Hello, my dark darlings. I'm Marquia, and this is the Something Scary podcast. To our veteran listeners and those just voyaging into the dark with us for the first time, welcome. Native American culture has a strong connection to the physical world and the world beyond. Disturbances to the dead are disrespectful

and are believed to bring suffering to the family of the departed.

It will also bring great pain, even death,

to those who dare mess with any Native American spirit.

Dead or alive.

First, obsession that destroys you, followed by humans, the worst kind of evil. Then the tiniest things

bring the greatest danger. Finally, in our featured story, being brave enough to die. I receive hundreds of

creepy story submissions every single week, and of those the scariest ones make it into our

podcast, along with the story that we've chosen to animate and post over at YouTube.com slash

snarl. If you have a tale you're dying to share, send me an email at something scary at snarl.com.

So, want to hear something scary?

Native American spirits and demons.

They say to never meet your heroes because the experience won't end up being what you dreamed. The same is true for legends.

There is always more to it than you thought, and you may end up devastated by your encounter.

Like in this story story inspired by Nick.

After getting his PhD in anthropology with a focus on indigenous tribes,

Isaiah set out to find the one thing he had been obsessed with during his studies.

The legend of Uctana. The Uaena is a horned serpent-like creature that

the Cherokee people have spoken about for centuries. Isaiah first became obsessed with the creature

from the writings of James Mooney, an anthropologist and the only known person to have seen the Uctaena up close.

Isaiah wanted to join this exclusive club to be able to boast such a unique feat.

Mooney lived among the Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma for five years, only to have suddenly died in his sleep one night.

...