Most all cultures have creatures of the night and I want to cover as many as I can. However, I know that when one does so, it is very important to do so respectfully.
There are Indigenous monsters that even today are taboo to say the name aloud or to write about. When I do so, I am using the best sources I can find (which I will provide) and ultimately, the cultures who have claim to these creatures have the final say.
Having said that, this week I want to talk about Spearfinger or Ut’lun’ta, a Cherokee creature commonly referred to as a woman. With that in mind, I will be writing of her as a woman and using feminine pronouns, but that is not to say that it is true to the original story. Directly speaking, her name means “he (or she) has it sharp,” (Tennessee State Library and Archives, 2020).
Which is an accurate description, given that she was named for her sharp and pointed right index finger, which she used against her victims. Used as a bedtime tale to scare children into staying within the village at night, every found version of the story states that she has a liking for the livers of children (with some saying she specifically, liked the livers of Cherokee children, however not all of them are so specific).
She had the ability to change her shape and most often took the form of an old woman that young children would trust and had the ability to move stones that no one alive could move. With that, she built structures that you can find all over the Appalachias.
While looking for the origins of how she came to be such, I didn’t find anything, however, I did find an end to her. What follows is a direct quote from Ancient Pages, a website dedicated to cataloging legends and lore from all over the world.
“A small bird the Cherokee call tsi-kilili, the Carolina chickadee, watched from a nearby spruce branch and began to sing to the warriors. The Cherokee know the chickadee as a truth teller. The bird swooped into the pit, singing, “Here, here, here.” The chickadee bravely alighted on the yellow witch’s deadly finger and try as she might Spearfinger could not shake it loose. The warriors understood that tsi- kilili was instructing them to fire their arrows at her right hand. They did so, and as an arrow struck the witch’s palm, she let out a piercing scream. Her wounded hand poured forth a great quantity of blood. The chickadee lifted in flight as the old witch withered and died.” 2 (Ancient Pages, 2021)
There is a similar story from the same region of Stoneman who based on the description was her male counterpart. The two supposedly built a bridge to the spirit world, which angered the Great Spirits, who destroyed the bridge. (The Smokies, John Quillon, 2022)
