Figures 104 and 105 are forms of the thunder-bird found in 1883 among the Dakotas near Fort Snelling, drawn and interpreted by themselves. They are both winged and have waving lines extending from the mouth downward, signifying lightning. It is noticeable that Figure 105 placed vertically, then appearing roughly as an upright human figure, is almost identically the same as some of the Ojibwa meda or spirit figures represented in Schoolcraft, and also on a bark Ojibwa record in the possession of the writer.
Figure 106 is another and more cursive form of the thunder-bird obtained at the same place and time as those immediately preceding. It is wingless, and, with changed position or point of view, would suggest a headless human figure.
[Illustration: FIG. 106.--Thunder-Bird. Wingless. Dakota.]
The blue thunder-bird, Figure 107, with red breast and tail, is a copy of one worked in beads, found at Mendota, Minnesota. At that place stories were told of several Indians who had presentiments that the thunder-bird was coming to kill them, when they would so state the case to their friends that they might retire to a place of safety, while the victim of superstition would go out to an elevated point of land or upon the prairie to await his expected doom.
[Illustration: FIG. 107.--Thunder-bird. Dakota.]
Frequently, no doubt on account of the isolated and elevated position of the person in a thunder storm, accidents of this kind do occur, thus giving notoriety to the presentiment above mentioned.
A still different form of the Dakota thunder-bird is reproduced in Mrs. Eastman’s Dahcotah, _op. cit._, page 262. See also page 181 _supra_.
Figure 108 is “Skam-son,” the thunder-bird, a tattoo mark copied from the back of an Indian belonging to the Laskeek village of the Haida tribe, Queen Charlotte’s Island, by Mr. James G. Swan.
[Illustration: FIG. 108.--Thunder-bird. Haida.]
Figure 109 is a Twana thunder-bird, as reported by Rev. M. Eells in Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey, III, p. 112.
[Illustration: FIG. 109.--Thunder-bird. Twana.]
There is at Eneti, on the reservation [Washington Territory], an irregular basaltic rock, about 3 feet by 3 feet and 4 inches, and a foot and a half high. On one side there has been hammered a face, said to be the representation of the face of the thunder bird, which could also cause storms.