Myth of the Thunderbird

The Thunderbird is one of the few cross-cultural elements of Native North American mythology. It is found not just among Plain Indians, but also among Pacific Northwest and North-eastern tribes. It has also become quite a bit of an icon for non-Indians, since it has also had the honor of having automobiles, liquors, and even a United States Air Force squadron named after it. Totems bearing it’s representation can be found all over the continent. There have been a number of curious theories about the origins of the Thunderbird myth.

In order to understand Plains Indians folklore, we have to realize that their myths were not just "just-so" stories to entertain, divert, or make inadequate efforts at naturalistic explanation. Rather, Indian myth functioned in religious, pedagogical, and initiatory ways, to help socialize young people and illuminate the various religious and other roles in society. Indian myth was always fluid, and grounded in the present, which is what might be expected of societies which largely lacked static, written traditions. Storytelling was an art which was maintained by the medicine people with great fidelity, because it was used to explain the development of certain rituals and elements of society.

In Plains tribes, the Thunderbird is sometimes known as Wakinyan, from the Dakota word kinyan meaning "winged." Others suggest the word links the Thunderbird to waken, or sacred power. In many stories, the Thunderbird is thought of as a great Eagle, who produces thunder from the beating of his wings and flashes lightning from his eyes. (Descriptions are vague because it is thought Thunderbird is always surrounded by thick, rolling clouds which prevent him from being seen.) Further, there were a variety of beliefs about Thunderbird, which suggest a somewhat complicated picture. Usually, his role is to challenge some other great power and protect the Indians - such as White Owl Woman, the bringer of winter storms; the malevolent Unktehi, or water oxen who plague mankind; the horned serpents; Wochowsen, the enemy bird; or Waziya, the killing North Wind. But in some other legends (not so much in the Plains), Thunderbird is himself malevolent, carrying off people (or reindeer or whales) to their doom, or slaying people who seek to cross his sacred mountain.

Many Plains Indians claim there are in fact four colors (varieties) of Thunderbirds (the blue ones are said, strangely, to have no ears or eyes), sometimes associated with the four cardinal directions, but also sometimes only with the west and the western wind. (According to the medicine man Lame Deer, there were four, one at each compass point, but the western one was the Greatest and most senior.) The fact that they are sometimes known as “grandfathers” suggests they are held in considerable reverence and awe. It is supposed to be very dangerous to approach a Thunderbird nest, and many are supposed to have died in the attempt, swept away by ferocious storms. The symbol of Thunderbird is the red zigzag, lightning-bolt design, which some people mistakenly think represents a stairway. Most tribes feel he and the other Thunder beings were the first to appear in the Creation, and that they have an especially close connection to wakan tanka, the Great Mysterious.

The fact that Thunderbird sometimes appears as something that terrorizes and plagues Indians, and sometimes as their protector and liberator (in some myths, he was once an Indian himself) is said to reflect the way thunderstorms and violent weather are seen by Plains people. On the one hand, they bring life-giving rain (Thunderbird is said to be the creator of 'wild rice' and other Plains Indians crops); on the other hand, they bring hail, flood, and lightning and fire. It is not clear where with them worship and awe end, and fear and terror begin. Some Indians claim that there are good and bad Thunderbirds and that these beings are at war with each other. Others claim that the large predatory birds which are said to kidnap hunters and livestock are not Thunderbirds at all. Largely, I suspect that this dual nature of the Thunderbird ties it to the Trickster figure in Indian belief: like the Trickster, the harm the Thunderbird causes is mostly because it is so large and powerful and primeval. They describe the Thunderbird as a spiritual, not just physical, being. It is not seen as just a large, fearsome predatory bird that people tell stories about. Rather, it's an integral part of Plains Indians religion and ritual. it was believed among the Lakota and other tribes that if you had a dream or vision of birds, you were destined to be a medicine man; but if you had a vision of Thunderbird, it was your destiny to become something else; heyoka, or sacred clown. Like Thunderbird, the heyoka were at once feared and held in reverence. They were supposed to startle easily at the first sound of thunder or first sight of lightning. Thunderbird supposedly inspired the "contrariness" of the heyoka through his own contrary nature. He alternates strong winds with calm ones. While all things in nature move clockwise, Thunderbird is said to move counter clockwise. Thunderbird is said to have sharp teeth, but no mouth; sharp claws, but no limbs; huge wings, but no body. All of these things suggest Thunderbird (and the heyoka) have a curious, paradoxical, contrary nature. You could become heyoka through a vision of the Thunderbird, or just of lightning or a formidable winged being of power.


The Thunderbird constellation


It can be identified just above Scorpius, incorporating some of the constellations of Ophiuchus, Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda. Since none can reveal a clear true, general, or definitive image of the Thunderbird, and as it is not even known if those who made the art were even aware that it derived from the constellation, the details may only have come through an artistic descent that encouraged largely faithful reproduction of characteristics. Considering that the star pattern represents the original representation, it is, the characteristics that define visual representations of the thunderbird are that it has a very long wing-span, with wings that often are broken down on the sides, and while at the bottom is either a tail or two feet. The head is preferentially set looking to the left which matches well with the constellation image. It has been suggested that some depictions of the Thunderbird are equivalent to the constellation of Cygnus the swan. There is no reason to think that there could only have been one Thunderbird constellation, in fact the myth suggests that the region of the night sky was filled with Thunderbirds.





The Thunderbird constellation, connected with the image of the Moon suggests that the American Indian (specifically Passamaquoddy) view of the world put the heavens beyond a clashing barrier, the Moon, and that by slipping through the Moon one arrived at another place and this is where the Thunderbirds were. That the warrior remains there is so because it is meant to be an origin myth. The details of precisely why he was unable to return to his tribe are not as relevant as the fact that something must have forced him to remain. This is also why this particular creation myth seems to have kept fairly close to an original knowledge: that it explained something of the heavens, the phases of and image on the Moon and the appearance of a giant bird during the summer season.

While the Great Thunderbird constellation was the most significant there also appears to have been Thunderbirds anywhere they were seen in the night sky. The Long Thunderbird appears to be another as are Cygnus and Pegasus/Andromeda, and any given rock art needs to be carefully considered in regards to whether it is a representation of: a real bird they hunted or a heavenly constellation.

The depth of time here is vast, and so it is not easy or trivial to sort out the breadth of the entire Thunderbird tradition. What this awareness does provide, however, is a basis point at some unknown time in prehistory that was one of the major influences in the forming of the Thunderbird mythology and iconography. It does not extinguish the notion that extinct large birds known to early human hunters in the wild American continent played a role, but it is not necessary to assume avian mega fauna were at the heart of the origin, and it is not even the most plausible or defensible.