Legend of the Thunderbird #2

"Thunderbird and Killer Whale", Joe Wilson. Image: Island Art (www.islandart.com)

​“There was a time when the animals led by Omat and Kwekwaxawe went to war with Thunderbird.  Now the four eldest children of Thunderbird were mighty fishermen and known from their prowess as One-Whale-Carrier, Two-Whale-Carrier, Three-Whale-Carrier, and Four-Whale-Carrier.  They were always fishing and the other animals sought to catch them by guile.  So they built an artificial whale in which they went to Thunderbird’s village, Kunwaas.  One by one the eldest children of Thunderbird were lured to the artificial whale and drowned.  Only the nine-month old infant son survived to carry on his family and this is why it does not thunder very often nowadays, only when Thunderbird moves from the winter to the summer side of his house or as an omen when someone who has the Thunderbird crest is about to die.  Because the infant Thunderbird was painted with ochre and wore a strap around his neck, these are now put on infants when they are nine months old”.

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• ​Franz Boas, Kwakiutl Culture as Reflected in Mythology (1969)

​(As published in The Thunderbird Journal, Spring 1983)