Anunderwater panther (Ojibwe:Mishipeshu (syllabic:ᒥᔑᐯᔓ) orMishibijiw (ᒥᔑᐱᒋᐤ)[mɪʃʃɪbɪʑɪw]), is one of the most important of several mythical water beings among manyIndigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands andGreat Lakes region, particularly among theAnishinaabe.
Mishipeshu translates into "theGreat Lynx". It has the head and paws of a giant cat but is covered in scales and has dagger-like spikes running along its back and tail. Mishipeshu callsMichipicoten Island inLake Superior his home and is a powerful creature in the mythological traditions of some Indigenous North American tribes, particularlyAnishinaabe, theOdawa,Ojibwe, andPotawatomi, of theGreat Lakes region ofCanada and theUnited States.[1][2] In addition to the Anishinaabeg,Innu also haveMishibizhiw stories.[3]
To theAlgonquins, the underwater panther was the most powerfulunderworld being. TheOjibwe traditionally held them to be masters of all water creatures, including snakes. Some versions of theNanabozho creation legend refers to whole communities of waterlynx.[4]
Some archaeologists believe that underwater panthers were major components of theSoutheastern Ceremonial Complex of theMississippian culture in the prehistoric American Southeast.[5][6]
In theOjibwe language, this creature is sometimes calledMishibizhiw,Mishipizhiw,Mishipizheu,Mishupishu,Mishepishu,Michipeshu,[1]Mishebeshu,[7][8] orMishibijiw, which translates as "Great Lynx",[9] orGichi-anami'e-bizhiw ("Gitche-anahmi-bezheu"), which translates as "the fabulous night panther".[2][10] However, it is also commonly referred to as the "Great underground wildcat" or "Great under-water wildcat".[3][11] It is the most important of the underwater animals for the Ojibwa.[12]
Other sources describe instead the deity in terms of the "underwatermanito", as a composite of the "underwater lion" and the "horned serpent".[13]
Inmythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes, underwater panthers are described as water monsters that live in opposition to thethunderbirds,[15] masters of the powers of the air. Underwater Panthers are seen as an opposing yet complementary force to the Thunderbirds, and they are engaged in eternal conflict.[16]
The underwater panther was an amalgam of parts from many animals: the body of a wild feline, often acougar orlynx; the horns ofdeer orbison; upright scales on its back;[17] occasionallyfeathers; and parts from other animals as well, depending on the particular myth. Underwater panthers are represented with exceptionally long tails,[18] occasionally with serpentine properties.[16] The creatures are thought to roar or hiss in the sounds of storms or rushing rapids.[15]
Mishipizheu were said to live in the deepest parts of lakes and rivers, where they can cause storms,[16] sink canoes, and drown Indians, often children.[13] Some traditions believed the underwater panthers could be helpful, protective creatures, for example, it was believed to shelter and feed those who fell through the winter ice.[13] The water manito (water panther and serpent) endowed medicinal power to those (shamans) who accepted its guardianship.[19][20] It made gifts of copper, that is to say, the Ojibwe believed such rock formation partly submerged in water with copper lode protrusions to be a divinity, which would allow passersby to cut off copper from "its horns".[22]
But more often they were viewed as malevolent beasts that brought death and misfortune. They often need to be placated for safe passage across a lake.[15] As late as the 1950s, the Prairie Band ofPotawatomi Indians performed a traditional ceremony to placate the Underwater Panther and maintain balance with the Thunderbird.[4]
When ethnographerJohann Georg Kohl visited the United States in the 1850s, he spoke with aFond du Lac chief, who showed Kohl a piece of copper kept in hismedicine bag. The chief said it was a strand of hair from themishibizhiw, and thus considered extremely powerful.[2]
Mishipeshu is known for guarding the vast amounts of copper in Lake Superior and theGreat Lakes Region. Indigenous people mined copper long before the arrival of Europeans to the area. Later, during the 17th century, missionaries of theSociety of Jesus arrived in the Great Lakes Region. By that time, taking copper from the region was extremely taboo and forbidden by the Ojibwe tribe. It was even worse to take it from the Great Lynx's home,Michipicoten Island; this was considered to be stealing from Mishipeshu himself.[23]
There are a few stories of encounters with this great beast. A Jesuit missionary namedClaude Dablon told a story about four Ojibwe people who embarked on a journey to the home ofMishipeshu to take some copper back to their home, and use it to heat water. The very second they pushed off and backed into the water with their canoe, the eerie voice of the water panther surrounded them. The water panther came growling after them, vigorously accusing them of stealing the playthings of his children. All four of the people died on the way back to their village, the last one surviving just long enough to tell the tale of what had happened in his final moments before he died.[24]
The title of Underwater Panther was ported over onto a wide range of other similar mythological creatures and deities believed in by tons of Native cultures in the Eastern US.
The Iroquois Underwater Panther is known by several names. It is usually depicted as a serpentine dragon with four clawed feet, a horse like mane of hair, a long tail, copper deer antlers and an uncut diamond in its forehead. Such jewels are treated as sacred relics and believed to hold fantastic power as a totem, with many claims tribes had them before the teachings of Tecumseh's brother, Tenskwatawa, convinced many eastern tribes to give up medicine ceremonies and throw away medicine bundles associated with them.
They live in the Great Lakes, usually associated with dangerous areas of coast, like certain coves, coastal caves and swampy islands. They were said to have some power to create storms. The Iroquois were known to sacrifice dogs and tobacco when passing their homes via Canoe by throwing them overboard to avoid their wrath. It is believed they also have some shapeshifting ability, leading some to conclude that the Horned Serpent and Comet Lion of other Iroquoian stories are also the same mythological creature. Other known names include Blue Panther, Blue Snake and Oiare. The Erie tribe, known as the Cat People and the Long Tail People likely took their name from this spirit. It's also possible that it is the "panther" held on a leash by the Wind spirit, Geha, which represents one of the four winds, alongside three other animals.
The term Underwater Panther is also applied to a high ranking Ho-chunk deity otherwise known as the Water Spirit. This god shares power over medicine with a Buffalo spirit and taught the shamans of the Ho-Chunk how to kill evil spirits with weapons carved from Red Cedar, a trope that seems to also exist amongst some nearby Algonquian tribes, whose legends add the further instruction of attacking such monsters in their shadow.
The Lakota do not consider Underwater Panther a god or spirit, but a monster translated as Underwater Panther by the writers does come up in some of their stories. Here, it is a giant wildcat with ridges down its spine and a single, giant eye that lives on an island, attacking those who pass too closely.
However, some of the associations likely passed on to a serpentine race of earth spirits honored in their culture called the Uŋkcegila. These are subterranean beings who are fickle and the enemies of the Thunderbirds. Meanwhile, the sacred Buffalo and Water Spirit of the Ho-Chunk seems to have become two Buffalo and bear for the Lakota.
The Cherokee also speak of the True Lynx in their myths, which bears a lot of similarity to the Algonquian one, as a giant bobcat with a long tail and a human face, though it serves a different role in their mythology than the Underwater Panther of the north. Likewise to the Lakota, they also believe in Uktena, which combines elements of the Uŋkcegila and the Iroquoian Underwater Panther/ Horned Serpent.
These collective spirits definitely inspired modern American folklore.
The underwater panther is well represented inpictograms. Historical Anishnaabe twined andquilled men's bags often feature an underwater panther on one panel and the Thunderbird on the other.[18]Norval Morrisseau (Ojibwe) painted underwater panthers in hisWoodlands style artworks, contemporary paintings based on Ojibwe oral history and cosmology.[17][15] The emblem has been embellished, and appears as a decorativemotif onmuskets.[25]
TheCanadian Museum of History includes an underwater panther in its coat of arms.[15]
In 2003, archaeologistBrad Lepper suggested that theAlligator Effigy Mound (cf. fig. right) inGranville, Ohio, represents the underwater panther. Lepper posits that early European settlers, when learning from Native Americans that the mound represented a fierce creature that lived in the water and ate people, mistakenly assumed that the Native Americans were referring to an alligator.[26]
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