Misi-kinêpikw, the Great Serpent, is the monstrous horned snake of Cree waters. George Nelson's Cree material of 1823 counts the great water serpent among the most powerful beings, 'a monstrous animal' of much power, and Rock Cree narratives tell of enormous man-eating serpents hated and hunted by the thunderbirds, whose lightning is aimed at them whenever they surface. The being lurks beneath lakes and rapids and devours those who cross its waters, and in some tellings of the flood cycle the horned serpents share with the underwater cats the guilt of killing the trickster's wolf brother.
Domains
serpents
deep waters
Powers
to devour people who cross its waters
to lie hidden beneath lakes and rapids, unseen until it strikes
Brown, Jennifer S. H., and Robert Brightman. 'The Orders of the Dreamed': George Nelson on Cree and Northern Ojibwa Religion and Myth, 1823. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1988.
Brightman, Robert A. Ācaðōhkīwina and ācimōwina: Traditional Narratives of the Rock Cree Indians. Canadian Museum of Civilization Mercury Series, Ethnology Paper 113. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1989.