For most of modern human’s existence, say over the past 50,000 to 100,000 years, if we saw something fly under its own power, it was a bird, a bat or an insect – maybe a ‘flying’ fish or ‘flying’ fox if you want to stretch things a bit. Relatively few of these feature prominently in any culture’s mythology. Bats might have an association with vampires, but your average run-of-the-mill garden variety bird is usually taken for granted – unless they are monstrous in size and like humans for dinner.
If there’s nearly one thing universal in Native American mythology it is giant birds, monster birds, even the Thunderbird (which has been adopted as a brand name for many products not to mention the name of a TV show with associated spin-off motion pictures). Now apart from the actual observations of these winged monstrosities, there’s nothing all that unusual about giant flying creatures in mythology. What sets these ‘birds’ apart is that they often like to snack on the natives – as takeaways, not dine in. Is there any natural terrestrial explanation for birds carrying away humans, like a crow picking up a kernel of corn? Or, might one have to resort to another, more unnatural and perhaps extraterrestrial explanation?
Mythological Monster ‘Birds’ of the Americas
Dragons: While primarily connected with the Old World (Europe, the Far East, etc.), dragons have some, albeit lesser known connection in the New World of the Americas, perhaps a bit more in the guise of serpents, that is taking on a serpentine appearance. This is most notably so with respect to that famous feathered serpent (sounds more like a bird actually) Quetzalcoatl, a central Aztec deity, but noted as well in Mayan culture and that other, and mysterious initial Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs.
However, we do have the Piasa Bird which is depicted as a dragon in a Native American Indian mural above the Mississippi River near modern Alton, Illinois. It’s thought that the originals were done by the Cahokia Indians way before any white settlers arrived in their territory. Their pictographs of animals, birds such as the falcon, bird-men and serpents (monstrous snakes) were common, as was the Thunderbird icon. According to a local professor living in the area in the 1830’s, John Russell, the Piasa Bird depicted in the mural was a monstrous bird that inhabited the area and attacked and ate the locals that inhabited various Indian villages in the area. Apparently it got a taste for human flesh after scavenging human carrion (corpses).
Thunderbirds & Related: These beasties are nearly universal in Native American Indian mythology, and what’s more they carry many similar features. They tend to be very large birds that are seen as the personification of thunder (the beating of their wings) and lightning and all things stormy; a sort of Zeus or Thor but with wings, talons, a beak and feathers. The Native Americans believed that the giant Thunderbird could shoot lightning from its eyes. Say what? Even odder is that the Thunderbird often has teeth in its beak. We’ve all heard the phrase “rare as hen’s teeth” – well that’s because modern birds are toothless.
Thunderbirds were also associated with the Great Spirits so common in Indian lore. They were servants of these deities and apparently acted as messenger-boys (sorry, messenger-birds) – a sort of extra-large carrier pigeon – carrying communications between these various Great Spirits. Thunderbirds were associated with the weather as we’ve seen, and also with water. Now an interesting parallel is that dragons in the Old World are often viewed as go-betweens between the gods and humanity (sort of again like carrier pigeons) and their having some control over the weather and the waters was a common feature as well.
So, this mythological monster bird is common throughout Indian legends. Actually in one case there was a Thunderbird that resembled a giant eagle that was large enough, and powerful enough to carry a whale in its claws. Say what again? According to the Makah people of the Northwest Coast, a Thunderbird saved a village from famine by snatching up a whale from the Pacific Ocean and giving it to the community to feed off of, giving the village food lasting for many weeks. Would this be an American example of a case of manna from Heaven? Now no bird could actually carry even a small whale in its beak or talons, so there must be another explanation.
I’ve previously related how the Navajos have associated Ship Rock (or Shiprock) in New Mexico with a legend that says they were flown by a ‘flying rock’ (Ship Rock) provided by their Great Spirit to escape their enemies from up north. The Navajos, in other legends, have associated Ship Rock with the presence of ‘Bird Monsters’ or cliff monsters that preyed and feed on human Navajo and Zunis flesh. I wonder if that could be a garbled tale of UFO abduction.
Related are the tales of the Yaqui from around the Sonora region in NW Mexico. Yaqui legends tell of enormous birds around Skeleton Mountain that carried off men, women and children.
There’s a petroglyph at Puerco Pueblo (or village) located in the Petrified Forest National Park of an enormous bird with a human suspended in the air by its beak. If we assume the human is of average height, say 5′ 6″ tall, then the bird, to scale, is roughly 13′ 9″ tall. That’s one very big bird! The petroglyph was carved into stone many, many hundreds upon hundreds of years ago by the ancestors of the Hopis, maybe even by the lost Anasazis.
When it comes to the Thunderbirds, scholars of mythology strongly suggest that this creature is just the embellishment of the California condor, eagles, or the extinct teratorns. However, to my way of thinking, one doesn’t usually associate birds with thunder and lightning (i.e. – storms). Now you may see birds riding the thermals that might precede a storm, but you don’t tend to see birds out and about in stormy weather – they seek shelter from the elements too. Yet many tribes like the Lakota Sioux or the Ojibwa of the Great Lakes Region make the connection between these Thunderbirds and lightning in particular. Perhaps the association with something flying and thunder and lightning suggests something a bit more technological!
PET PALS 