Here is a site with more information about the Nimerigar.
www.legendsofamerica.com...
I spent a little time looking at the Shoshone language, and this word doesn't appear to be Shoshone at all (Shoshone words end with vowels, not consonants.) I know that legends of "little people" do exist along with legends of giants, so I'm not dismissing that... it's just that the name is... wrong for the language.
Several profesionals performed tests on the mummy, including ex rays to find out whether it was a hoax or not. They found that it was real, but meanwhile some of the scientists said it was an adult male, others said it was a deformed baby.
I read a little more on the tests. From the first, the scientific community was divided with a set of doctors and x-ray specialists saying it's adult and the anthropologists saying it was an anencephalic baby.
(warning: link contains pictures. Not terribly gory but some may not want to view them)
en.wikipedia.org...
Microcephaly is also a possibility. In both cases you'd get skull proportions that were more like that of an adult than an infant (where the head is up to 1/4th of body length rather than 1/5th)
en.wikipedia.org...
After the mummy vanished from sight in the 1970's, the x-rays were reexamined by a forensic anthropologist who also said that it was an anencephalic baby.
I tend to believe the anthropologist is correct and the others are mistaken -- partly because of the courses I took in both professions. Doctors are taught the signs of common conditions (so they'd recognize Downs, for instance) in a LIVING person...but they are not as good at diagnosing older skeletons. Forensic anthropologists are great at diagnosing old bones, but you wouldn't want them practicing medicine on you!
The Hobbits are a special case and the skeletons found were adult. I'm skeptical about a tribe of pygmies in North America, though I could be convinced by archaeological evidence. So far, there hasn't been any.
