- Underwater panther
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An Underwater panther is a powerful creature in the mythological traditions of some Native American tribes, particularly Anishinaabe tribes, the Odawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi, of the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States.[1][2] In addition to the Anishinaabeg, Innu also have Mishibizhiw stories.[3]
To the Algonquins, the underwater panther, or Mishibijiw, was the most powerful underworld being. The Ojibwe traditionally held them to be masters of all water creatures, including snakes. Some versions of the Nanabozho creation legend refer to whole communities of water lynx.[4]
Archaeologists believe that underwater panthers were major components of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex of the Mississippian culture in the prehistoric American Southeast[5][6]
Contents
Name
In the Ojibwe language, this creature is sometimes called "Mishibizhiw", "Mishipizhiw", "Mishipizheu", "Mishupishu", "Mishepishu", "Michipeshu",[1] or "Mishibijiw", which translates as "Great Lynx,"[7] or Gichi-anami'e-bizhiw ("Gitche-anahmi-bezheu"), which translates as "the fabulous night panther."[2][8] However, it is also commonly referred to as the "Great underground wildcat" or "Great under-water wildcat."[3][9]
Description
Pictographs of a mishibizhiw as well as two giant serpents[1] and a canoe, from Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Attributed to the Ojibwe.[10]
In Native American mythologies of the Great Lakes, underwater panthers are described as water monsters that live in opposition to the Thunderbirds,[11] masters of the powers of the air. Underwater Panthers are seen as an opposing yet complementary force to the Thunderbirds, and they are engaged in eternal conflict.[12]
Underwater panther was an amalgam of features from many animals: the body of a wild feline, often a mountain lion or lynx; the horns of deer or bison; upright scales on its back;[13] occasionally bird feathers; and parts from other animals as well, depending on the particular myth. Underwater panthers are represented with exceptionally long tails,[14] occasionally with serpentine properties.[12] The creatures are thought to roar or hiss in the sounds of storms or rushing rapids.[11]
Mishipizheu were said to live in the deepest parts of lakes and rivers, where they can cause storms.[12] Some traditions believed the underwater panthers to be helpful, protective creatures, but more often they were viewed as malevolent beasts that brought death and misfortune. They often need to be placated for safe passage across a lake.[11] As late as the 1950s, the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Indians performed a traditional ceremony to placate the Underworld Panther and maintain balance with the Thunderbird.[4]
When ethnographer Johann Kohl visited the United States in the 1850s, he spoke with a Fond du Lac chief, who showed Kohl a piece of copper kept in his medicine bag. The chief said it was a strand of hair from the mishibizhiw, and thus considered extremely powerful.[2]
Depictions in art
Ceramic effigy jug of the underwater panther, Mississippian culture, from Rose Mound in Cross County, Arkansas, ca. 1400-1600 CE. Height: 8" (20 cm)The underwater panther is well represented in pictographs. Historical Anishnaabe twined and quilled men's bags often feature an underwater panther on one panel and the Thunderbird on the other.[14] Norval Morrisseau (Ojibwe) painted underwater panthers in his Woodlands style artworks, contemporary paintings based on Ojibwe oral history and cosmology.[11][13]
The Canadian Museum of Civilization includes an underwater panther in its coat of arms.[11]
"Alligator" mound
Main article: Alligator Effigy MoundIn 2003 archaeologist Brad Lepper suggested that the Alligator Effigy Mound in Granville, Ohio represents the underwater panther. Lepper suggests that early European settlers, when learning from Native Americans that the mound represented a fierce creature that lived in the water and ate people, mistakenly assumed that the Native Americans were referring to an alligator.[15]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c Conway, Thor. (2010) Spirits in Stone. Sault Ste. Marie, ON:Heritage Discoveries.
- ^ a b c Kohl
- ^ a b Barnes
- ^ a b Bolgiano
- ^ Townsend, Richard F. (2004). Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300106017.
- ^ edited by F. Kent Reilly III and James F. Garber ; foreword by Vincas P. Steponaitis. (2004). F. Kent Reilly and James Garber. ed. Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms. University of Texas Press. pp. 29–34. ISBN 9780292713475.
- ^ Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary
- ^ "The fabulous night panther" is a translation from Anishinaabe language into French to German, which then was translated into English. The direct translation would be something closer to "The greatly revered lynx." See Freelang Ojibwe Dictionary
- ^ "Mishi-Peshu" Gidmark, Jill B. (11/30/2000) Encyclopedia of American literature of the sea and Great Lakes Greenwood Press ISBN 0-313-30148-4; ISBN 978-0-313-30148-3; 10.1336/0313301484. 568 pages, p. 168.
- ^ Penney 71
- ^ a b c d e Strom, K. "Morrisseau's Missipeshu: Cultural Preservation." Native American Indian Resources. 3 Aug 2006 (retrieved 1 Oct 2011)
- ^ a b c Penney 60
- ^ a b Penney 207
- ^ a b Penney 59
- ^ Lepper.
Bibliography
- Barnes, Michael. "Aboriginal Artifacts". Final Report - 1997 Archaeological Excavations La Vase Heritage Project. City of North Bay, Ontario. http://www.city.north-bay.on.ca/living/history/lavase/97frs611.htm. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
- Bolgiano, Chris (August 1995). "Native Americans and American Lions". Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People. Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-1044-0. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/mountain.htm.
- Dewdney, Selwyn. Kidd, Kenneth E. Indian Rock Paintings of the Great Lakes (Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press (for the Quetico Foundation), 1975), p. 149.
- Fox, William A.. "Dragon Sideplates from York Factory: A New Twist on an Old Tail.". Adams Heritage. http://www.adamsheritage.com/articles/fox/dragon_sideplates.htm. Retrieved 2006-07-13.
- Gidmark, Jill B. (11/30/2000) Encyclopedia of American literature of the sea and Great Lakes Greenwood Press ISBN 0-313-30148-4; ISBN 978-0-313-30148-3; 10.1336/0313301484, 584 pages, p. 168.
- Kohl, Johann (1859). Kitchi-Gami: Life Among the Lake Superior Ojibway. ISBN 0873511727.
- Lepper, Brad; Frolking, Tod A. (2003). "Alligator Mound: Geoarchaeological and Iconographical Interpretations of a Late Prehistoric Effigy Mound in Central Ohio, USA". Cambridge Archaeological Journal 13 (2): 147–167. doi:10.1017/S0959774303000106. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=187259.
- Lore, David (2001-01-21). "Man pounces on panther theory about mound". The Columbus Dispatch. copy
- Penney, David W. North American Indian Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 2004. ISBN 0-500-20377-6.
External links
- American Museum of Natural History on Mishepishu
- Canadian Museum of Civilization Coat of Arms
- Odawa twined bag with images of the Underwater Panther, NMAI.
- Mishipeshu at Monstropedia.
Pre-Columbian North AmericaArchaeological cultures North American pre-Columbian chronology – Adena – Alachua – Ancient Pueblo (Anasazi) – Baytown – Belle Glade – Buttermilk Creek Complex – Caborn-Welborn – Calf Creek – Caloosahatchee – Clovis – Coles Creek – Deptford – Folsom – Fort Ancient – Fort Walton – Fremont – Glades – Glacial Kame – Hopewell (List of Hopewell sites) – Hohokam – Leon-Jefferson – Mississippian (List of Mississippian sites) – Mogollon – Monongahela – Old Cordilleran – Oneota – Paleo-Arctic – Paleo-Indians – Patayan – Plano – Plaquemine – Poverty Point – Prehistoric Southwest – Red Ocher – Santa Rosa-Swift Creek – St. Johns – Steed-Kisker – Tchefuncte – Tocobaga – Troyville
Archaeological sites Angel Mounds – Bandelier National Monument – The Bluff Point Stoneworks – Cahokia – Chaco Canyon – Casa Grande – Coso Rock Art District – Eaker – Effigy Mounds National Monument – Etowah Indian Mounds – Eva – Folsom Site – Fort Ancient – Fort Center – Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument – Holly Bluff Site – Hopewell Culture National Historical Park – Kincaid Mounds – Kolomoki – Manitou Cliff Dwellings – Marksville – Meadowcroft Rockshelter – Mesa Verde – Moorehead Circle – Moundville – Mummy Cave – Nodena Site – Ocmulgee National Monument – Old Stone Fort – Parkin Park – Pinson Mounds – Portsmouth Earthworks – Poverty Point – Pueblo Bonito – Rock Eagle – Rock Hawk – Salmon Ruins – Serpent Mound – Spiro Mounds – SunWatch – Taos Pueblo – Toltec Mounds – Town Creek Indian Mound – Winterville
Miscellaneous Ballgame – Black drink – Buhl woman – Calumet – Chunkey – Clovis point – Container Revolution – Eastern Agricultural Complex – Eden point – Effigy mound – Falcon dancer – Folsom point – Green Corn Ceremony – Horned Serpent – Kennewick man – Kiva – Metallurgy – Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing – Medicine wheel – Mound builders – N.A.G.P.R.A. – Norse colonization of the Americas – Piasa – Pueblo dwellings – Southeastern Ceremonial Complex – Three Sisters agriculture – Thunderbird – Underwater panther
Categories:- Anishinaabe mythology
- Mississippian culture
- Legendary creatures of the indigenous peoples of North America
- Water deities
- Archaeology of the Americas
- Native American history
- Mythological hybrids
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