Hawk Littlejohn (1941 – December 14, 2000) was an American musician and carver of

Native American flute The Native American flute is a musical instrument and flute that is held in front of the player, has open finger holes, and has two chambers: one for collecting the breath of the player and a second chamber which creates sound. The player breat ...

s. He worked as an adjunct professor in Social and Administrative Medicine from 1982 to 1983 at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

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Background

Hawk Littlejohn's given name was Larry Snyder, and he was born in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

in 1941. His mother was Garnette A. Snyder (1918–1998) from

Milledgeville, Ohio Milledgeville is a village in Jasper Township, Fayette County, Ohio, United States. The population was 98 at the 2020 census. History Milledgeville was laid out in 1855. A mill was built on the town site in 1855. The name Milledgeville is an a ...

, and his father was Lawrence H. Snyder (died 1993). In 1972 Littlejohn's official biography said he was born on a reservation in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

.Wheeler and McDonald, ''TVA and the Tellico Dam'', p. 152. The

Qualla Boundary The Qualla Boundary or The Qualla is territory held as a land trust by the United States government for the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), who reside in Western North Carolina. The area is part of the large histori ...

of the

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI), (Cherokee language, Cherokee: ᏣᎳᎩᏱ ᏕᏣᏓᏂᎸᎩ, ''Tsalagiyi Detsadanilvgi'') is a List of federally recognized tribes in the contiguous United States, federally recognized Indian Tribe, ...

is actually a land trust rather than a reservation. A 1975 essay that Littlejohn wrote for the ''Appalachian Journal'' states that "Hawk Littlejohn was born in

Tahlequah, Oklahoma Tahlequah ( ; , ) is a city in Cherokee County, Oklahoma located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. It is part of the Green Country region of Oklahoma and was established as a capital of the 19th-century Cherokee Nation in 1839, as p ...

, and is a member of the Western Band of Cherokees." The

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

requested that the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

investigate Littlejohn's background. The FBI did not confirm or deny this investigation, but the investigation was widely leaked and fueled many rumors. These included that Hawk Littlejohn was not Native American and was born in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is a city in Summit County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Ohio, fifth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 190,469 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Akron metr ...

Activism

In 1972, Littlejohn publicly opposed the flooding of historic

Cherokee The Cherokee (; , or ) people are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, they were concentrated in their homelands, in towns along river valleys of what is now southwestern ...

sites by the construction of the

Tellico Dam Tellico Dam is a concrete gravity and earthen embankment dam on the Little Tennessee River that was built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Loudon County, Tennessee. Planning for a dam structure on the Little Tennessee was reported a ...

Consultancy and writing

The

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

and the

North Carolina Museum of History The North Carolina Museum of History is a history museum located in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. It is an affiliate through the Smithsonian Affiliations program. The museum is a part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archi ...

both consulted with him. He published a column "Good Medicine" in the ''Katuah Journal''. He published an essay "The Reawakening of the Cherokees" in the ''Appalachian Journal'' in 1975. Littlejohn was a friend and advisor to Barbara Duncan, the education director of the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in

Cherokee, North Carolina Cherokee () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Swain and Jackson counties in Western North Carolina, United States, within the Qualla Boundary land trust. Cherokee is located in the Oconaluftee River Valley around the intersection of U.S. ...

. Littlejohn and his student David Winston led

sweat lodge A sweat lodge is a low profile hut, typically dome-shaped or oblong, and made with natural materials. The structure is the ''lodge'', and the ceremony performed within the structure may be called by some cultures a purification ceremony or simply ...

ceremonies for the

Friends General Conference Friends General Conference (FGC) is an association of Quakers in the United States and Canada made up of 16 yearly meetings and 12 autonomous monthly meetings. "Monthly meetings" are what Quakers call congregations; "yearly meetings" are orga ...

, a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

gathering, that was held in

Boone, North Carolina Boone is a town in and the county seat of Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, Boone is the home of Appalachian State University and the headquarters of the disaster and me ...

in 1988. George Price, a Quaker who went on to develop the Quaker Sweat ceremony, described Littlejohn as "the last traditionally trained Eastern Cherokee medicine man."

Personal

Littlejohn married a nurse from a Knoxville hospital.Wheeler and McDonald, ''TVA and the Tellico Dam'', p. 153. Later he married Geri Littlejohn, who apprenticed with him learning to carve flutes.

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. And
National Museum of the American Indian

Death

At the time of his death, Littlejohn was living in

Old Fort, North Carolina Old Fort is a town in McDowell County, North Carolina, McDowell County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 811 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, down from 908 in 2010 United States census, 2010. History Before ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Littlejohn, Hawk American new-age musicians American people who self-identify as being of Cherokee descent Native American flute players 1941 births 2000 deaths People from McDowell County, North Carolina Musicians from North Carolina Musicians from Ohio 20th-century American flautists