The little people of the Yavapai in Fort McDowell Az.

This story is about my parent’s encounter with the “little people” from The Fort McDowell Native American reservation in Arizona. I remember that it was a Friday night and in the month of October. I was at a cousins house and it was super late when our parents walked in. Everyone had this strange look on their faces and were kind of just standing around like they were deep in thought about something. They had all gone out to an annual Halloween river raft ride. The ride flows from one end of the reservation to the other and stretches over a few miles. My uncle had a close friend who worked for the group that organizes and sets up the event and was given free tickets for the ride. This friend of theirs was with them that night on the raft. He, later on, tells us what had happened to them that night. The ride had begun normally like it always does, but about half way through it everyone looked out onto the river bank and saw….. a bunch of very small figures running along side the raft! The small humanlike figures weaved in and out of the trees! They were wildly waving their arms and shouting but were too far away to distinguish what they were saying. My dad said that the figures were all the same height and that the whole thing only lasted a few minutes. All of the sudden they just randomly disappeared back into the trees. Everyone had been laughing and waving back except my uncle’s friend. He just kind of looked confused, but no one knew why, until they had gotten off the raft and we’re driving back to the house. He had told everyone that what they saw wasn’t part of the attraction. At first, he thought maybe it was added at the last minute… but when he called his manager the next day… he was told that “they had no idea what he was talking about and that they were canceling any remaining rides to look into what had happened!” We later learned that they had issued refunds and didn’t re-open the ride for the remainder of the month, for security reasons. I never did hear any clear answers as to who the little people were… or why they were there.. but that wasn’t the first time I’ve heard of them. There are so many stories, from people who live on the reservation, of strange encounters with the little people. Some were just short creepy sightings. Others were up close and personal. One family we knew had heard them outside their house banging on the outer walls, shouting loudly in the middle of the night, and even scaring the dogs enough to where they would stop barking altogether. When the banging and barking subsided… the property was left in an eerie silence. Eventually, the family finally did go out to see what had happened and they found pockets of dirt dug up, dirt smeared all over the walls, and scratches on the lower half of the back door. Like I said, I never got clear answers from all these stories but they were all so creepy that they have always stuck with me… and I figured it was worth sharing with you guys.