thunderbird (mythology)

The thunderbird is said to create thunder by flapping its wings (Algonquian), and lightning by flashing its eyes (Algonquian, Iroquois). Across cultures, thunderbirds are generally depicted as birds of prey, or hybrids of humans and birds. Thunderbirds are often viewed as protectors, sometimes intervening on people's behalf, but expecting veneration, prayers, and gifts.

Archaeologically, sites containing depictions of thunderbirds have been found dating to the past 4000 years.

Petroglyphs of thunderbirds are found near Twin Bluffs, Wisconsin. They are in a shelter that was probably used c. 250 BCE to 1500.{{cite web |title=Rock Art - Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center |url=https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/past-cultures/specific-sites/rock-art/#content-130245 |publisher=Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center |access-date=21 July 2024 |language=en}}

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The thunderbird myth and motif is prevalent among Algonquian peoples in the Northeast, i.e., Eastern Canada (Ontario, Quebec, and eastward) and Northeastern United States, and the Iroquois peoples (surrounding the Great Lakes).{{sfnp|Lenik|2012|p=163}} The discussion of the Northeast region has included Algonquian-speaking people in the Lakes-bordering U.S. Midwest states (e.g., Ojibwe in Minnesota{{sfnp|Lenik|2012|p=181}}).

In Algonquian mythology, the thunderbird controls the upper world while the underworld is governed by the underwater panther or Great Horned Serpent. The thunderbird creates not just thunder (with its wing-flapping) but lightning bolts, which it casts at the underworld creatures.

Thunderbird in this tradition may be depicted as a spreadeagled bird (wings horizontal head in profile), but also quite common with the head facing forward, thus presenting an X-shaped appearance overall{{sfnp|Lenik|2012|p=181}} (see under §Iconography below).

File:Pouch, southeastern Ojibwa, with porcupine quills, from Boston Museum Collection - Native American collection - Peabody Museum, Harvard University - DSC05441.JPG shoulder pouch depicting two thunderbirds in quillwork, Peabody Museum Harvard]]

The Ojibwe version of the myth states that the thunderbirds were created by Nanabozho to fight the underwater spirits. Thunderbirds also punished humans who broke moral rules. The thunderbirds lived in the four directions and arrived with the other birds in the springtime. In the fall, they migrated south after the end of the underwater spirits' most dangerous season.{{cite book | title=Traditional Ojibwa Religion and Its Historical Changes | publisher=American Philosophical Society | author=Vecsey, Christopher | year=1983 | page=75 | volume=152 | isbn=978-0-87169-152-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Un5uxow5c-UC&q=Thunderbird}}

The Menominee of Northern Wisconsin tell of a great mountain that floats in the western sky on which dwell the thunderbirds. They control the rain and hail, and delight in fighting and deeds of greatness. They are the enemies of the great horned snakes (the Misikinubik) and have prevented these from overrunning the earth and devouring humankind. They are messengers of the Great Sun himself.{{cite book|last=Lankford |first=George E. |author-link= |title=Native American Legends of the Southeast: Tales from the Natchez, Caddo, Biloxi, Chickasaw, and other Nations |year=2011|publisher=University of Alabama Press|location=Tuscaloosa, AL|page=77|isbn=978-0-8173-5689-7|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cs383Ik3CAQC&q=Thunderbird}}

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File:Painted Skin representing the thunderbird.jpg

The thunderbird motif is also seen in Siouan-speaking peoples, which include tribes traditionally occupying areas around the Great Lakes.

Ho-Chunk tradition states that a man who has a vision of a thunderbird during a solitary fast will become a war chief of the people.{{cite book|last=Burlin|first=Nathalie C.|title=The Indians' Book: An Offering by the American Indians of Indian Lore, Musical and Narrative, to Form a Record of the Songs and Legends of Their Race|year=1907|publisher=Harper and Brothers|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924028767238}}

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Ethnographer George Amos Dorsey transcribed a tale from the Arikaras with the title The Boy who befriended the Thunderbirds and the Serpent: a boy named Antelope-Carrier finds a nest with four young thunderbirds; their mother comes and tells the human boy that a two-headed Serpent comes out of the lake to eat the young.Dorsey, George Amos. [https://archive.org/details/traditionsofarik00dorsuoft/page/187/mode/1up Traditions of the Arikara]. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1904. pp. 73-79, 187.

In Algonquian images, an X-shaped thunderbird is often used to depict the thunderbird with its wings alongside its body and the head facing forwards instead of in profile.{{sfnp|Lenik|2012|p=163}}

The depiction may be stylized and simplified. A headless X-shaped thunderbird was found on an Ojibwe midewiwin disc dating to 1250–1400 CE.{{harvp|Bouck|Richardson|2007|p=15}}, citing Cleland (1984), p. 240, figure 2C; Lenik (1985), p. 132, figure 5. In an 18th-century manuscript (a "daybook" ledger) written by the namesake grandson of Governor Matthew Mayhew, the thunderbird pictograms varies from "recognizable birds to simply an incised X".{{sfnp|Bouck|Richardson|2007|p=15}}

File:ThunderBird Rock Carved Petroglyph at Twin Buffs.jpg wall at Twin Bluff, Juneau County, Wisconsin, by prehistoric artist(s)]]

American science historian and folklorist Adrienne Mayor and British historian Tom Holland have both suggested that indigenous thunderbird stories are based on discoveries of pterosaur fossils by Native Americans.{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=CMsgQQkmFqQC&q=pterosaur| title = Fossil Legends of the First Americans| isbn = 0-691-11345-9| last1 = Mayor| first1 = Adrienne| year = 2005| publisher = Princeton University Press}}{{cite web| url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014lsgb| title = BBC Four - Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters}}

Similar beings appear in mythologies the world over. Examples include the Chinese thunder-god Leigong, the Hindu Garuda and the African lightning bird.{{cite book |last1=Andrews |first1=Tamra |title=Dictionary of Nature Myths: Legends of the Earth, Sea, and Sky |date=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-513677-7 |page=203 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7jS65aClvFEC&dq=Thunderbird+myth&pg=PA203 |language=en}}

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• The shoulder sleeve insignia for the 45th Infantry Division (Oklahoma Army National Guard) was a thunderbird patch after 1939.{{cite book |last1=Whitlock |first1=Flint |title=The Rock Of Anzio: From Sicily To Dachau: A History Of The U.s. 45th Infantry Division |date=16 April 1998 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-8133-3399-1 |page=21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hupmAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}
• Several X-Men characters go by the name Thunderbird, the first appearing in 1975.{{cite web |last1=Doran |first1=Michael |title=Thunderbird is back and badass after 50 years in Giant-Size X-Men special |url=https://www.gamesradar.com/john-proudstar-giant-size-thunderbird/ |publisher=GamesRadar+ |access-date=21 July 2024 |language=en |date=28 April 2022}}
• The Ford Thunderbird is an American car.{{cite book |last1=Bacon |first1=Roy |title=The Ford Thunderbird |date=2000 |publisher=Gramercy Books |isbn=978-0-517-16173-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=99YFAAAACAAJ |language=en}}
• A WWII-era airfield for pilot training in Arizona was called Thunderbird Field, which in turn was the inspiration for other names, including:
• The Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University.
• The 1960s TV show Thunderbirds created by Gerry Anderson.Gerry Anderson – The Authorised Biography, by Simon Archer & Stan Nicholls, 1996, pp. 85–86, {{ISBN|0-09-978141-7}}.
• In 1925, Aleuts were recorded as using the term to describe the Douglas World Cruiser aircraft which passed through Atka on the first aerial circumnavigation by a US Army team the previous year.{{cite book|title=The First World Flight|url=https://archive.org/details/firstworldflight0000thom|url-access=registration|last=Thomas|first=Lowell|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|date=1925|place=Boston & New York}}{{rp|100}}
• The Pokémon Zapdos is based on First Nations folklore surrounding the Thunderbird.{{Cite web|url=https://www.gamesradar.com/15-pokemon-based-real-world-mythology/|title = 17 Pokemon based on real-world mythology|date = 4 February 2014}}
• Thunderbird is a roller coaster at Holiday World & Splashin' Safari in Santa Claus, Indiana.
• Mozilla Thunderbird is a free and open-source cross-platform email client.
• The Thunderbird is the cap badge and symbol of the Canadian Forces Military Police since 1968.
• Various sports teams are called the Thunderbirds or have Thunderbird mascots, including:
• The Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League.
• The teams of Southern Utah University, in Cedar City, UT.
• The teams of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver campus.
• The Connetquot School District in Long Island, which was the subject of a lawsuit in 2023.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-19 |title=Connetquot schools sue Regents over Native American mascot ban |url=https://www.newsday.com/long-island/education/state-mascot-ban-native-american-connetquot-rsp6n42u |access-date=2024-06-19 |website=Newsday |language=en}}
• Thunderbirds can be recruited as units in 1999 Heroes of Might and Magic III and 2002 Heroes of Might and Magic IV.

{{Div col}}

• Lightning bird
• Pamola
• Piasa
• Rain Bird
• Raven (mythology)
• Roc (mythology)
• Hábrók
• Thunder god
• Timeline of pterosaur research

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{{harvp|Cleland|Chute|Haltiner|1984|p=240}}

{{harvp|Lenik|2012|p=163}}

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• {{cite journal|last1=Bouck |first1=Jill |author1-link= |last2=Richardson |first2=James B. III |author2-link=| title=Enduring Icon: A Wampanoag Thunderbird on an Eighteenth Century English Manuscript From Martha's Vineyard | journal=Archaeology of Eastern North America |volume=35 |date=2007 |pages=11–19 |jstor=40914506}}
• {{cite journal|last1=Cleland |first1=Charles E. |author1-link= |last2=Chute |first2=Richard D. |author2-link=|last3=Haltiner |first3=Robert E. |author3-link= |title=NAUB-COW-ZO-WIN Discs from Northern Michigan |journal=Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology |volume=9 |number=2 |date=1984 |pages=235–249 |jstor=20707933}}
• {{cite journal|last=Lenik |first=Edward J. |author= | title=The Thunderbird Motif in Northeastern Indian Art |journal=Archaeology of Eastern North America |year=2012 |volume=40 |pages=163–185 |jstor=23265141}}

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• {{Commons category-inline|Thunderbird (mythology)}}

{{Mississippian and related cultures}}

{{Pre-Columbian North America}}

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Category:First Nations culture in Canada

Category:Kwakwaka'wakw mythology

Category:Bird deities

Category:Legendary creatures of the indigenous peoples of North America

Category:Mississippian culture

Category:Mythological birds of prey

Category:Native American culture

Category:Native American religion

Category:Northwest Coast art

Category:Thunder deities