72 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



the Middle West, the Sauk and Fox, 

 Menomini.Winnebago, Ojibway, Potawa- 

 tomi and Ottawa, have many tales of this 

 titanic feud. These tribes all believe 

 that the Thunderers are mighty " super- 

 eagles" who dwell in floating tiers of 

 rock in the ether above man in the west- 

 ern sky. It is the flashing of their eyes 

 which we call lightning and their raucous 

 cries that we de- 

 nominate the thun- 

 der. It is the duty "T'r\%' ', 

 of these birds to ; ft^ ; ■.■^■MtJ-- 

 guard man, to rake 

 the earth with hail 

 and water it with 

 rain, and above all, 

 to prevent the evil 

 horned snakes from 

 destroying mankind. 

 They are war gods 

 and patrons of war- 

 riors and it was 

 through them that 

 the war bundles, sa- 

 cred packs of talis- 

 mans carried into 

 battle as protection 



from the arrows and bullets of the foe, 

 were given to mankind by the Sun and 

 the Morning Star. 



In the Museum's collection in the 

 Woodland hall are many examples of 

 the images of these birds from all the 

 central western tribes. They are mostly 

 woven on carrying bags made of native 

 basswood string with the designs in yarn 

 or blanket ravelings. Most interesting 

 of all is a painted robe which forms the 

 inner wrapping of a war bundle. On it 

 appear the Thunderers in both bird and 



human form as protectors and patrons 

 of warriors. The human Thunderers 

 are always distinguishable by their pos- 

 session of huge beaks in place of noses. 

 Another unique piece from nearer 

 home, is a fragment of pottery found in 

 1902 on a Museum expedition to Shinne- 

 cock Hills, Long Island. On it is incised 

 the crude figure of a Thunderbird, very 





A Menomini woven bag showing the Thunderers. The bag is a 

 very old specimen made of basswood barli fibre with the designs of buffalo- 

 wool yarn 



much like those shown on the woven 

 bags from farther west. It is interesting- 

 in that it shows the eastern distribution 

 of this concept. 



Among the Plains-Cree, men who- 

 dreamed of the Thunderers not infre- 

 quently ornamented their buffalo skin 

 tipis with paintings of the Thunder- 

 birds in semihuman form. The photo- 

 graph showing the Cree tent was made 

 in the summer of 1913 in the Qu'Appelle 

 Valley, Saskatchewan, and illustrates 

 this custom. 



