Deer Men and Women: Real or the Stuff of Legend?

DeerManBronzeSculptureA bipedal creature lurking in the forests around the US, prominent deer antlers on their head. Are they half human, half deer? Or the product of legend and lore? CryptoVille investigates this cryptozoology puzzle to see if this monster is the real deal, or not!

Most of what I read about the Deer Men of the world is firmly based in Native American legend, lore, and tradition. Are these stories clues to something real? And what about sightings in recent times? Let’s see what we can make of all this.

Legends and Lore

It seems there are two basic stories about Deer People, one concerning a Deer Man and the other a Deer Woman.

In an old Cherokee legend, people and animals could communicate long ago. Things went well as long as the people only harvested the animals they needed for food, clothing, and shelter. As time went on, the people got a bit greedy, or some might say, bloodthirsty.

That’s when they started killing animals indiscriminately. The animals tried to rebel but couldn’t overcome the human hunters. Finally Awi Usdi, Little Deer and leader of his “people,” met with the hunters and told them that from that point onward, they had to perform a ceremony before their hunts, asking the animals permission to kill one of their own. Then the hunters must ask for forgiveness from the sacrificial animal and respect it.

DeerManDancneThe story continues by saying if the hunters refused to do these things, Awi Usdi would hunt them down and cripple them using his own magic powers, so that they would no longer be able to hunt.

At first not all of hunters agreed to the terms and they continued to hunt indiscriminately. Awi Usdi hunted them down and afflicted them with severe rheumatism so they were no longer able to hunt. Soon after, all the hunters followed the terms of Awi Usdi and peace descended on the land once more.

The Deer Woman story is a bit different. It reminds me of a Grimm’s fairytale with its cautionary overtones and morality tale undertones.

Deer Woman

Wendy Froud refers to this legend as the “Horned Woman” and said that among the Southeastern tribes of the United States (Cherokee, Muskogee, Seminole, and Choctaw), the legend is pretty much the same. She mentions that the Dakota and Lakota tribes have stories about this Deer Woman that are a bit different, but still similar to those of the Southeastern tribes.

Another tribe, the Karuk, use the story of the Deer Woman more as a spirit associated with fertility and maturation as a means to prepare young women for marriage.

 

DeerWomanThe stories of the Southeast tribes primarily warn against marrying someone who was not approved by one’s family and society. The society felt that arranged marriages ensured the survival of their culture and propagation of their people.

The main story revolves around a young man who is seduced by a beautiful young woman and he leaves his home and family, and tribe for her. If he continues to be with this young woman, he will fall more deeply under her spell and stay with her which ultimately results in “depression, despair, prostitution, and death.”

The only way to discover the real identity of the enchantress is to look at her feet. If she is the Deer Woman, her feet will be hooves and knowing that should break the spell for the enamored young man.

According to Wendy, “Her [Deer Woman] tales are morality narratives: she teaches us that the misuse of sexual power is a transgression that will end in madness and death. The only way to save oneself from the magic of Deer Woman is to look to her feet, see her hooves, and recognize her for what she is. … Deer Woman instructs us that sexual attraction does not a proper marriage make; it is the societal and cultural responsibility of each tribal member to choose a mate wisely — therefore ensuring tribal survival into the next generation. Both the Karuk stories and the Southeastern stories illustrate this cultural responsibility.”

According to Wiki, Deer Woman can also appear as an old woman or even a deer. She is sometimes described as having the upper body of a young woman and the lower body of a deer. When compared with other similar tribal legends of dangerous women, these females all have a physical deformity and lure men to their deaths.

 

DeerManHoaxThen There’s This

In the 50s and 60s, a columnist named Jerry Moriarity popularized the legend of the Deer Man in his column, “Mostly Malarkey.”  It’s important to note that malarkey means “Speech or writing designed to obscure, mislead, or impress.” So his columns were clearly fiction and entertainment.

Another journalist named Dave Clarke wrote several articles about this creature in the Star Courier. Dave believes the Deer Man is local to Kewanee, IL and that if you see it three times, you die.

Finally, in 2005, an episode of the Masters of Horror TV program featured the Deer Woman, probably unrecognizable from the original legends.

 

DeermanHoax02Are They Real?

So are the Deer people real? Are they flesh and blood cryptids? I think not. There’s a very clear folklore component to the stories and it’s easy to see how they are cautionary tales to help preserve the culture and traditions of the native peoples. (Think about all the “old wives’ tales” we all heard growing up as well as Grimm’s fairytales, not to mention Aesop’s Fables.)

Is it above someone to make a headdress with deer antlers and call themselves the Deer Man or Woman? I wouldn’t put it past some hoaxer to do so, as we’ve seen with Bigfoot videos, ad nauseum. But back in the world of reality, I don’t expect anyone to find a real creature like this Deer Man or Deer Woman anytime soon.

What do you think about the Deer Man or Woman?

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19 comments

  1. It’s ridiculous ….unless, of course, you are an “Ancient Aliens” believer. In that case, the Deer Man would be a cross breed much like the Egyptian animal headed gods and the same type of creatures in other cultures. Something to think about…..

  2. I came upon this while trying to get info on an animal-human I saw years ago on an Indian reservation & was told by a resident it was probably a “deer person” which she claimed was a “neutral” thing to have encountered but it was certainly chilling. Thanks for the info you have

    • Good grief Mary, that must have been a shock to see! Can you describe what it looked like to you? What part of the country was this in? How long ago was this?

      Thank you for visiting CryptoVille with this exciting news!! …Susan (CryptoVille)

  3. This was 10 or more years ago in a Lakota area. It had a male human face & was clothed but it was all so fast I couldn’t get details. I was driving at 50-ish highway speed late afternoon/early evening when this creature suddenly appeared at my driver’s front fender, “ran” across the front of my car, and vanished at the passenger fender. Because it was in front of the car the whole time I don’t know what the bottom half looked like. By the time I was starting to brake it was gone. Couldn’t see anything running across the field. Didn’t impact anything. But the chilling part was when it was directly in front of me time kind of paused & it turned it’s head & looked right at me with an “I see you” vibe. Didn’t seem very neutral then & still doesn’t. I’m Anglo so I’m not sure Lakota will feel comfortable telling me what it was beyond the “neutral” or “if I saw it I’d pray” responses I’ve had to my description. I started thinking about it again when the radio program “Coast To Coast” was talking about shape-shifters because an Anglo friend who worked on a Lakota reservation told me that was probably what I saw & seemed pretty astounded.

    • Hi Mary! That’s very interesting. The fact it appeared & disappeared without actually entering or leaving the road seems to indicate it was something non-corporeal. Very strange. I’m not familiar with the Lakota reservation, but I looked it up and it’s in South Dakota so I’ll assume that’s right, per Wiki.

      You said its expression wasn’t “neutral” and it caused you to feel “chilled,” so I’m wondering if it was an evil type of creature?? Very unsettling to say the least!

      Thanks for sharing your story! And thanks for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  4. I have just about every Cryotid on film. There are the strangest creatures in the woods…I have probably 50 different species documented, but the deerman and deerwoman I have not seen.

    • I’m not sure I’d want to see the deerman/woman in person, Dr. Squatch. They don’t sound too friendly. 🙂

      Thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  5. I saw in news yesterday, a creature alike this head of a deer and body of human is caught bcoz several mysterious killing of pet animal happen n attack in child n women happen continously from few days before.

  6. I saw one last fall. A human body with a deer head. Moved crazy fast. Ran right up to me and passed by. Very spindly antlers.

  7. I just read this article and it’s very interesting but doesn’t really match to what I’ve seen, when I was about 8 years old I had what I can’t tell between a dream or reality happen, so I was in my bedroom and woke up in the middle of the night to a fire lit in our back yard fire pit. Around the fire were tall bucks standing on their hind legs around the fire (doing a dance it seemed) In this dream/reality/whatever i saw, I get up and go to my bathroom which has a window that looks to the back yard and I could only see their silhouettes then when I went back to my room they were all gone. and it was a little eerie but also sort of a peaceful thing to see. It still makes me think to this day and i can see them quite vividly if I think of it hard enough

    • Hi Noah! Thank you so much for sharing your experience. It really sounds like an incredible memory. Please let us know if you see anything else like that again. And thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (CryptoVille)

  8. Thank you for this post.
    I have been looking for information on what I saw, and the more time goes by the more it bothers me that people don’t believe me at all or when they claim that they DO believe me, they act like it’s not a big deal. What happened was this:I was on a walk with my friend mike at “the nature center” in Midland, MI. We’re following this trail that is mostly thru woods but there are breaks in the wood and large spaces of just grass with the odd building or structure.. so I notice that he’s locked onto something, he’s just staring at something in the woods and not moving so I look. It is a deer, kneeling down and looking directly at US! it’s right where the woods begin to get thicker and off to the left of the path we’d been walkling. I said “it’s a deer” mike said “no it’s not” and started walking forward on the path. Then I noticed that something wasn’t quite right, that the face looked like a deer, no antlers or anything, but the body was misshapen, and I couldn’t see very well because of the distance and it being obscured in the brush. so i tell mike to flank it while i stayed there so i wouldn’t risk letting it out of my sight. When mike is about halfway the thing suddenly stands up, still looking at me, and turns to the right a little more than 90 degree’s like, a big turn, and it keeps it’s eyes on me, straining it’s neck to look back at me as it walked away into the woods… what made this part of the experience terrifying, to me, was that when this thing stood to turn and leave, it had no hind-quarters. it was bipedal. so it was like a man stood up and looked over his shoulder at you as he walks away. i can still see it vividly in my mind. Mike lost his eye on it, and I started running in pursuit but it had too much of a lead that by the time i got to the treeline i saw nothing. mike and i aborted our walk and went directly back to the car to go home. raving about what we just saw.

    • Hi Winston! Thank you for sharing this very interesting account. Did it happen recently? The creature certainly sounds odd with its deer face, yet bipedal type body. I can’t even guess what it was, perhaps some kind of deer man, or maybe something demonic that looked like a deer man. At this point, you just don’t know what’s out there lurking in the woods anymore. Recently I’ve been learning about the Missing 411 accounts and I’m baffled to the point where I could throw my hands up in frustration.

      I’m glad you and your friend made it back home safely. And I’m grateful you visited CryptoVille and shared your experience with us. Stay safe! … Susan (CryptoVille)

    • Interesting, Claudioman. Looks like other cultures also had tales of horned creatures.

      Thank you for visiting CryptoVille! … Susan (Curator of CryptoVille)

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