Mishipeshu

Ojibwe pictograph of a "Mishipeshu" (mishibizhiw) as well as two giant serpents and a canoe, Lake Superior, Ontario, Canada. Pic by D. Gordon E. Robertson.

I just discovered this mythical creature. I can bet it is a complex animal calendar marker. Let's check (realtime research log🙂)

Mishibizhiw (Mishipeshu) translates into "the Great Lynx". It has the head and paws of a giant cat, bison horns and snake tail and is covered in scales and has dagger-like spikes running along its back and tail...

Great Lakes tribes believed that this creature lived in the deepest parts of lakes and rivers. It had power to create storms. It often needed to be placated for safe passage across a lake...

Mishipeshu guarded the vast amounts of copper in Lake Superior and the Great Lakes Region...Copper was kept in medicine bags because it was believed to be "hair from the mishibizhiw"...

Sooooo.....What do you think? Complex animal calendar marker?

Definitely. Check this out:

Typically, storms season starts in late Mar/Apr, peaks in July/Aug, and runs through early Sep/Oct due to warmer weather increasing moisture and humidity in the air. That can mean severe thunderstorms and strong winds...Storm chart for Michigan...

This was also the season when local Indian population came to the lakes to mine copper...Typical copper ingot from the area...

Now our "mythical beast" caused storms and guarded copper...So if this was really a complex animal calendar marker, it must be a calendar marker for the storm/copper mining season, Mar/Apr-Jul/Aug-Sep/Oct...

As we all know 🙂, animal calendar markers mark significant events from the annual reproduction cycle of the depicted animal: mating, birthing...

Our mythical beast consist of: 

Head: Lynx, Bison

Body: Lynx, Something scaly with sharp spines

Tail: Snake

So let's check them out...

In the Great Lakes area, Lynx mating occurs from Feb to May...Peaking in...Mar/Apr...

In the Great Lakes area, Bison rut starts in Jun and ends in Sep, with most of the activity occurring in...Jul/Aug...

What about "Something scaly with sharp spines"??? Considering that our "Mythical creature" lived in lakes and rivers, I would look for our scaly and spiny friend in there. This is Lake Sturgeon. It spawns on clean, gravel shoals and stream rapids in...Apr/May...

So that's head and body done...What about long snake like tail and all the snakes that usually accompany our "Mythical creature"? Well let's have a look at snakes from the Great Lakes area...Logical??? 🙂 

These are 4 biggest snakes from the Great Lakes area and their mating seasons:

Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake - Jul/Aug/Sep

Gray Rat Snake - May/Jun

Black Rat Snake - Apr/May/Jun

Eastern Fox Snake - Jun/Jul/Aug

Sooooo....Just as I thought:

Mishibizhiw (Mishipeshu) Lynx (Mar/Apr), Sturgeon (Apr/May), Bison (Jun/Jul/Sep), Snakes (Apr/May/Jun/Jul/Aug/Sep)...

Causes storms (Apr/May/Jun/Jul/Aug/Sep)

Protects copper (Apr/May/Jun/Jul/Aug/Sep)

I won the bet 🙂 Not that I ever doubted I would

So what do you think? It took, what, an hour? And no one before me thought to do this?

PS: Last night I sent an email with the link to this article to an Archaeology and Anthropology Professor who worked extensively in the Great Lakes area (will not name him until I get his permission to do so) asking him for an opinion. This is our little conversation from this morning:

His email:

HI @serbiaireland,

These kinds of speculations are always interesting.  So let me offer a couple of counter points.

Storms on the lakes:  I am not sure what your NOAA chart is monitoring but having spent many years working on and under the Great Lakes, as a fisherman, vessel captain, and diver, the chart is almost the opposite of my experience.  May (April if there is an early thaw) June and into July are the calmest and least unpredictable months on the Lakes, as you move into August, September and October, the weather gets progressively more severe and less predictable, then you arrive at the fames 'Gales of November' which is the month responsible for the majority of historic (and modern) Great Lakes wrecks.  In the calculation of a Native mariner, just as for sailing captains,  the later into the season the more risky the journey. Now it's true that storms can appear with great suddenness anytime of the year, but if I were linking a storm maker beneath the lakes to a time of year, it would be cold and blustery November and not sunny May.

Bison are not common in the Great Lakes region, although forest bison were known, and Great Lakes Natives actively interacted with bison hunters further west on the Plains.

Sturgeon are not typical scaly fish (maybe better to look at Northern Pike or Muskies).  Sturgeons do have these very odd scutes which are hard cartilage triangular elements that form a kind of raised spine on the back and along the sides.

Best,

...

My reply:

Hi ...

Thank you very much for your quick response. And especially for your counter points. While I was writing my article, I was puzzled by several things. 

The local tribes prayed for safe passage across the lakes to Mishipeshu. He was seen mostly as benevolent and only sometimes malevolent. And Mishipeshu was "in opposition with the thunderbird"...So I expected Mishipeshu to be the marker for the calm weather with occasional storms...

Yet the storm charts are showing the period of the year marked by Mishipeshu, which you would expect to be the only navigable time of the year on the lakes, as being the main storm season. You also have things like:

"Typically, storms season starts in late March, peaks in July, and runs through early September due to warmer weather increasing moisture and humidity in the air. That can mean severe thunderstorms, strong winds, and downed power lines that can lead to outages for Michigan homes and businesses". From this page

Could the charts from the net be showing the tornado season in Michigan and not storm season on the lakes? 

Anyway I am really glad that you can actually confirm that the period marked by Mishipeshu is actually calm without storms...So this actually fits the calendar interpretation even more...

As for the sturgeon, I think that sturgeon is definitely part of this calendar, because of the spines. As for the "scales", as you pointed yourself, I was thinking about the bone plates that this armoured fish has under its skin...

But it is entirely possible that some other fish is also part of this "mythical being"...As a fisherman with local experience, if you were a local native, what fish would you be fishing, during the Mishipeshu period? I can see that salmon runs up rivers from the lakes in Aug/Sep/Oct, at the end of this period...So we have sturgeon spawning at the beginning and salmon spawning at the end of Mishipeshu period...Maybe that is the missing scaly bit? What do you think? 

BTW, I am not just playing a guessing game. I have been testing the animal and plant calendar markers theory for 3 years now against complex (animal and plant lifecycle)-(climate)-(agriculture) mythological constructs from around the world, most of them without any explanation whatsoever, and it seems that wherever we look we find deification of the early calendars...I don't expect you to, but if you have time that you can waste, check my blog for many many more examples...If you are only interested in the Native American mythology, I wrote few articles about South Western tribes and their mythology and petroglyphs, which you might find interesting...They are all also just deified natural calendars...

I can only explain this by this creation of natural calendars being something inherent to human race...The same idea everyone had...To me this is pretty obvious idea...If you live in nature, you notice patterns, overlaps between animal, plant behaviour and climate, and you use these patterns to create calendars...That's all...

Anyway, I am so happy that you have replied to my out of nowhere email, and I want to thank you for your info. I wish you calm waters and great fishing and all the best in life... 

...

Will add here the continuation of this conversation if it happens...

It didn't happen...Of course...But this happened on twitter:

Dr Alicia Colson @colson_alicia

I'd suggest checking out: 

Twance, Melissa (2017) ““It Was Your Ancestors That Put Them There and They Put Them There for You”: Exploring Indigenous Connections to Mazinaabikiniganan as Land-Based Education. M.Ed., Lakehead University.

And two by her from 2019: 

Learning from Land & Water: Exploring Mazinaabikiniganan as Indigenous Epistemology. Environmental Education Research 25(9):1319–1333, & Pictographs & Indigenous Presence in Northwestern Ontario. Voices of Mexico: First Cultures 109: Our Voice: 19–21.

My reply after reading the papers:

Really like this. "The knowledge encoded in these petroglyphs is land base, local"...This is exactly how animal and plant calendar markers work. They describe local conditions, local climate, local terrain...The symbolic language is universal but the stories encoded are local...

And then: "Water as traditional territory. Perhaps most surprising, fishing was a strong theme that occurred in every conversation. Conversations emphasized the importance of fishing to the history and livelihood of the community..."

"...These conversations also describe the relationship the community has with Lake Superior, the amount of knowledge necessary to navigate the water and to harvest fish, and the importance of intergenerational knowledge..."

"...Taken together, these findings indicate that Batchewana First Nation’s traditional territory includes a large portion of Lake Superior wherein specific knowledge is needed to sustain their livelihood."

This exactly what I proposed is the meaning of Mishipeshu calendar marker

And then we come to the part about Mizhibizhiw and we realise that current descendants of the people who originally created this rock art "to teach their ancestors" have forgotten the original meaning of these petroglyphs...

All the local informants always added a disclaimer to the information they provided to the researcher: “This is my understanding” or “This is what I was told” or “That’s what this means to me.”

Meaning the knowledge was lost as time passed...

Which is why the author of this study, Mellisa Twance says: It is important, then, to realize that no definitive interpretation is being offered in this thesis as the ‘correct’ one...

She then says that: Rather, it is my intent to show that mazinaabikiniganan (indigenous rock art) can be interpreted in a multitude of ways and that each person creates their own meanings and understandings...

This is attitude that I find in all the papers about old artefacts, legends and rituals, which I just can't accept. And which, I think, we don't have to accept any more...Now that we can read these crazy images that no one really understands, in the same way, always...

Dr Alicia Colson @colson_alicia

Firstly, these images are not "crazy". Secondly, they were not made by people who shared your worldview which doesn't justify your statement.

My reply:

🙂 I was joking when I said crazy...They are as crazy as Chimera, or Gorgon, or Mushushu, or Hathor...Meaning they look strange to us at the moment as we have forgotten their original meanings...This has nothing to do with my worldview...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...