WHAT IS A DETROIT`S RED DWARFS ?

The first stories about local dwarfs are associated with the Indian Ottawa tribe, who lived in the area that later became the territory of Michigan, and later the city of Detroit. These little creatures in French were called Nain Rouge ("Red dwarf"). They were mischievous, but at the same time respected spirits of nature and defenders of the earth.

When in this area came the first French settlers, they tied these red dwarfs with French folklore creature named Liuting (Luyten), analogue of brownies or goblins. With the development of society, the American image of dwarfs-lutines underwent changes, becoming an evil force and forerunners of misfortunes.

Those who met with red dwarfs described them as little men the size of a small child, with red wrinkled faces and burning eyes. Their teeth were yellow and rotten, and they were dressed in rags, caps and fur boots. Sometimes they were described as creatures without clothes, but completely covered with thick hair.

It would seem that the image of these creatures is purely folklore, but the stories about encounters with them are not very similar to a fairy tale, but are described as encounters with real beings. One of these cases dates from 10 March 1701 and is associated with a holiday organized by the founder of Detroit - Antoine Lomé de Lamot de  Kadilyak. It is said that during the holiday a fortuneteller with a black cat suddenly appeared and in the palm of his hand predicted to Kadilljak that he would be the founder of a large city, but a lot of blood would also shed in the place of this colony.

And the fortune-teller asked him not to offend the red dwarfs living in these places, otherwise everything will turn out very badly. But Kadilyak only laughed at the words of the old woman. However, years later, Cadillac personally encountered one of the dwarfs while walking with his wife. First they heard how two locals say they saw a red dwarf next to them and that this is a bad sign. Kadilyak certainly laughed at their words.

But suddenly a red dwarf appeared directly under his feet. The creature had red-black hair, fierce red eyes and large curves frightening teeth. The Kadilyak attacked the creature with a cane and hit it on the head, screaming to make it disappear, but the creature seemed not to notice the blow, laughed aloud and fled.

After this terrible encounter, Kadilyak began to suffer as if from a terrible curse, misfortune pursued him on his heels, his enemies built up their insidious intrigues behind him and soon Kadilyak was recalled to France and imprisoned in the Bastille. However, he stayed there for a short time and died only 10 years later as the mayor of the municipality of Castelsarrasena.

The next massive observation of this creature happened on July 30, 1763, during the battle of 250 British soldiers with 400 Indians, who happened on the tributary of the Detroit River called Bloody Run. The very battle in history is called "Battle of the Bloody Creek" and the Indians in it defeated the ambushed British, killing in close combat more than 60 soldiers, including the commander.

Many of the surviving soldiers later assured that they saw on the bank of the stream a red dwarf sitting there, who settled there as a spectator and as if impatiently waiting for the beginning of the slaughter. And after the battle he was allegedly seen joyfully jumping and dancing among the corpses of soldiers. The reputation of red dwarfs as harbingers of misfortunes was supported by the catastrophic fire in Detroit in 1805, which destroyed half of the city. A few days before the outbreak of the fire, they apparently saw a red dwarf in the city, and during the fire several people said they saw a dwarf dancing in the fire of a fire.

In August 1812, during the Battle of Detroit, the smoldering red dwarf in the fog saw the losing battle of General William Hull. In October 1872, a Detroit resident, Jane Deci, told me that she once returned from a gathering in the evening to her house on Elizabeth Street and literally ran into a short creature "with blood-red eyes, long teeth and hooves on her legs." The creature sat in the corner of the room in her house and meeting with him shocked the woman so much. that for a while she lay in bed, sick.

In 1884 another woman was brutally beaten by an unknown person who attacked her at night. when she was walking down the street. The creature in her words looked like a "horned baboon with shining eyes and a devilish grin on her face."

With the advent of the twentieth century, observations of the creature became slightly less frequent, but did not disappear. In 1967, the creature was seen several times before the start of the famous Detroit uprising - a mass urban riot with riots, murders and violence, which began after the police raided an illegal bar and lasted five days. One of the witnesses saw a mysterious creature that "did flips and somersaults" on 12th Street during a police raid on the bad-fated bar.

Observation of a red dwarf in Detroit is almost always associated with some massive catastrophes or misfortunes. The red dwarf rejoiced when people died and suffered. Regardless of whether the red dwarf is a wicked creature or the mischievous spirit of nature that his Indians thought, today he is present in the lives of Detroit residents mainly as a mascot of the city and became a hero of urban parades, during which people dress up in a red dwarf costume .