Thunderbird
Kwakwaka'wakw · deity · mythic perennial · Recorded classification
Male thunder-being and crest figure; deity-class. His seasonal adversary is Qaniqilak, the summer spirit often identified with the sea-god Komokwa. Anglicized forms include Kwankwanxwalige'; the Lekwungen/related crest pole figure 'Kwanusila' is a cognate.
Domains
- thunder and lightning
- winter ceremonial season
Powers
- cause thunder with its wingbeats and lightning with its eyes
- set giant cedar house-beams in place for ancestors
Epithets
- Kwanusila The Thunderbird, whose wing-beats are the thunder and whose blink is the lightningFranz Boas, on the Kwakiutl (secondary)
Relations
- rival: Undersea ChiefWinter thunder-being opposed seasonally to Qaniqilak, the summer spirit identified with the Undersea Chief.Franz Boas, Kwakiutl Culture as Reflected in Mythology (1935) (secondary)
Sources
- The Thunderbird (Kwaṉx̌walagᵊma) is lord of the winter dance season, a giant bird whose wingbeats are thunder and whose eye-flash is lightning, and one of the three foremost Kwakwaka'wakw lineage crests.: Boas, Franz. The Religion of the Kwakiutl Indians, 1930. (secondary); Boas, Franz. The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, 1897. (secondary)