The Thunderbird works its mysteries on earth and vegetation, on people, on animals. Lightening was said to flash from its eyes and its wings sounded like thunder. There is an old story from the US West Coastal First Nations:
A man went out salmon fishing and rain and thunder and lightening came again and again and he did not catch anything. He raised his fist and ask why it got so dark he could not see the fish, as he walked back through the woods. He came upon a tree that had been struck by lightning and there was a little boy standing under it. He watched as the boy walked out from under the great roots and began to grow bigger and bigger and feathers began to cover him. Black feathers. He said to the man,” See how tall I am. Stop looking now. I am the one you raised your fist and yelled at.” The boy/bird had become the Thunderbird.
He took away the man’s spear and blanket and grabbed the man and flew him up until he almost dropped the man. Wondering where he could safely put him down, and told the man to close his eyes and let the wind carry them. The thunder of his wings took the man up to the Thunderbird’s home When they arrived, it was dark, but the next morning, when the man opened his eyes he could see the ocean but no salmon in it. There was a whale. “Where are the salmon? Asked the man. The thunderbird said, “The salmon are our food. Catch the whales!” The Thunderbird flew down and brought up a huge whale and, in doing so, made the mountain rumble. The man fell off and landed back in his forest. He hunted whales after that.
But, he tired of whale meat. He went back and called out to the Thunderbird that he wished to eat some fish. He showed the thunderbird a spear he had fashioned just for spearing salmon. The thunderbird told him, since the spear was so small that he could catch Salmon, but only enough for him to eat.
The man set about catching salmon but the salmon was so big he could not cut it so the thunderbird spilt rocks until he fashioned a good knife made out of the right stone. The thunderbird showed him how to cut the meat. There was still too much for one man to eat. He roasted the salmon, barely. He ate half before falling asleep. When he woke, the half a salmon was gone. It had leapt back into the river. He went down, and sure enough, there was the half of a salmon. He ate that and the next day he caught another. This time he put the salmon straight on the coals and burnt half its head. The thunderbird flew down and admonished the man. “The salmon do not like to be burned and they might take revenge on you.”
The thunderbird took the man back up to his mountain and there he stayed for one year, watching the Thunderbird catch whales and share the meat with him. In the meantime, the man’s relatives thought him dead and they mourned for him. He began to long for his family, his community, his clan and the Thunderbird who knew all, told him that one of his wives had remarried but that he would fly the man back home. It actually took four more years.
A young man came into the forest and found him there. The man asked him who he was and the young man said he was a fatherless son. The man told him he was his father. The boy told him one of his father’s wives had stayed loyal to him and had never remarried. The man gave his son some whale meat the Thunderbird had sent with him. He told his son to take it to his mother. He did but his mother said, “If this is not true, when we get there to see him, and he is not your father, I will beat you!”
Of course, it was her husband and he was the father and he brought meat for his whole clan and they celebrated. The sang and danced and ate and the man was called a shaman when he told him of his time away with the Thunderbird.
He did go back several times and the Thunderbird was pleased and said that the people would always be able to have whale meat to eat. They feasted for ten days, then the thunderbird took him up again for ten years. He returned to his family and clan and again they feasted. He was given an extra good good gift besides being taught all about the whales and the salmon hunting. He was given the ability to restore life to those who deserved being restored. As long as he lived, he taught his people what he had been taught and as long as they honor the thunderbird, there would be whale meat and salmon to eat.
This so sounds familiar to some stories I was taught. We must never take our food for granted. Something had to live and die and be resurrected as food. It is another reason why women are mysteries, in that they can take what little food they have, or what abundance, and be able to share a feast. Share a feast with your people. Be grateful for what food you have. To not be grateful is to lose the source of that which sacrifices itself for us.
**My Thunderbird eggs... the rectagular shape in the front one, is opal.
Carol Desjarlais 12.11.22
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