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- Title
THE THUNDERBIRD MOTIF IN NORTHEASTERN INDIAN ART.
- Authors
Lenik, Edward J.
- Abstract
Thunderbird figures and images are found in American Indian art throughout Canada and the United States. In the legends of Algonkian and Iroquoian peoples of the Northeast region the thunderbird is a powerful and sacred spirit-being in the form of a giant eagle-like bird. It causes lightning, thunder, wind, devours serpents, and is seen as a guardian spirit of Indian people. In southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States, or the Northeast, the thunderbird image is found in various design forms and artistic mediums. It has been expressed on rock surfaces, in shell, clay, animal hide, metal, and as facial tattoos. Images occur on bedrock outcrops located along the banks of rivers and streams, the shores of lakes, and seaside bays. Thunderbird images have been engraved into artifacts including ornaments, small flat stones, a stone pipe, and pebbles. Thunderbirds appear in the archaeological record as copper cutouts, castings in pewter and lead, fashioned from shell and incised into clay. These various images are illustrated and described and an interpretation of their meaning and age is presented.
- Subjects
CANADA; UNITED States; THUNDERBIRD (Legendary character); INDIGENOUS art of the Americas; ALGONQUIANS (North American peoples); IROQUOIANS (North American peoples); ARCHAEOLOGY
- Publication
Archaeology of Eastern North America, 2012, Vol 40, p163
- ISSN
0360-1021
- Publication type
Article