MYTHIC PERSONS THUNDER-BIRD. 



189 



Jig. 105.— Thunder-bird. Dakota. 



Figures 10-1 and 105 are forms of the thunder-bird found in 1SS3 

 among the Dakotas near Fort Suelling, drawn and interpreted by 

 themselves. They are both winged and have waving lines extending 

 from the mouth downward, signifying 

 lightning. It is noticeable that Figure 

 105 placed vertically, then appearing 

 roughly as an upright human figure, is 

 almost identically the same as some of 

 the Ojibwa meda or spirit figures repre- 

 sented in Schoolcraft, and also on a 

 bark Ojibwa record in the possession of 

 the writer. 



Figure. 106 is another and more cur- 

 sive form of the thunder-bird obtained 

 at the same place and time as those im- 

 mediately preceding. It is wingless, and, with changed position or 

 point of view, would suggest a headless human 

 figure. 



The blue thunder-bird, Figure 107, with red 

 breast and tail, is a copy of one worked in beads, 

 found at Mendota, Minnesota. At that place 

 stories were told of several Indians who had pre- 

 sentiments that the thunder-bird was coming 

 they would so state the case to their friends that they might retire 

 to a place of safety, while the victim of super- 

 stition would go out to an elevated point of land 

 or upon the prairie to await his expected doom. 



Frequently, no doubt on account of the iso- 

 lated and elevated position of the person in a 

 thunder storm, accidents of this kind do occur, 

 thus giving notoriety to the presentiment above 

 mentioned. 



A still different form of the Dakota thunder bird 

 is reproduced in Mrs. Eastman's Dahcotah, op. cit., 

 page 2GL\ See also page 181 supra. 



Figure 10S is "Skam-son," the thunder bird, a tat- 

 too mark copied from the back of an Indian belong- 

 ing to the Laskeek village of the Haida tribe, Queen Charlotte's Island, 

 by Mr. James G. Swan. 



Figure 109 is a Twaua thunder bird, as reported by Rev. M. Eells in 

 Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey, III, p. 112. 



There is at Eueii, on the reservation [Washington Territory], an irregular basaltic 

 rock, abi at :! feet by :i feet and 4 inches, and a foot and a half high. On one side 

 there has been hammered a face, said to be the representation of the face of the thun- 

 der bird, which could also cause storms. 



Fig. 106.— Thunner-bird. 

 Windless. Dakota. 



to kill them, when 



! I I 



— Thunder-bird. 

 Dakota. 



