The Great White Bear
Menominee · deity · Menominee traditional religion; continuing · Recorded classification
The Great White Bear is the paramount power of the world beneath the earth and, in the Menominee origin tradition, the mythical first ancestor of the nation. In the clan legend a great light-colored bear emerged from the ground at the mouth of the Menominee River and was transformed into the first man, founder of the Bear phratry; seeing a golden eagle overhead, he called it down to become his brother and the founder of the Thunderbird phratry. As chief of the underground powers the same being appears in a darker aspect, ranged among the horned, copper-tailed water-monsters whom Manabus wars upon to avenge his drowned brother. Sources connect, and sometimes distinguish, the benevolent ancestral bear and the dread underground bear-chief.
Domains
- underworld
- ancestry origin
Powers
- becomes the first man
Relations
- sibling: The ThunderbirdIn the clan-origin legend the ancestral bear called the golden eagle down to become his brother, founding the two great phratries.Skinner, A. (1913). Social Life and Ceremonial Bundles of the Menomini Indians. AP-AMNH 13(1). (secondary)
- enemy: ManabusAs chief of the underground powers he is among those Manabus fights to avenge the Wolf.Hoffman, W. J. (1896). The Menomini Indians. 14th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 113-114. (secondary)
Sources
- The Great White Bear is the chief of the underground powers and, in the clan-origin tradition, the first ancestor of the Menominee, founder of the Bear phratry.: Skinner, A. (1913). Social Life and Ceremonial Bundles of the Menomini Indians. AP-AMNH 13(1), origin of the clans. (secondary); Hoffman, W. J. (1896). The Menomini Indians. 14th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, pp. 87-88. (secondary)