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Is there a NU word for the thunderbird? I know the Lenape recognized "the thunderers", but did they recognize the thunderbird? Was it generally associated with the west grandfather?
I'm not close to my Lenape lexicon (or any of my reference books) just now, and I'm drawing on the amalgam of stories and such I have been exposed to over the years.
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Suckachsinheet wrote:
Is there a NU word for the thunderbird?
Yes. It's pethackuweu (But, usually thought of in the plural, pethackuwewak.) [Roth, J., A Northern-Unami Canon, Vol. 2, p.20
I know the Lenape recognized "the thunderers", but did they recognize the thunderbird?
Yes. They're basically the same thing. The Unami call them "man-like beings with wings." Some Munsee described them as "giant partridges, although really persons." [Harrington, M.R., Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape, pp.29 & 30.]
In 1859, William Adams (father of Richard Calmet Adams) told Lewis Henry Morgan that "Pate-hoc-hoo-weh, the Spirit of Thunder... is represented as having the form of a bird, an Eagle, called Grand Father." [Morgan, L.H., The Indian Journals, 1859-62, p.63.]
Is it generally associated with the west grandfather?
Not that I recall, though there might be some such reference. Zeisberger said he was told that they dwelt in the mountains. I believe the Southern Unami thought they lived in the mountains above the Earth.
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To see one Delaware artistic representation of the thunderbird, see Plate 13 in this article: http://delawaretribe.org/wp-content/upl … othing.pdf , which shows the design on two armbands.
Another can be seen on the topmost beaded bracelet in the third picture, here: http://www.woodlandindians.org/forums/v … hp?id=8364
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What a great article! And to think I might have once had a shot at having that Bulletin... But I have the .pdf now...
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