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

Native American flute The Native American flute is a 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 breathes into one end of the ...

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

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...

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Background

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

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

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 state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

.Wheeler and McDonald, ''TVA and the Tellico Dam'', p. 152. An 1975 essay that Littlejohn wrote for the ''Appalachian Journal'' states that "Hawk Littlejohn was born in

Tahlequah, Oklahoma Tahlequah ( ; ''Cherokee'': ᏓᎵᏆ, ''daligwa'' ) 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 ...

, 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 Carolina ...

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 its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

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 the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County, Ohio, Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 C ...

Activism

In 1972, Littlejohn publicly opposed the flooding of historic

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

sites by the construction of the

Tellico Dam Tellico Dam is a dam built by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in Loudon County, Tennessee, on the Little Tennessee River as part of the Tellico Project. Planning for a dam structure on the Little Tennessee was reported as early as 1936 but ...

Consultancy and writing

The

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

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 Archives ...

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 A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these i ...

Cherokee, North Carolina Cherokee ( chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, translit=Tsalagi) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Swain County, North Carolina, Swain and Jackson County, North Carolina, Jackson counties in Western North Carolina, United States, within the Qualla Boundar ...

. 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 11 monthly meetings. "Monthly meetings" are what Quakers call congregations; "yearly meetings" are organizations of mon ...

, a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

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 for the disaster a ...

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 Raymond Carlos Nakai (born April 16, 1946) is a Native American flute, Native American flutist of Navajo people, Navajo and Ute people, Ute heritage. Nakai played brass instruments in high school and college, and auditioned for the Armed Forces ...

, Hawk Littlejohn,

Kevin Locke Kevin Locke may refer to: * Kevin Locke (musician) (born 1954 - passed October 1, 2022), Native American musician *Kevin Locke (rugby league) (born 1989), New Zealand rugby league footballer See also * Kevin Lock (born 1953), English former footba ...

– 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, United States. The population was 811 people in the 2020 U.S. Census. History Before the arrival of European settlers, the area that is now Old Forts was populated by the Catawba and Chero ...

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Littlejohn, Hawk American new-age musicians American people who self-identify as being of Native American 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 musicians 20th-century flautists