WEBVTT 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:03.339 They say these woods will hold a secret tighter 00:00:03.339 --> 00:00:07.440 in a church lady's purse, but every now and then, 00:00:08.439 --> 00:00:12.919 that secret, it'll hold you. There's a spot up 00:00:12.919 --> 00:00:15.859 yonder in the mountains, folks round here won't 00:00:15.859 --> 00:00:20.660 speak its name, where compasses go haywire, trails 00:00:20.660 --> 00:00:24.359 up and disappear, and sound don't travel like 00:00:24.359 --> 00:00:28.480 it oughta. Fella got lost up there once, three 00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:32.560 whole days gone. When he come back, he was clean 00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:35.420 shaven, clothes pressed like he just stepped 00:00:35.420 --> 00:00:38.960 out a Sunday meeting. Swore he'd only been gone 00:00:38.960 --> 00:00:42.359 an hour, said he'd been with the shining ones. 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:46.979 But his eyes, they never looked right after that. 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:51.579 You see, around these parts, there's tales older 00:00:51.579 --> 00:00:55.079 in any deed, older in the word Kentucky even. 00:00:55.939 --> 00:00:59.130 Of a kind of folk that ain't quite people, but 00:00:59.130 --> 00:01:02.950 ain't quite spirits neither. They're kind if 00:01:02.950 --> 00:01:06.310 you treat the land right, but if you go stomping 00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:09.049 where you shouldn't, acting like the forest owes 00:01:09.049 --> 00:01:12.709 you something, well, they'll make sure you don't 00:01:12.709 --> 00:01:16.269 forget whose woods you're in. The Cherokee call 00:01:16.269 --> 00:01:20.150 them the Nunnahee, and friend, they don't got 00:01:20.150 --> 00:01:25.489 to show themselves to find you. Welcome to Kentucky 00:01:25.489 --> 00:01:29.269 Melodies Scary Stories from Kentucky. where we 00:01:29.269 --> 00:01:32.650 spin yarns about ghostly haints, creepy hollers, 00:01:33.189 --> 00:01:35.430 and spine -chilling legends from deep in the 00:01:35.430 --> 00:01:38.829 hills. So grab a chair, dim them lights, and 00:01:38.829 --> 00:01:44.109 let's dig into something spooky. Long four folks 00:01:44.109 --> 00:01:47.909 started calling this place Kentucky. Long four 00:01:47.909 --> 00:01:51.569 roads were carved or lines were drawn. This land 00:01:51.569 --> 00:01:55.010 was something else. It wasn't just wild in the 00:01:55.010 --> 00:01:58.109 way of overgrown woods or steep hollers that'll 00:01:58.109 --> 00:02:02.549 turn a mule around. Nah, this land was alive 00:02:02.549 --> 00:02:06.109 in a way folks couldn't rightly explain. The 00:02:06.109 --> 00:02:10.569 Cherokee had a word for it. Atsi -lu -ski meant 00:02:10.569 --> 00:02:14.229 the place of many things, and it was many things. 00:02:14.610 --> 00:02:19.129 Beautiful, dangerous, sacred. The Shawnee, when 00:02:19.129 --> 00:02:21.949 they come through, whispered the name Cane -tucky. 00:02:22.409 --> 00:02:25.770 The land of tomorrow, but let me tell you something, 00:02:26.169 --> 00:02:29.770 it weren't home, not to nobody, not cause they 00:02:29.770 --> 00:02:33.330 couldn't settle it, they wouldn't, wouldn't dare. 00:02:34.189 --> 00:02:38.509 This land had a hum to it, low and steady, like 00:02:38.509 --> 00:02:42.229 a bow string drawn tight. The trees seemed to 00:02:42.229 --> 00:02:45.650 lean in closer here. The wind moved different, 00:02:46.370 --> 00:02:49.430 like it was carrying voices just under the sound. 00:02:50.069 --> 00:02:54.300 And the rocks, They held memories, old ones. 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.300 When the Cherokee moved through, they did it 00:02:57.300 --> 00:03:00.500 quiet, like they was walking on church floors. 00:03:01.580 --> 00:03:05.400 Hunters traveled in pairs, never alone. They 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:07.500 said certain trails would twist on you if you 00:03:07.500 --> 00:03:11.560 didn't show respect. Some caves. Folks said they 00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:14.620 breathed like a sleeping giant. You'd hear a 00:03:14.620 --> 00:03:17.060 slow in and out if you listened long enough. 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:20.599 Some of the old women wouldn't even speak certain 00:03:20.599 --> 00:03:24.280 names out loud in these hills. Said speaking 00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:27.620 could wake up what slept beneath. And it weren't 00:03:27.620 --> 00:03:31.099 just the Cherokee feeling that weight. The Shawnee 00:03:31.099 --> 00:03:34.620 up north felt it too. They had places they'd 00:03:34.620 --> 00:03:38.460 cross quick, heads low. The Chickasaw from the 00:03:38.460 --> 00:03:41.539 west, they'd make offerings before stepping into 00:03:41.539 --> 00:03:45.620 certain hollers. And the Uchi. They told stories 00:03:45.620 --> 00:03:48.819 of songs coming from the trees like flutes playing 00:03:48.819 --> 00:03:52.139 without hands, but the ones that truly chill 00:03:52.139 --> 00:03:55.099 a man to the bone are what the mound builders 00:03:55.099 --> 00:03:58.900 left behind. Ain't nobody alive now remembers 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:01.900 who they were, but they built these great big 00:04:01.900 --> 00:04:05.060 hills of earth, shaped like serpents, birds, 00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:09.860 spirits. Some of them hold the dead, others hold 00:04:09.860 --> 00:04:13.800 other things, things that don't sleep. You walk 00:04:13.800 --> 00:04:16.819 near him on a still night and you'll feel it. 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:20.040 That pressure in your chest, like the grounds 00:04:20.040 --> 00:04:23.920 staring back at you. Every people that passed 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:27.720 through this land, Cherokee, Shawnee, Chickasaw, 00:04:28.019 --> 00:04:32.279 Yuchi, they all told tales of hidden ones. Not 00:04:32.279 --> 00:04:37.259 animals, not spirits like ghosts, but folk. Strange 00:04:37.259 --> 00:04:42.560 folk, watching folk. Sometimes they helped. Sometimes 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:46.620 they didn't, but always they watched. That's 00:04:46.620 --> 00:04:49.839 what makes Kentucky what it is. It ain't just 00:04:49.839 --> 00:04:53.500 a patch of earth. It's a threshold. A place where 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:56.480 the world we walk in rubs up against another. 00:04:56.920 --> 00:05:00.800 Older, quieter, full of rules we don't understand. 00:05:01.660 --> 00:05:05.319 And in that world walk the Nunnehy, the immortal 00:05:05.319 --> 00:05:08.620 ones. They don't build no towns on the surface. 00:05:09.060 --> 00:05:12.899 They don't carry no torches. But they see everything, 00:05:13.579 --> 00:05:16.439 and when the wind shifts just right, and the 00:05:16.439 --> 00:05:19.680 forest holds its breath, you best pay attention, 00:05:20.120 --> 00:05:22.620 cause that's when you'll know, you've stepped 00:05:22.620 --> 00:05:27.779 onto their land. The Nunnehee. Now they ain't 00:05:27.779 --> 00:05:31.399 just watchers sitting quiet in the shadows. They 00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:35.459 do things when they feel the need. Some say they're 00:05:35.459 --> 00:05:38.060 protectors, like the soul of the mountain made 00:05:38.060 --> 00:05:42.089 flesh. Others call them healers. or tricksters 00:05:42.089 --> 00:05:45.529 if you catch them in the wrong mood and now and 00:05:45.529 --> 00:05:49.490 then there's something darker something final 00:05:49.490 --> 00:05:52.230 there's stories of folks who got turned around 00:05:52.230 --> 00:05:56.230 in the woods wandering hours or even days till 00:05:56.230 --> 00:05:58.629 they start hearing a kind of music that don't 00:05:58.629 --> 00:06:02.769 come from man or bird next thing they know they're 00:06:02.769 --> 00:06:05.949 back at their campfire fire still smoldering 00:06:05.949 --> 00:06:09.699 like no time passed at all Only thing different 00:06:09.699 --> 00:06:13.100 is the way they look at the trees after, like 00:06:13.100 --> 00:06:17.660 they know now. I heard tell of a boy up in Clay 00:06:17.660 --> 00:06:21.019 County running a fever no doctor could bring 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:25.500 down. Mama laid him out on a blanket in the shade 00:06:25.500 --> 00:06:28.600 of a stone ridge where the ground never warmed, 00:06:29.319 --> 00:06:33.680 a place her granny always said was special. That 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:36.560 night they heard a sound like lullabies sung 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.990 into the wind. By sunrise the boy was breathing 00:06:39.990 --> 00:06:43.569 easy and reaching for biscuits, but the Nunnehy 00:06:43.569 --> 00:06:47.629 ain't all mercy Mean -hearted men the kind that 00:06:47.629 --> 00:06:50.509 strike their kin or take more from the land than 00:06:50.509 --> 00:06:53.730 they ought Sometimes go missing out in them deep 00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:57.569 hollers folks search for days dogs can't catch 00:06:57.569 --> 00:07:02.649 a scent and then nothing Gone like mist in the 00:07:02.649 --> 00:07:06.810 Sun Some say the Nunnehy don't take kindly to 00:07:06.810 --> 00:07:11.350 wickedness They don't kill, they just take. And 00:07:11.350 --> 00:07:14.670 then there's them rare ones. The ones who vanish 00:07:14.670 --> 00:07:17.670 clean off the earth and turn up years later looking 00:07:17.670 --> 00:07:20.230 just like they did the day they disappeared. 00:07:21.170 --> 00:07:24.209 Won't say a word about where they've been, but 00:07:24.209 --> 00:07:26.930 their eyes shine different, like they've seen 00:07:26.930 --> 00:07:30.269 something we ain't meant to understand. But here's 00:07:30.269 --> 00:07:33.050 the truth of it. The Nunnehi don't deal with 00:07:33.050 --> 00:07:36.699 just anybody. You gotta carry yourself proper, 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.100 like the land matters. Like every rock's got 00:07:40.100 --> 00:07:43.420 memory and every tree's got a story. You give 00:07:43.420 --> 00:07:46.600 thanks when you take, you hush when the wind 00:07:46.600 --> 00:07:49.839 talks. But if you go stomping where you ain't 00:07:49.839 --> 00:07:53.259 welcome, if you mock the old ways or take from 00:07:53.259 --> 00:07:56.399 a place that don't belong to you, that forest 00:07:56.399 --> 00:07:59.540 will twist on you. What was a straight path will 00:07:59.540 --> 00:08:02.319 bend like a snake. and you'll walk in circles 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:04.819 till you don't know east from your own name. 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:08.540 And if you're real unfortunate, you might walk 00:08:08.540 --> 00:08:10.620 through a place where the air tastes sweet and 00:08:10.620 --> 00:08:13.459 the leaves don't move, and find yourself in one 00:08:13.459 --> 00:08:16.600 of their hidden villages. And if they don't take 00:08:16.600 --> 00:08:20.660 a liking to you, well, let's just say not every 00:08:20.660 --> 00:08:25.139 trail's got a way back. To the Cherokee, the 00:08:25.139 --> 00:08:28.959 Nunahee ain't just some old bedtime story. They're 00:08:28.959 --> 00:08:33.059 real. plain as the dirt under your boots. These 00:08:33.059 --> 00:08:37.759 stories folks call legends? Nah. They're memories, 00:08:38.179 --> 00:08:41.419 passed down by tongue and firelight, not written 00:08:41.419 --> 00:08:45.100 in books but etched in hearts. During the time 00:08:45.100 --> 00:08:47.879 of the Trail of Tears, when the U .S. government 00:08:47.879 --> 00:08:50.700 was tearing the Cherokee from their land and 00:08:50.700 --> 00:08:53.820 marching them west, some of the elders said they 00:08:53.820 --> 00:08:57.600 started dreaming strange things. Said the Nunnehy 00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:00.480 come to them in those dreams. warning them of 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:04.059 the sorrow that was coming. They told certain 00:09:04.059 --> 00:09:07.340 families to follow them, to pack quiet and head 00:09:07.340 --> 00:09:11.220 up into the high places, to caves the white men 00:09:11.220 --> 00:09:15.039 didn't know about. Those families left in the 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:19.220 night and were never seen again. But here's the 00:09:19.220 --> 00:09:23.200 thing. The Cherokee didn't weep for them. They 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:25.899 didn't believe they were lost. They believed 00:09:25.899 --> 00:09:29.509 they'd been taken in. into the Nunnehy's world, 00:09:29.789 --> 00:09:33.690 where there's no hunger, no sickness, no grief. 00:09:34.549 --> 00:09:37.509 A world under the mountain, still breathing, 00:09:38.250 --> 00:09:41.230 still watching, waiting for the time they're 00:09:41.230 --> 00:09:44.590 needed again. Back in the day, when trouble was 00:09:44.590 --> 00:09:48.529 near, sickness, war, storms brewing on the horizon, 00:09:49.190 --> 00:09:53.049 the Cherokee would call on the Nunnehy. Not out 00:09:53.049 --> 00:09:57.240 loud, but in quiet prayer, in dance, in smoke 00:09:57.240 --> 00:10:01.019 and song. And sometimes, if the spirits were 00:10:01.019 --> 00:10:03.539 listening, you might catch a glimpse of them, 00:10:03.919 --> 00:10:08.059 just beyond the firelight, tall, still, glimmering 00:10:08.059 --> 00:10:12.740 like heat off stone, dancing without sound. They 00:10:12.740 --> 00:10:16.919 never spoke, they never touched, but their presence, 00:10:17.539 --> 00:10:21.700 you felt it, deep in your bones, like the land 00:10:21.700 --> 00:10:25.940 itself was standing beside you. Now, the Cherokee, 00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:28.700 they ain't the only ones speaking of these hidden 00:10:28.700 --> 00:10:32.559 folks. The Shawnee used to talk about the little 00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:36.259 men of the forest, small glowing figures that'd 00:10:36.259 --> 00:10:39.200 show up in the hills, keeping watch over the 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:43.080 land like quiet guardians. The Chickasaw told 00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:47.379 of the Kowe Anukasha, secretive forest dwellers, 00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:51.299 tucked away where no man dares to build. Folks 00:10:51.299 --> 00:10:54.200 said if you disrespected the woods or walked 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:56.940 where you didn't belong, they'd make sure you 00:10:56.940 --> 00:11:01.100 paid for it. Not with a shout or a sign, but 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:04.679 with vanishing trails, broken tools, or worse. 00:11:05.700 --> 00:11:09.360 The Uchi and Muskogee people spoke of star walkers, 00:11:09.799 --> 00:11:12.600 spirit folk that come from above, passing through 00:11:12.600 --> 00:11:16.980 the trees in silence, guiding some, testing others, 00:11:17.519 --> 00:11:21.100 always watching. And even before all of them, 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:23.940 way back when the Mississippian cultures built 00:11:23.940 --> 00:11:27.500 mounds across this land, they were leaving carvings 00:11:27.500 --> 00:11:30.100 and markings that some believe were images of 00:11:30.100 --> 00:11:34.700 these same kinds of spirit folk. Tall, strange 00:11:34.700 --> 00:11:38.259 figures with eyes like suns and hands that never 00:11:38.259 --> 00:11:42.480 aged. Across all these tribes, all this time, 00:11:42.919 --> 00:11:46.580 the pattern don't change. These beings are always 00:11:46.580 --> 00:11:51.399 there. quiet, invisible, powerful, and always, 00:11:51.559 --> 00:11:54.940 always tied to the bones of the land, like they 00:11:54.940 --> 00:11:58.000 were born from the stone itself and ain't never 00:11:58.000 --> 00:12:03.580 left. They ain't gone, not by a long shot. Every 00:12:03.580 --> 00:12:06.519 few years you'll hear another whisper from Red 00:12:06.519 --> 00:12:09.879 River Gorge, Black Mountain, Pine Ridge, and 00:12:09.879 --> 00:12:12.559 them deep places where the trees don't ever tell 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:16.980 what they seen. There was a fella back in 2006 00:12:17.230 --> 00:12:20.990 A backpacker out on his own swore he followed 00:12:20.990 --> 00:12:23.529 this narrow path of stones that shimmered under 00:12:23.529 --> 00:12:27.029 the moon like it was wet, though it hadn't rained 00:12:27.029 --> 00:12:31.250 in days. Said the trail led straight into the 00:12:31.250 --> 00:12:35.649 side of a hill, and then he was just gone. When 00:12:35.649 --> 00:12:38.269 they found him, he was 30 miles from where he 00:12:38.269 --> 00:12:41.190 started, sitting on a boulder like he was waiting 00:12:41.190 --> 00:12:44.950 on a ride. Had no memory of what happened, no 00:12:44.950 --> 00:12:48.210 food or water on him. But that bum knee he'd 00:12:48.210 --> 00:12:51.929 limped on for ten years, healed clean as if it 00:12:51.929 --> 00:12:57.629 never happened. Then in 2015, a woman was hiking 00:12:57.629 --> 00:13:01.090 near Swift Camp Creek, just as the sun was dropping 00:13:01.090 --> 00:13:04.669 low. She said she saw a group of pale figures 00:13:04.669 --> 00:13:08.049 gliding through the woods, tall, smooth moving, 00:13:08.429 --> 00:13:12.429 not making a sound. Leaves thick on the ground, 00:13:12.850 --> 00:13:16.679 but they didn't crunch a single one. They moved 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:19.799 like shadows that didn't belong to nothing, and 00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:23.259 there's families too. Folks that wake up shaking, 00:13:23.820 --> 00:13:26.799 swearing they had the same dream. Caves full 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:30.559 of music, soft glows floating in the dark, and 00:13:30.559 --> 00:13:32.820 people with no mouths speaking straight into 00:13:32.820 --> 00:13:36.700 their thoughts. Now, folks don't always share 00:13:36.700 --> 00:13:39.620 these stories out loud. Ain't the kind of thing 00:13:39.620 --> 00:13:42.820 you talk about at church or the feed store, but 00:13:42.820 --> 00:13:45.970 they remember them. And if you sit quiet long 00:13:45.970 --> 00:13:48.669 enough and show them you listen more than you 00:13:48.669 --> 00:13:51.830 talk, they just might tell you what really happened 00:13:51.830 --> 00:13:56.769 up in those woods. The none a he, they ain't 00:13:56.769 --> 00:14:00.970 just old stories, they're a warning, a reminder 00:14:00.970 --> 00:14:04.889 that this land, as wild and beautiful as it is, 00:14:05.149 --> 00:14:08.940 don't fully belong to us. We walk its trails, 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:12.019 build our cabins, carve our names and trees that 00:14:12.019 --> 00:14:15.740 were old before our granddaddies were born. But 00:14:15.740 --> 00:14:18.899 we're just renting. They're the ones who stayed. 00:14:19.399 --> 00:14:22.779 So next time the fog rolls in thick, and your 00:14:22.779 --> 00:14:25.620 boots hit a trail that don't show up on any map 00:14:25.620 --> 00:14:30.159 you know, and you hear music, soft and far off, 00:14:30.519 --> 00:14:34.340 with no fiddle or voice behind it, and that flashlight 00:14:34.340 --> 00:14:37.509 in your hand starts flickering. Like something's 00:14:37.509 --> 00:14:41.470 messing with it. Stop. Close your mouth. Open 00:14:41.470 --> 00:14:44.429 your mind. Because you just might not be alone 00:14:44.429 --> 00:14:47.429 out there. You might be standing in the presence 00:14:47.429 --> 00:14:51.009 of the Nunnehy. And they're watching. And they're 00:14:51.009 --> 00:14:55.830 deciding what to do with you. Now, before we 00:14:55.830 --> 00:14:59.710 let the fire burn low tonight, I got a few questions 00:14:59.710 --> 00:15:03.049 for y 'all to chew on. You ever been lost in 00:15:03.049 --> 00:15:06.850 the woods? I mean, real turned around? And then 00:15:06.850 --> 00:15:10.350 somehow just found your way out, like something 00:15:10.350 --> 00:15:13.769 unseen was leading you? Do you reckon there's 00:15:13.769 --> 00:15:17.750 still places in Kentucky, deep ridges, mossy 00:15:17.750 --> 00:15:20.649 haulers, where something older than man still 00:15:20.649 --> 00:15:24.649 keeps watch over the land? And here's one that'll 00:15:24.649 --> 00:15:28.429 sit with you a while. If the Nunnehy came to 00:15:28.429 --> 00:15:32.549 you, offered you a place in their world, a life 00:15:32.549 --> 00:15:36.720 without sickness or pain. where time don't touch 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:40.580 you, but you could never come back. Would you 00:15:40.580 --> 00:15:45.039 go? If you made it this far, reckon you've got 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:48.539 the heart for the strange and the shadowed. So 00:15:48.539 --> 00:15:52.220 don't be a stranger yourself. Join us next time 00:15:52.220 --> 00:15:55.419 here at Kentucky Melody, where the land remembers, 00:15:55.720 --> 00:15:58.860 the stories breathe, and the truth don't always 00:15:58.860 --> 00:16:02.039 come with proof. We've got more tales waiting 00:16:02.039 --> 00:16:07.320 in the dark. And next time? Well, next time, 00:16:07.879 --> 00:16:09.659 you might not walk away alone.