![]() This hill was also a place of sanctity, and only a few Indians dared to approach it. When the entire sky was lighted at the same time it was a sign that all of the Thunderers were awake. These lightning flashes came and went as the birds opened and shut their eyes. ![]() By counting these the redmen knew about how many Thunderers there were in that particular flight. Their presence on this hilltop was known to the Indians, living on the other shores of the lake, by the bright flashes of the lightning that could be seen in that direction. The character of the lightning tells the observer something about the Thunders who issued it:įox's Bluff, an eminence on the north shore of the same beautiful lake, was in those days known by the Winnebago to be a roosting place of the Thunderbirds, or Thunderers, on their long flights from their nesting places on the high mountains on the shore of Lake Superior. This conception may be partly influenced by the practice of using hot stones to create the clouds of steam used in sweat baths, but more essentially it seems to derive from the firing of the arrow out of the bow, which launches a stone projectile (an arrowhead) seemingly from the eye of the archer. 12 These are commonly known as "thunder stones" or "lightning stones" (for which see the Commentary to "Mąznį’ąbera"). 11 Thunderbirds, by their very nature, contain numerous hot stones, which they shoot from the pupils of their eyes as the fiery projectiles that we see as lightning. This human was given flying feathers and became one of the Thunderbirds. However, these were not ordinary stones since they had been heated until they were red hot. This was achieved by a mortal and his Thunderbird friend who both had the birdlike power to swallow stones. When the Thunders first met the Nights, they had to protect themselves from the extreme cold generated by a hostile and cannibalistic female Night. So they do have a profound affinity to the Nightspirits. In this role they occlude the sun and thereby themselves create darkness. The reason is to be found in the fact that the Thunderbirds have an esoteric identity with clouds. Superficially, it is a puzzle why the Thunders, who contain within themselves the luminous lightning, would marry the Nightspirits, who are responsible for darkness. 10 Although they live in the west, the Thunders intermarry with the Nightspirits who live where the sun rises. 7 (see Thunderbird Genealogy) Snow is caused to fall by the one called "White Thunder." 8 The whole Thunder tribe is ruled over by Great Black Hawk, 9 whose daughter Yųgiwi ("Princess") owns a blanket of many shades of red which she loans to Sun when he sets near the Thunderbird spirit village. 5 The baldheadedness may derive from a curious assonance between the word capara, "baldheaded," and cąpara, jąpara, "lightning." Foster was informed that "The Thunders are people like us, but with wings on their shoulders, and they have each a club, and are always ready for war." 6 The Thunders are of two sorts, the Good Thunderbirds (led by Wakąja?), and the Bad Thunderbirds who, under the command of Wonáǧire Wąkšik, cause the rain to fall. 4 Nevertheless, when they appear before humans, they usually assume the form of bald men crowned with wreaths of cedar, either juiniper or arbor vitae (Thuja occidentalis), and carrying the Thunderbird Warclub. Thunderbirds have created such eggs by merely rubbing a Thunderbird feather between their palms, and in one case even turned a human into a Thunderbird egg by the same process. Thus they once blessed Kerexų́saka with a flute, but this sacred object was so powerful that he declined to accept it. Their voices are like the sounds of flutes, recalling both the whistle of wind and the voices of raptors. However, they are far stronger in build and have polychrome plumage that gives them a magnificent appearance unrivaled by the birds of earth. Their basic somatic form runs the gamut of several species of birds, the hawk and the eagle being the most common. ![]() 2 Their name, Wakąja, means, "Divine Ones." On the model of other tribes, they are conventionally called "Thunder(bird)s," since they alone possess lightning. ![]() 1 Together with the Waterspirits, they were the first spirits that Earthmaker created. Thunderbirds are powerful and warlike avian spirits who animate the gray clouds with thunder and lightning. Thunderbirds or Thunders ( Wakąja, "The Divine Ones")
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