#siouan

[doubtspirit]

Edward Sheriff Curtis, 1908 - An Apsáalooke mother and her child.

Apsáalooké or Absaroka, means "children of the large-beaked bird" and was given to them by the Hidatsa, a neighboring and related Siouan-speaking tribe. French interpreters translated the name as gens du corbeau ("people of the crow"), and they became known in English as the Crow. Other tribes also refer to the Apsáalooke as "crow" or "raven" in their own languages.

[nonenglishsongs]

Osage Tribal Singers, Scott George - Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People) (Osage)

Good luck at the Oscars tonight!

[skiddo-xy]

🇨🇦 Langblr Challenge Day 13: How Many Languages Are Spoken In Your Country? 🇨🇦

In this post: official languages, Indigenous languages, more recent immigrant languages. Touches on language and dialect diversity as well as preservation/revitalization. Statistic bomb so you don't get bored: there are over 200 languages spoken in Canada.

Been waiting a while for a day when I have lots of time so I can medium dive into my country of Canada 🇨🇦

Part I: Official Languages

So officially, we have two official languages: English and French, both directly tied to our country's colonial history. Here is a map of Canada, where 1 represents the area/s where English is predominant, 2 represents the area/s where English and French are roughly equally predominant (bilingual belt) while 3 represents the area where French is predominant. And everywhere else is where the population density is less than 0.4/km, yes we are that sparse

We also have multple varieties of French in Canada, the most known Quebecois French, Acadian French, Chiac etc.

In my experience, French Immersion programs, public school programs in which Anglophone children only are spoken to in French and they learn it naturally--not to say these kids speak it natively, they still learn advanced grammar etc all throughout school--are common in major urban centres from in or close to the bilingual belt in Canada. I myself am in one of these programs (you can drop it after first year of high school, but if you do it all throughout highschool you can get an additional French-language diploma) and though I recognize its problems (especially as someone who has lived in Francophone places as well) I am very grateful for the opportunities it has provided me with.

Bilingualism, especially in Quebec, is a debated political subject in Canada. Here are some recent news articles:

Quebec language watchdog orders café to make Instagram posts in French

23 bilingual Quebec municipalities challenge province's new language law in court

Quebec's tuition hike triggers financial strain for English universities as enrolment drops

Part II: Indigenous Languages

Canada is home to over 70 Indigenous languages from about 12 Indigenous language families: Algonquian, Inuit, Athabaskan, Siouan, Salish, Tsimshian, Wakashan, Iroquoian, Michif, Tlingit, Kutenai & Haida.

Unfortunately, due to Canada's long history of colinization, all of these languages are now endangered. This is mostly attributed to Canada's past residential school system, in which Indigenous children were taken from their homes to attend English or French-language boarding schools and critical to the language situation, abused for speaking their ancestral tongue. More on residential schools.

Not all is lost though! In 2019, the Indigenous Languages Act was enacted which pledged government funding towards the reviatalization and sustainment of Indigenous languages as part of the 94 Calls to Action established by Canada's Truth and Reconciliation commission written to establish reconciliation for Indigenous Canadians and Canada.

Currently, 9 Indigenous languages are recognized as official in the Northwest Territories federal subdivision (Inuktitut, Inuinnaqtun, Inuvialuktun, Gwich'in, North Slavey, South Slavey, Tłı̨chǫ, Chipewyan, Cree) alongside English and French, while in the territory of Nunavut, Inuktut (both Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun dialects) are recognized as official alongside English and French.

Recent news: Inuktut became first Indigenous language of Canada to be available on Google Translate as of 2 weeks ago! Try it out using Latin Inuktut or Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Inuktut! Please note that Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics are not actually Indigneous to Canada, they were developed by missionaries to facilitate the spread of Christianity among Indigenous Canadians. Indigneous languages of Canada were traditionally unwritten.

Also: searchable glossary of Indigenous place names in Canada, interactive map

Part III: (More Recent) Immigrant Languages

This section basically encompasses everything else in Canada. Some highlights:

Mandarin is spoken by 679,255 people as of the 2021 census (1.9% of the population

Canadian Ukrainian, a dialect from 1920's western Ukraine with adapted English words for new things such as кеш реґистер/kesh regyster (cash register) (fun fact: Canada is home to the 2nd largest Ukrainian diaspora in the world!)

Canadian Gaelic, pretty similar to Canadian Ukrainian's history but with Scottish Gaelic, most prevalent in rural communities of Canada's Nova Scotia (lit. "New Scotland") province

Plautdietsch, the Mennonite dialect/s of the Low German dialect of German, with Frisian and Flemish aspects, most Canadian speakers are Mennonites who immigrated to Canada from Russian Empire-era South Ukraine (P.S this is totally not self promo or anything but I have a bunch of posts about Plautdietsch on my blog as someone whose great-grandparents were native Plautdietsch speakers under the tag #plautdietsch)

And there's so much more to learn, not just for languages exclusive to/most common in Canada! You can look at the link I just linked or go here for raw data from the 2021 census and then "find in page" your way to the "language"s section

End

This is a subject I think is super neat so I'm glad I got an outlet to write about that. There's so much more I could've talked about, so for futher reading you can check out this Wikipedia article. If you made it this far, THANK YOU

[squirrelwrangler]

OOooh, another theory on the whole Bryne plotline (aside from he falls for Leane, hyper-competent support battle couple). Because his role as Rebel Aes Sedai General is necessary for at least some dude to be there in that position, even if it's not big.

Gawyn doesn't stay in the Tower loyal to Elaida, but instead joins the Rebel Aes Sedai and gets hired by Egwene to lead their army. This gives them interactions together, since they have yet to meet in the show- and in fact would give them more time together than in the books. He's with her throughout Salidar and the Siege. It makes Gawyn less of a Failure, so it's a bit OOC for him sure, but the audience would root for him and Egwene as her more natural second-love.

[thyfleshc0nsumed]

Much has already been said by other transfeminists on the "they hate us all equally" idea that many TME trans people fall back on when trans women speak on the specific ways in which we are targeted, and within the last few days, I've received a number of messages similar to this:

Frankly, I'm not even sure what has spurred this on--and this is the least aggressive and most direct of them--but many of them are not just the standard affair of transmisogynistic slurs and threats, rather they are posed as a defense of not just women, but trans men as well.

I don't believe that it is trans men or transmasculine people sending me these--though of course I could be wrong--so why do they highlight trans men within these messages?

The answer to me is obvious: within the trans man, the transmisogynist sees (correctly) the potential of an ally to their ends. Does the average radicalized transmisogynist look highly upon trans men and treat them with love and respect? I do not think so; these people are driven by disgust and indignation and view transsexuality and self-determination of gender and sex as degenerate, after all.

But motivated reactionaries know, if not understand, the mechanisms through which systems of power operate. For an ideology to be made manifest or maintain its reign, it does not require large segments of a population to be committed ideologues; that segment only needs to be amenable to the ideology and closed off from opposition.

So, while the radicalized transmisogynist is also a general transphobe, they know well that there exists stratification within their out-group and will happily incorporate sub-groups they also see as impure if it benefits their fundamental goal more than it damages it.

I think about early developments of whiteness. Did the 17th century propertied English of Virginia view their European-descended underclass as equals? Of course not. But when it became clear that material solidarity between the European underclass and Black slaves threatened their minority rule and their monopoly over expansion further into Siouan and Algonquin land, the propertied minority identified the essential components of their rule (chattel slavery and displacement of Indians) and became willing to grant privileges to the non-English Europeans so long as it solidified that rule. They codified this stratification into law over the course of the century. The European underclass, though still an underclass, now had a stake in this system. The propertied English had to give something up, but in exchange, they received new allies that allowed their fundamental aims and methods to remain unchanged.

So yes, perhaps the radicalized transmisogynist views the trans man as degenerate, but they understand that trans men have a stake in keeping trans women below them--denying this stratification helps uphold it.

Men who refuse to acknowledge that patriarchy exists still benefit from it and further its existence, regardless of whatever marginalizations they may face. Does patriarchy harm men too? Supposedly so, but only really in some psychic, damage-to-the-soul sort of way. The fundamentals of patriarchy is the positioning of women below men, even within a shared oppression. So to the transmisogynist, an allyship with trans men does not harm their essential aim: running trans women off of the earth.

[samiholloway]

That last bit -- yeah. Most of my ancestry is Irish or Welsh, with a little Cuban thrown in. I've never been to any of those places, I don't speak the languages, I had to teach myself about the foods, and the people I've met from them and talked to about this have made it very clear that I'm not theirs. Even if I did somehow "move back" (which in the case of Ireland I probably would if given the chance because I've always wanted to go), it would take years to adapt.

So I'm left with pieces: I grew up overseas so I don't feel like I'm "really American" and I totally get what people are talking about about when they say America isn't that great. But also, I grew up embedded in this weird slice of specifically American propaganda about America despite not being inside America, so I wasn't part of anywhere else we were either. I'm not Irish or Welsh or Cuban, and claiming those too hard would be stealing. I'm not southern enough to be in the south where I am now. I've been carrying around these puzzle pieces my whole life, and considerations of "whiteness" and "colonizer" and "immigrant" and "reparations" have only added more pieces to the pile as I've gotten older, giving me more to think about. But it's what I've got.

Something else that I've really been wanting to get off my chest for a while now -

That Kendrick Lamar Superbowl performance thing - every time I see something about it or saw posts about it praising it -

Continuing to praise, glorify, identify with, and solidifying the idea of the 'US' - that's still a colonial entity that is illegitimate, enacted on genocide and disenfranchisement on a literally nearly-global scale, founded and continuing on stolen land.

Like, I understand people wanting to 'reclaim' something that they identify with; but what you're identifying with and reclaiming is a colonial entity.

Black people making the 'US' flag with their bodies is gross, to me. You're claiming an identity that erases Indigenous, First Nations people. People saying things like 'take America back' from a 'liberal'/'Democrat' stance does the same, when 'America' is a colonial entity.

Coming from being on this continent of stolen land on the other side of the world, where the concept of 'Abolish 'Australia'' is really not that uncommon to grasp, it just strikes me over and over that oppressed peoples in the 'US' are not exempt from 'US' exceptionalism and an apparent blindness about their own colonial/settler-occupant position. Despite all the talk about 'wokeness', 'US-Americans' are not 'woke' to the idea that 'American' is not an identity to particularly be proud of.

(This applies to 'Canadians' as well.)

It is so galling to see Black people discussing and feeling proud of an 'American' identity to me, because I don't understand how you are proud of claiming an identity that is based on the genocide of the native people of the land, when they themselves have been placed in a position of oppression by the same colonialism. In part, this is probably because the people who identify as Bla(c)k here are Indigenous people.

I can't say I really get it, and this is not to dismiss the oppression and marginalisation that Black and non-white people face in the 'US'; I don't have that personal lived experience. I can understand the difficult position, and the need and desire to articulate and to stake a claim to connection to the place one finds themselves birthed and grown up in, but - I also don't get the lack of seeing there, like a layer of film that doesn't seem to be seen or acknowledged often.

It's messy - I get that. But from the point of view of a non-'American'/non-'US'ian, and even as someone from a formerly colonised country where we don't see ourselves as settlers either - it just strikes me every time.

[littlefeather-wolf]

🔥🔥The Crow are also called the Apsáalooke, Absaroka, and Apsaroke. Their name was given them by the Hidatsa, and meant “people [or children] of the large-beaked bird.” Historically, they lived in the Yellowstone River Valley. A Siouan tribe, they once were part of the Hidatsa, living around the headwaters of the upper Mississippi River in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin. Later, the Crow moved to the Devil’s Lake region of North Dakota, before splitting with the Hidatsa and moving westward.

Settling in Montana, the tribe split once again into two divisions, called the Mountain Crow and the River Crow. They were first encountered by two Frenchmen in 1743 near the present-day town of Hardin, Montana. When the Lewis and Clark expedition came upon them in 1804, they estimated some 350 lodges with about 3,500 members ...

[ukfrislandembassy]

A mad idea bouncing around in my head: Ancient Greek but with Siouan phonology: /ˈmeːnĩ ˈʔajede tʰeˈʔa peleˈjadejo ʔakʰiˈlejo ʔuloˈmenĩ ˈheː miˈdi ʔakʰiˈlejo ˈʔagle ˈʔetʰeke poˈla diˈpʰtʰimu psiˈkˣa ˈʔajidi ptoˈjapsĩ heˈlõː ʔaˈptuː de heˈloːdija ˈtepʰkʰe ˈkinesĩ ʔojoˈnojisi te ˈpaːsi diˈjo deteˈlejeto buˈleː ʔeˈksuː deː ta ˈptoːta dijaˈtseːtĩ ʔeˈdisãte ʔaˈteːde te ˈʔanaks ʔãˈdõ kaji ˈdijo ʔakʰiˈlejo/

[leroibobo]

cahokia was a city located across what's today the mississippi river, lasting between about 1050-1350 ce, after which it was abandoned until about 1500. due to its inhabitants leaving little-no written records and no oral histories of it existing, the city's original name is unknown - it was named posthumously for the cahokia people who were living in the area at the time of french contact.

at its peak in the 11th and 12th centuries, cahokia was the largest city north of mesoamerica and the largest settlement of the mississippian culture with a population of 15-20,000. it served as both an economic and cultural center; the city's main trades included farming, logging, hunting, pottery, weaving, and trading. the exact reason for its decline in the 13th and 14th centuries is unknown, with theories including war, political fragmentation, disease, and flooding among others being proposed.

like other mississippian settlements, cahokia is best known for its diligent city planning and extensive earthworks. its basic layout - thought to be inspired by the creators' view of the heavens - consists of four quarters and several soil and clay-constructed mounds oriented in the cardinal directions. all of them are centered on monks mound, the tallest of the earthworks, which may have housed the city's rulers. most residents lived on farmlands surrounding this main area. the city also includes the "woodhenge", an astronomical observatory consisting of wood posts aligned with the positions of the sun throughout the year, which is thought to have been relocated several times throughout the city's history. evidence of a copper workshop and a mass burial site have also been found in some of the city's mounds.

some siouan-speaking nations further west like the osage, kaw, ponca, quapaw, and omaha have preserved some elements present in cahokian culture such as chunkey and their meticulous urban planning. it's been suggested that these nations are a result of former cahokian people or other mississippians in the cahokian sphere of influence gradually migrating elsewhere. though cahokia had great influence, that practically no oral histories of the city exist indicates that former residents either didn't think it important enough to memorialize or didn't want to memorialize it.

[pandemoniumonwheels]

Personally with 2x07 title being daes daemar and the way Moiraine and Siouan’s scenes played out, I stand by it having been a ploy the 2 worked out and I will pass out on this hill of mine standing my ground.

A) Rand has clear trust issues with Moiraine

B) Moiraine and Siuan are in sync in many things. When Moiraine comes into the hall to meet Siuan, it’s like she is too much in shock to curtsy. But then Siuan’s eyes flick down and Moiraine curtsies.

C) in this same scene, Siuan says she will row beside her and that is the last thing she says before saying she needs to meet Rand…..then the scene cuts off leaving the two of them there for how long we don’t know discussing what we also don’t know

D) this issue of shielding VS stilling. I haven’t read the books but can Siuan tell the difference in Moiraine? Because Lan suddenly thinking of something is strange just in the nick of time right after Siuan is back with them

E) thé waygate scene between them is strange but at the end of it Rand trusts Moiraine and even stands up to Lanfear for her. Siuan « knocks » Lan out but like 1 min later, when danger appears he is suddenly up?

F) Siuan tells Moiraine that their way did not work.Which other way is there? Oh wait conveniently Moiraine gets something out of Rand, when he sees she is trying to help him. Falme and lanfear

All the arguing, every single disagreement Moiraine and Siuan have in this episode is in front of Rand.

These two do not communicate like this, shockingly out of sync and in front of people. They talk. Throughout we see they work through things. 1x06 Moiraine is agitated so Siuan is quiet and waits. Then Siuan talks and Moiraine listens. Moiraine says Siuan has to exile her, Siuan listens even though it is horrible horrible for them as a couple

Beginning of 2x07, Moiraine sees Siuan is unsure, she asks her directly and Siuan answers and then they talk. Even when they meet again in the hall, they talk and communicate.

In front of Rand it is yelling and arguing and drama, just like the beginning of 1x06 when they are putting on a show.

I refuuuuuuuuuuuse!!!!!!

Yes, yes, yes. That's what my master theory is all about. I agree with everything you wrote, friend, and I'm dissecting all those scenes, and preparing posts to prove we're both right.

[incesthemes]

since you asked me this question for wincest wednesday...what are YOUR headcanons on the boys' knowledge of languages? :o

YES THANK YOU!!!!!! :) i love talking about languages and supernatural and languages in supernatural

so when i first watched through the show, i actually had a pretty extensive list of languages i thought they would have reasonably acquired some knowledge on:

classical languages (latin, classical greek)

native north american languages (particularly of the siouan and uto-aztecan variety, and navajo, all for geographical reasons)

some modern italic languages (spanish, french, italian, etc), maybe less so modern germanic languages

some old norse (mainly via the two eddas)

some japanese, picked up later in the series and mostly by dean (to honor bobby's memory)

some other ancient or dead languages (aramaic, sumerian, old english, etc)

a very small spattering of enochian, whatever is available for humans to learn

american sign language (sam only)

my reasoning for this was for practical reasons: these are the languages of the cultures that the monsters they hunt originate from, and so the lore is going to be accessible only or predominantly through those languages. especially later in the series, you see them interacting with non-english texts quite often (whether or not they know the languages in question is up to that episode writer's whims, i guess, continuity be damned). i also like the interpretation of both sam and dean as being highly self-educated, and since they're both rather serious about hunting, this would be a natural extension of the knowledge they'd need to acquire to actually excel in their work. for this headcanon, i really like dean being more practical in his knowledge of languages and sam being more academic because it aligns with their areas of specialty in hunting :3

HOWEVER, when i started my rewatch, i also watched the pilot commentary with eric kripke, and he said something very striking to me:

Blue collar, low tech guys and their weaponry should be blue collar, greasy, worn down. It's always been really important to me. I'm mean—I'm just—I'm from a small town in Ohio, and you know, it's always been important to me that these guys just be, you know, Motorheads... and... love classic rock... and know how to handle a chainsaw, and that was to me, more interesting than—spells and magic. And... even to this day in the writer's room they always bring that stuff up, and I'm always like, 'Forget it! Where are the chainsaws?'

it's very obvious in the final product that this was the intention of course, and as i continued to watch i kept this vision in mind. there are three things that have stood out to me since then:

in 1x04, sam tells dean that "christo" is latin for god. it's actually greek (for christ, not god), and it would also be in the wrong declension, which could imply that sam actually isn't really familiar with greek or latin. this could imply that sam is actually just parroting something he's been told in the past (probably by john), without actually knowing it himself

in 2x04, dean flips through a book in ancient greek, and later when they dig up angela's coffin, they find more greek lettering on the inside. dean calls the letters "symbols" which could imply he's not familiar enough with greek to even know what kind of writing system it has, or to recognize greek writing for what it is. sam, too, seems equally baffled at the "symbols"

in 5x05, sam interviews a hispanic woman in somewhat awkward spanish. when dean asks about it, sam replies "freshman spanish," meaning he hasn't learned beyond a freshman, introductory level of the language, and that he learned it through formal education rather than on his own

these moments are super important to me because they really cut through the idea that sam and dean have extensive or even moderate training in foreign languages. instead, they paint the picture of rather sheltered kids who were largely kept away from the world or only limited in their exposure. i imagine, from this, that john was the one who did most of the research on their hunts, and if sam or dean participated they were relegated to controlled, prescribed roles. especially from the 1x04 example, i can extrapolate that they probably haven't examined the information they've been given too deeply; it implies a level of blind trust in john's skill, to the extent that sam isn't even aware of what language he's speaking in to reveal a demon.

as a result my most up-to-date headcanon is that sam and dean both grew up entirely monolingual, and that they didn't actually even start acquiring new languages (sam's freshman spanish exempted) until their network was cut out from under them (bobby's death and then garth's disappearance) and they found the bunker, with its myriad resources to research and study and its stability to house a library for those purposes. before then, i can see them picking up on very minor latin, like a few words here and there, but not actively pursuing any of this learning until they were forced to learn it themselves. what languages they know or how deep their knowledge goes is wildly contradictory in canon so that means i can do whatever i want, which is exactly the point where i wrap back around into my initial headcanon and start adding those languages back into their bunker era repertoire of skills.

(for the record i do generally have opinions about how much they each know of each of those languages and where their strengths in language learning lie, because i think WAY too much about this)

to my own dismay (as a lover of languages and linguistics), i've found this interpretation to be much more in-line with kripke's vision of the show, whether or not the more subtle details were intentional or not (seriously, who on the set of this show decided on "christo," i NEED to know). It also gives an interesting dimension to their early life as being highly sheltered and isolated and kept away from the hunting life while simultaneously being inescapably part of it.

this is a really long way of saying "monolinguals," but in my defense i've been building this interpretation and headcanon for nearly a year straight now. because i pay way too much undue attention to the use of language in supernatural.

[o-craven-canto]

(full size)

A rough map of the historical expansion of 21 language families and subfamilies. A commenter on the DeviantArt page points out that the origin of the Siouan family should be shown somewhat further east.

[nonenglishsongs]

Robert Tree Cody - Lakota Lullaby (Lakota)

[trump-executive-orders]

Federal Recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina

Issued January 23, 2025.

Section 1. Purpose and Policy. The Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, known as the People of the Dark Water, have a long and storied history. The tribe's members were descendants of several tribal nations from the Algonquian, Iroquoian, and Siouan language families, including the Hatteras, the Tuscarora, and the Cheraw. The waters of the Lumbee River and lands that surround it have protected and provided for the Lumbee people for centuries despite war, disease, and many other perils.

In 1885, the State of North Carolina recognized the Lumbee people as an Indian tribe. 1185 N.C. Sess. Laws 92. In 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Lumbee Act (Public Law 84-570, 70 Stat. 254), which recognized the Lumbee as the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina but denied Lumbee Indians Federal benefits associated with such recognition. Today, according to the State of North Carolina, the Lumbee Tribe consists of more than 55,000 members, making it the largest tribe east of the Mississippi River and the ninth-largest tribe in the Nation.

In 2024, the United States House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 311-96, the Lumbee Fairness Act (H.R. 1101), which would grant the Lumbee Tribe full Federal recognition, but this legislation was not considered by the United States Senate before the end of the 118th Congress. Similar legislation has passed the House of Representatives several times.

Considering the Lumbee Tribe's historical and modern significance, it is the policy of the United States to support the full Federal recognition, including the authority to receive full Federal benefits, of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

Sec. 2. Directive for Recognition Plan. (a) Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretary of the Interior shall review all applicable authorities regarding the recognition or acknowledgement of Indian tribes and, in consultation with the leadership of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, shall submit to the President a plan to assist the Lumbee Tribe in obtaining full Federal recognition through legislation or other available mechanisms, including the right to receive full Federal benefits.

(b) The plan shall include consideration and analysis of each potential legal pathway to effectuate full Federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe, including through an act of the Congress, judicial action, or the Procedures for Federal Acknowledgement of Indian Tribes set forth in 25 C.F.R. Part 83.

(c) The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

[hiwaaranit]

IGNORE PREVIOUS ASK I AM APPARENTLY BLIND. and didn't see you post specifically answering most of my ask like a day ago. I guess my pronunciation question still stands, but yeah, sorry for wasting your time with that.

There's Ŋȟžčǧ and I believe they come from the orthography of Czech? but there’s a lot of controversy with that orthography. I use it because it’s the easiest one for me to read. With Arikara orthography several of my family members worked on it and kinda its similar especially with the vowels but there’s whisper words that are the capital letters and the X which is like the guttural Ȟ Ǧ, the the words tend to be very long. Unlike hidatsa and Mandan two tribes apart of my tribe they are Siouan languages so their rules and sounds are similar to Lakota but Arikara are part of the Caddoan language group which is totally different. (We used to control most of the Mississippi river)

Like hAxtaaʾIhpástš (Arikara), šiná apáȟlate (Lakota) are the same word for ribbon. I don’t have the mind power explain the rules of my languages I’d figure that eventually I’ll just have to say their names. And I won’t lie I am a bit protective of my resources because there is weird people out there trying to come up with native names or use the language for aesthetics

[inspofromancientworld]

Legendary Creatures: Thunderbird

By Dr Haggis - w:Image:Thunderbird_on_Totem_Pole.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1329416

Every place has its form of cryptid, creatures that are rarely seen, don't seem to fit in with any known animals, and that lack proof that stands up to scientific scrutiny. Some are widely known (like Bigfoot) and some are very regional (like the chupacabra). When a cryptid has been around a very long time or is in mythology, it becomes legendary.

source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/time-to-look/36201120081

One such is the Thunderbird, which is a North American Indigenous bird-like spirit. The Thunderbird is found in the mythology of many North American tribes, primarily in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes regions, but also scattered through the rest of the continent. The some peoples that have a Thunderbird in their mythology are the Algonquian, the Siouan, the Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw, and the Arikara.

Joe Mabel on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newhalem,WA-Thunderbird_Totem-_01.jpg

For many, the Thunderbird governs the upper world in opposition to either the underwater panther or Great Horned Serpent, who controls the underworld. By flapping its great wings, it creates thunder and lightning that it sends down to the underworld to prevent the underworld from overrunning earth. The might also punish people who were immoral. They often require tribute of some kind in return. Some told that Thunderbirds migrated with the seasons, while some said the Thunderbirds lived on an elevated mountain in the west. They might also control rain and hail in addition to thunder and lightning.

By Pierre5018 - Vectorization from photos from the Archives nationales de France published on the website, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37409425

Traditionally, the Thunderbird is depicted with its wings spread with its head turned to the side if drawn or facing forward if carved, sometimes with a mirrored or paired, so that it forms an X shape. They're depicted in totem poles and petroglyphs in addition to being used in signatures. They might even be added to designs on clothing or related accessories.

By Sixa369 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20076003

There are some who think that finding pterosaur fossils might have had some influence in the development of the myths of the Thunderbird.

By Daderot - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19063802