Homo floresiensis AKA "the hobbit" stood about 1m tall. Tiny brain too, though the part responsible for self awareness is approximately human sized. They were game hunters, using relatively advanced stone tools and fire. Homo floresiensis co-existed with homo sapiens on Flores Island until at least 12,000 years ago. The only explanation for how it got to Flores is by raft.
Interestingly, some ten years before the find, anthropological study of the locals recorded stories of uneasy human coexistence with primitive little babblers: the ebu gogo. Apparently the ebu gogo skulked around humans, wanting stuff, and always murmering in what was assumed to be their own language. They could dumbly parrot human speech. The descriptions of ebu gogo physical appearance and demeanor seem bang on for this later discovered homo floresiensis. As the story goes, some ebu gogo kidnapped a human infant ...to eat... and the already exasperated humans decided to exterminate the ebu gogo. They managed to kill or run off all of them. This was about 100 years ago. Much later than accurate oral records of early contact with the Portugese. I think we'd be insulting the locals to cherry pick just that history matching European experience.
Suppose we find homo floresiensis surviving in the jungle? And they babble, wave spears, shake their inhuman anatomy in our faces. Then what?
Are they people?