Did a mummy prove the Wyoming legend?

The Little People fabled to live in the Wind River Range are good, as long as you don't make them mad. Eastern Shoshone elder Morning Starr Moses Weed knows what happens if you cross them. As the story goes, his father-in-law rode up a thin trail into the Wind River mountains many years ago to check on his cattle. One of the Little People appeared, standing no more than knee high, though otherwise looking like a normal human. He told Weed's father-in-law that it was his trail, and the rancher couldn't use it anymore. But Shoshone rancher had cows up the hill. He went ahead anyway. The Little Person shot Weed's father-in-law with a poisonous arrow, making his arm useless. But they're not all bad, Weed says. He knows other stories in which the Little People save lives or help Shoshones find their way back home. The Shoshones aren't the only people to describe a race of Little People. For centuries, other American Indians have had variations of their own. George Gill, a forensic anthropologist, speculates that white settlers to the Wind River area believed the stories to simply be myths. Until the mummies were found...more