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THE THUNDER -BIRD AMONGST THE ALGONKINS 
 
 BY 
 
 A. F. CHAMBERLAIN. 
 
 FROM THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST 
 FOR JANUARY, I890. 
 
(ax) 
 
 ^ 
 
H-2jj 
 
 [From the American Anthropologist for January, 1890.] 
 
 THE THUNDER-BIRO AMONQST THE ALOONKINS. 
 
 BY A. F. CHAMBERLAIN. 
 
 The interesting article of Rev. Myron Eels in Vol. ii, pp. 329-336, 
 has suggested a brief discussion of the same subject with regard to 
 the tribes of Algonkian stock amongst which the belief in the thun- 
 der-bird appears to be very wide-spread. It is found with the Crees 
 of the Canadian Northwest and amongst some of the tribes of Mic- 
 mac lineage dwelling near the coast of the Atlantic, on the shores 
 of Hudson's Bay, and in the States on the southern banks of Lake 
 Superior. The investigation of this peculiar belief must therefore 
 cover the whole Algonkian region. 
 
 The Crees believe that certain divine birds cause the lightning by 
 the flashings of their eyes, and with their wings make the noise of 
 thunder. The thunderbolts are the " invisible and flaming arrows 
 shot by these birds." Hind" speaks of the Plain Indians of the 
 Northwest as "anxious and timid during the roll of thunder, invok- 
 ing the Great Bird by whose flapping wings they suppose it to be 
 j)roduced, or crouching from the blink of his all-penetrating eye, 
 which they allege is the lightning's flash." Cognate is the belief of 
 the Blackfeet that winds are caused by the flapping of the wings of 
 a great bird in the mountains.' 
 
 Among the Algonkian tribes of the Lake Superior region the same, 
 or similar, beliefs arec irrent. Rev. John McLean* informs us that 
 the Pottowattamies loon on one of the high mountain peaks at Thun- 
 der Bay as the abode of the thunder, and that at one time a nest 
 containing the young thunder-birds was there discovered by them. 
 
 From Rev. E. F. Wilson" we learn that the Ottawas believed the 
 thunder was " a great bird which flapped its wings on high over the 
 
 1 Lacombe, Diet, de la I.angue iles Cris (1874), pp. 575, 262. The thunder- 
 bird is cal'ed/jywfV — 1. t , " bird" — identical with Ojebway binisi^ Mississagua 
 pinesi, WLnoh pineusen, Ottavfapindsi, evidently a common Algonkian word for 
 "bird." 
 
 'Narrative of Canad. Explor. Exped. of 1857, etc. (i860), ii, p. 144. 
 
 • McLean. Tlie Indians, their Manners and Customs (1889), !'• 38. 
 
 *Op. cit., p. lS;J. 
 
 »Our Forest Children. N, S. No. i (July, 1889), p. 5. 
 
52 
 
 THE AMKRICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. 
 
 [Vol. III. 
 
 earth to guard its inhabitants and to prevent those evil monsters hid- 
 den in the bowels of the earth from coming forth to injure them," 
 
 The existence of the thunder-bird tradition among the Ojebways 
 of the northern shore of I<ake Superior has been confirmed to the writer 
 by information from Rev. Allen Salt, a Mississagna Indian, who has 
 frequently visited that region. Regarding the Ojebways (Chipjje- 
 ways), Rev. Peter Jones' says " they consider the thunder to be a 
 god in the shape of a great eagle that feeds upon serjients, which it 
 takes from under the earth." Jones also relates (Op. cit., p. 86) the 
 story of an Indian who visited the nest of a thunder-bird on a high 
 mountain. He .saw bones of seri)ents scattered about, and noticed 
 that " the bark of the young trees had been peeled off by the young 
 thunders trying their arrows before going abroad to hunt serpents." 
 At another time a party of Indians found a nest on the plains and 
 put the young thunder-birds to death, after blinding them with their 
 arrows (which, however, were shattered to pieces). All but one of 
 the Indians were killed by the (jld birds on their return. The Ojeb- 
 ways believed that the home of the thunder-bird was on the top of 
 a high mountain in the West, where it lays its eggs and hatches its 
 young like an eagle. From time to time it sets forth into different 
 parts of the earth to search for serpents, which form its food. When 
 they saw a thunderbolt strike a tree these Indians believed that the 
 thunder " had shot its fiery arrows at a serpent and caught it up in 
 the twinkling of an eye." This belief is confirmed by the evidence 
 of the early Jesuit missionary, P^re Buteux', who relates it in very 
 similar terms of the Algonkins of the north shore of the St. Law- 
 rence in 1637. The thunder-bird is also known to the Ojebways of 
 Red I^ke, Minnesota, and figures in their pictographic records.* 
 
 While on a visit to the Mississaguas of Scugog, Ontario, in Au- 
 gust, 188P the writer was told by an aged woman of that tril)e the 
 following as the ancient belief of her jieople : "The thunder was 
 caused by the flapping of the wings of the great thunder-bird that 
 lived up in the sky, and the lightning was caused by the flashings of 
 its eyes." A great storm of thunder and lightning was explained 
 thus : " The young birds up there in the sky, they are so glad, they 
 fly all about and make a great deal of thunder and lightning ; like 
 all young people, they are very restless," Not far from the village 
 
 » History of the Ojebway Indians (1861), p. 85. 
 
 'Relations des J^suites, Annee 1687, p. 53, See also ISrinton, Myths of the 
 New World (1876), p, 118. 
 ' Dr. W. J. Hoffmann, Amer. Anthropologist, i, 225. 
 
 4,« 
 
r 
 
 H 
 
 Ji 
 
Jan. 1890.] 
 
 THI5 TIIUNDKR-BTRP. 
 
 53 
 
 of Scugog is buried a Mississagiia chief, who just before he died called 
 out that " I die ! the thunders are coming !" 
 
 Amongst the Mississaguas ond Ojebways, Indians were very often 
 named after the "thunders." At Scugog one of the sons of 
 Nawlgishkoke (sun in the center of the sky) was named Head 
 Thunder, while another Indian was called OsAwanimlki (Yellow 
 Thunder). When the Rev. Peter Jones was named, the ai)i)eIlation 
 conferred upon him was Kilk'nvdktvdndht (sacred waving-feathers), 
 and his tutelary deity was the thunder. " He was given a war-club 
 and a bunch of eagle-feathers, symbolical of the might and swiftness 
 of the eagle-god of thunder." ' 
 
 Among the Passamacjuoddy Indians the thunder-birds appear as 
 men. Leland' has recorded a legend of this tribe of a man who was 
 whirled up into the abode of the thunders and who told what 
 he had there seen. The "thunders" were very like human be- 
 ings, used bows and arrows, and had wings which could be re- 
 moved or jnit on as occasion demanded. "The thunder is the 
 sound of the wings of the men who fly above. The lightning we 
 see is the fire and smoke of their pipes." These thunder-beings are 
 always "trying to kill a big bird in the south." Here a recol- 
 lection of the thunder-bird of other Algonkian people would seem 
 to be present. Other " thunder stories " are given by Leland. Ac- 
 cording to another'' legend, the giant thunder-spirits, with eye- 
 brows of stone and cheeks like rocks, dwell in Mount Katahdin. 
 According to another Passamaquoddy legend,* Badawk, the thun- 
 der, and Psaivk-tankapic, the lightning, are brother and sister, whilst 
 the distant ruml)ling before the thunder-crash is made by the child 
 of Baihiwk^ to whom his grandfather had fastened wings. This 
 child was the offsjiring of Badawk and an Indian woman. 
 
 The Passamaquoddies also believe that the wind is caused by the 
 motions of tiie wings of " a great bird called by them Wochoivsen 
 or IVuchoivsen, meaning Wind-Blow or the Wind-Blower, who lives 
 far to the north and sits upon a great rock at the end of the sky."* 
 This resembles the belief of the Blackfeet, noticed above. 
 
 Leland thinks' that this "Wind-Blower is, as he appears in the 
 Piiasamaquoddy tale, far more like the same bird of the Norsemen 
 
 'Journ. of Amer. Folk-lore, i, 152. 
 
 * Leland. Algonquin Legends of New England (1885), pp. 263-266. 
 *Op. cit., p. 261. ♦Op. cit., p. 267. 'Op. cit., p. III. 
 'Op. cit., p. 113. A similar account of I'assamacjuoddy beliefs is given in 
 Journ. of Amer. Folk- Lore, ii, 230. 
 
54 
 
 THE AMERICAN ANTHROrOLOGIST. 
 
 [Vol. III. 
 
 than the grotesque thunder-bird of the Western tribes." He seems 
 inclined to explain many of the incidents in the " thunder stories " 
 from Eskimo and from Norse mythology. 
 
 It may be, however, that the "wind-blower" and the " thunder- 
 giants" are simply the "wind-bird" and the "thunder-birds" of the 
 Western Algonkian tribes modified to suit circumstance and lo- 
 cality. 
 
 This view seems to be confirmed by the statement of Dr. F, V. 
 Hayden' respecting the Crees: "Indeed, these Indians do not 
 seem to fear any natural phenomena except hunder, which is sup- 
 posed to be the screaming and flapping of tl vings of a large bird, 
 which they represent on their lodges as a great eagle. Wind is sup- 
 posed to be produced by its flying, and flashes of lightning are 
 caused by the light of the sun reflected from its white and golden 
 plumage, and when strokes of lightning are felt they are thunder- 
 stones cast down by this bird. All storms, tornadoes, etc., are 
 caused by its wrath, and fair winds, calm and fine weather are re- 
 garded as tokens of its good humor." Here the wind-bird and the 
 thunder-bird are regarded as one, and, .is with the Ojebways, the 
 bird takes on the form of an eagle in pictography, sculpture, and 
 ornament. On the whole, the Algonkian beliefs respecting thunder 
 seem more akin to those of the Siouan than of any other Indian 
 peoples. With the Tetons the snake apjiears as the enemy of the 
 thunder. Rev. J. Owen Dorsey' thus describes the Teton thunder- 
 ers : " Some of these ancient people still dwell in the clouds. They 
 have large, curved beaks, resembling bison humps ; their voices are 
 loud, they do not open their eyes wide except when they make light- 
 ning, and they 1 ive wings. They can kill various mysterious beings, 
 as well as human beings. Their ancient foes were the giant rattle- 
 snakes and the Un-kche-ghi-la or water monslers, whose bones are 
 now found in the bluffs of Nebraska and Dakota." In the Omaha 
 and Ponka myths thunder-men and thunder-birds appear, and the 
 story of a visit to the nest of the thunder bird is related.' 
 
 A close and detailed comparison of Siouan and Algonkian thun- 
 der stories and folk-lore would be of great interest and value, and 
 might perhaps shed some light upon the relations of these two great 
 peoples in the past. 
 
 > Transactions of Amer. Philos. Soc, vol. xii (N. S.), p. 345. 
 ' Journal of Amer. Folk-Lore, ii, 135, 136. Compare the Onondaga tale of 
 the serpent and the thunderers, ib., i, 46. 
 • Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, in Joum. of American Folk-Lore, i, 75-77.