening and repeatedly cleared townhouse depression finally abandoned. The boy’s return is next day, not the lethal distorted-time encounter in other stories.
No whole collection, separately cited comparative text or original audio witness reviewed. Historical generalizations and natural explanations remain attributed. No songs, ritual sequences or practical treatment/protection instructions copied.
Primary source witness
Selected Washington Government Printing Office1902 offprint, Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; title independently read.
- Invited communities depart with the Immortals; a dropped part of a lifted townhouse becomes a mound while the rest is rock on a peak, and another community remains under Hiwassee water. The account emphasizes relatives left behind at Removal. A separate Gusti bank collapse carries a dance gathering underwater. Practical fasting, silence and offerings omitted; no archaeological proof of the supernatural transfer.
No whole collection, separately cited comparative text or original audio witness reviewed. Historical generalizations and natural explanations remain attributed. No songs, ritual sequences or practical treatment/protection instructions copied.
Primary source witness
Selected Washington Government Printing Office1902 offprint, Extract from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology; title independently read.
- Mound defenders become invisible outside the settlement and defeat an invading force; a few survivors are explicitly spared to carry the news. The appended wartime guard report and an old woodcutter’s disappearing defenders are separate anecdotes. Claims of military events are preserved as this collected narrative, not independent battle history.
No whole collection, separately cited comparative text or original audio witness reviewed. Historical generalizations and natural explanations remain attributed. No songs, ritual sequences or practical treatment/protection instructions copied.
References
Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.
- Primary textMooney: Nunnehi and the Nottely boyResearch access: 2026-10-05
- Primary textMooney1902: complete selected narrative and appended source notesResearch access: 2026-10-05
Image credits
A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.