Post by Matt Costa on Nov 4, 2006 13:28:12 GMT -5
Thunderbird
This month’s creature is the Thunderbird The thunderbird's name comes from the thought that the beating of its enormous wings causes thunder and high winds. Its names in other Native American cultures as Wakinyan to the Lakota, Jojo to the Kwakiutl and the Nootka peoples called it "Kw-Uhnx-Wa." It is described among Native Americans as being “two canoe-lengths from wingtip to wingtip, and it creates storms as it flies. Clouds are pulled together by its wingbeats, the sound of thunder is its wings clapping, sheet lightning is the light flashing from its eyes when it blinks, and individual lightning bolts are glowing snakes that it carries with it.” The Sioux believed that in "old times" the thunderbirds destroyed dangerous reptilian monsters called the Unketehila. The Thunderbird mythology parallels tales of the Roc from around the Indian Ocean; as the roc, it is generally assumed to be based on real species of birds.
Numerous accounts of Thunderbird sightings have been documented including the infamous report from April 1890 in which two Arizona cowboys allegedly killed a “giant birdlike creature with an enormous wingspan.” It was said that it had smooth skin and featherless wings like a bat and facial features of an alligator. Which they dragged back to town and reports say that its wingspan outstretched the length of a barn. A picture of the “Thunderbird” may or may not have been published in the local newspaper, the Tombstone Epitaph, and no one has been able to produce a hard copy of the photograph.
An artists rendition of the alleged photograph.
Among the most controversial reports is a July 25, 1977 account from Lawndale,Illinois. At about 9 p.m. a group of three boys were at play in a residential back yard. Two large birds approached, and chased the boys. Two escaped unharmed, but the third boy, ten-year-old Marlon Lowe, did not. One of the birds reportedly clamped his shoulder with its claws, then lifted Lowe about two feet off the ground, carrying him some distance. Lowe fought against the bird, which released him.
In 2001 a gigantic bird was sighted in Pennsylvania where a 19-year-old claimed to have seen an enormous winged creature flying over Route 119 in South Greensburg, Pennsylvania. The witness's attention was drawn to the sky by a sound that resembled "flags flapping in a thunderstorm." Looking up, the witness saw what appeared to be a bird that had a wingspan of an estimated 10 to 15 feet and a head about three feet long.
2002, a sighting of a large birdlike creature, roughly as big as a Cessna aircraft, was reported in Alaska. Scientists suggested the giant bird may have simply been a Steller’s Sea Eagle.
In 2004, a high-school student claimed to have been walking into his classroom from a soccer field in Southern California when a large bird-like creature, silhouetted against the sky, was sighted flying over suburban residences. According to him, it first appeared to be a small bird located by the field below. He claimed to have seen it fly over a thunderhead cloud that was over a group of hills to the south that was approximately one and a half miles from where he was standing. The boy claimed that from his point of view it looked the size that a crow-sized bird would at twenty feet away. From this it could be concluded that the flying creature reported had a wingspan of hundreds of feet.
Sightings from the Hockomock swamp in the Bridgewater Triangle have also been reported with witnesses saying they have seen a large bird with a wingspan of at least 12 feet swoop down over their heads.
Be sure to check out our lecture on the Freetown state forrest at the Freetown Historical Society on November 21 where we will touch upon the topic of Thunderbirds in the Bridgewater Triangle.[/color][/size]
