Hawk Littlejohn

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

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]

He worked as an adjunct professor in Social and Administrative Medicine from 1982-1983 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] 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. "Duncan v. Duncan". Casetext. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  2. 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. Miller, Marcianne (24 January 2001). "A prayer for Hawk LittleJohn". Mountain Xpress. Retrieved 2 May 2023.
  4. "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. Wheeler and McDonald, TVA and the Tellico Dam, p. 152.
  7. Littlejohn, Hawk (Summer 1975). "The Reawakening of the Cherokees". Appalachian Journal. 2 (4): 276–79. JSTOR 40932061.
  8. 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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