Thunderbird Track: the legend
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Thunderbirds – legend? Myth? Reality? Native tribes revered these giant birds and believed that they cause thunder by flapping their wings, while lightening flashes from their eyes. Legends have them both helping and attacking people. In 1992-3, Kitsap County placed 10 bronze tracks in strategic spots to tell the story of the water cycle. We have located 9 or the 10 tracks and have placed caches at all 10 sites. We hope that you will enjoy them as much as we do.
If you take a map of Kitsap County and turn it to the left 90 degrees, you’ll see a profile of a flying thunderbird. Well, sort of….
Thunderbird is a mythical, giant bird revered by native tribes from Alaska to Mexico. It is said to cause thunder by flapping its wings, and lightning flashes from its eyes. Clouds and rain and violent storms are associated with the thunderbird. It symbolizes a vital elemental force responsible for the abundance of trees and berries and salmon-bearing streams, and to the health and prosperity of people.
Listen now to the legend of the Thunderbird:
Long ago, there was a sad time in the land of the Quillayute. For days great storms blew; rain and hail, sleet and snow came down upon the land. The hailstones were so large that many of the people were killed.
The people were driven from their coast villages to the great prairie, which was the highest part of their land. They grew thin and weak from hunger. The hailstones had beaten down the ferns, the camas, and the berries. Ice locked the rivers so the men could not fish. Storms rocked the ocean so the fishermen could not go out in their canoes for deep-sea fishing.
Soon, the people had eaten all the grass and roots on the prairie; there was no food left. As children died without food, even the strongest and bravest of their fathers could do nothing. They called upon the Great Spirit for help, but no help came.
At last the Great Chief called a meeting of his people. "Take comfort, my people," the Chief said. "We will call again upon the Great Spirit for help. If no help comes, then we will know it is His will that we die. If it is not His will that we live, then we will die bravely, as brave Quillayute have always died. Let us talk with the Great Spirit."
So the weak and hungry people sat in silence while the Chief talked with the Great Spirit. Then the Chief turned again to his people. "Now we will wait for the will of the One who is wise and all-powerful." The people waited. No one spoke. There was nothing but silence and darkness.
Suddenly, there came a great noise, and flashes of lightning cut the darkness. A deep whirring sound, like giant wings beating, came from the place of the setting sun. All of the people turned to gaze toward the sky above the ocean as a huge, bird-shaped creature flew toward them. This bird was larger than any they had ever seen. Its wings, from tip to tip, were twice as long as a war canoe. It had a huge, curving beak, and its eyes glowed like fire. The people saw that its great claws held a living, giant whale.
In silence, they watched while Thunderbird - for so the bird was named by everyone -carefully lowered the whale to the ground before them. Thunderbird then flew high in the sky, and went back to the thunder and lightning it had come from.
Perhaps it flew back to its perch in the hunting grounds of the Great Spirit. (Adapted from Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest by Ella E. Clark.)
Now look for this track, close by the cache. It's in the middle of those three poles!
The cache is a bison tube, now fifty feet or so away, and secure.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
tavtanu av oheuf