The Omahas and other Siouan Indians used to say that when whippoorwills sing at night, saying “Hoia, hohin?” one replies “No.” If the birds stop at once, it is a sign that the answerer will soon die, but if the birds keep on calling he or she will live a long time. The Utes of […]
Tag: USA
Bird stories, Carrion Crow (Corvus corone)
A Pawnee woman and her two cildren were in the woods. She was cutting boughs while her children were playing. The children were disobedient and wandered in to the woods. The woman started looking for her children. By the fresh water she saw a beaver and asked him if he saw her children. The beaver […]
Bird stories, Canada Goose (Branta canadensis)
Indians dwelling along the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay say that a small bird, one of the Fringillidae, performs its northward migration in spring on the back of the Canada goose. These geese reach Hudson Bay about the last of April, and the Indians state that when they are fired at little birds are seen […]
Bird stories, Brandts Cormorant (Phalacrocorax penicillatus)
Native dancers throughout California commonly blow bird bone whistles to accompany their movements. The shrill sound of the whistles was not appreciated by the 18th century Spanish explorer Pedro Fages, who encountered them among the Chumash. These people have been playing bird bone whistles for 3000 years, up to the present day. Archaeological examples include […]
Bird stories, Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata)
The following fable is part of the Pawnee Indians legends. Kiki, the jay bird, was tahmahnawis for many, and this is the story of how he became so for S’doaks. S’doaks went to the lodge of Itswoot and he dwelt there many moons. Then it came time for him to get his totem, and this […]
Bird stories, Black Guillemot (Cepphus grylle)
The Hudson Bay Eskimos tell their boys and girls when they see the funny little guillemots by the sea-cliffs and ask about them, that once a lot of children were playing near the brink of such a cliff. Their noisy shouts disturbed a band of seal-hunters on the beach below, and one of the men […]
Bird stories, Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon)
In Pawnee legends, the Kingfisher figures with the wolf. There was a wolf who was lodge brother to Manabozho. One day he went forth and returned no more, and Manabozho mourned, for he loved him. So he followed his tracks to the Big River; and he asked a kingfisher if he had seen a wolf […]
Bird stories, Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
The Mono Indians of the Sierra Nevada, never kill their sacred black eagles, but pluck out the feathers of those that die and wear them on their heads. When they succeed in capturing a young one, after two weeks the village makes a great celebration. On July 4, 1776, on the afternoon following the morning […]
Bird stories, American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)
The Seri, an exclusive and backward tribe inhabiting the desert-like island Tiburon, in the Gulf of California, ascribe the creation of the world, and of themselves in particular, to the Ancient of Pelicans, a mythical fowl of supernal wisdom and melodious song who first raised the earth above the primeval waters. Ingersoll, Ernest, 1852-1946. Birds […]
Bird stories, American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
Among the Chippewas, when a son became old enough to leave boyhood behind, it was necessary for him to pass through twelve days of fasting, during which the great Manitou would come to him and free him from his childhood’s nature and instead give to him the strength and endurance of a braver manhood. One […]