Hi, everyone. I’m fairly new to the forum. I know that there are a lot of questions and topics related to Thunderbird jewelry, but I wonder how many people have actually seen a real Navajo Thunderbird? I spent three months in Northwestern New Mexico/northeastern Arizona recently, and I was told to watch for a very rare, very large bird. It wasn’t until the last day of my trip that the owner of a couple of Cerrillos turquoise mines was taking me on a mine tour clued me in about what a real Thunderbird actually is, and I realized I had actually photographed one and seen it twice during my trip.
In Navajo culture, a Thunderbird is a “powerful mythical creature in Navajo cosmology and art, representing thunder, lightning, and the forces of nature”. It is also considered life-giving.
In jewelry, it’s often depicted as a bird with its wings out horizontally or its wings pointing downward. In the old Fred Harvey era jewelry, there are often stamps of lightning or raindrops.
Thunderbirds are storm clouds. They are powerful and life-giving.
Here are some photographs, one of which was taken by the tour guide and one which was taken by me. In each case, I’ve included the raw photo, then an HDR enhanced photo, and in my photograph of the horizontal Thunderbird, I’ve drawn an approximate outline of the bird. If you’ve never seen one before, well now you have!
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Excellent story, and photography. I had no idea about what a Thunderbird was. Thanks for sharing!
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Welcome to the forum @hockeydoc1020. I enjoyed your thunderbird post as well as you bio.
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Native Americans relate to the Thunderbird mythical spirit in a great variety of ways, with different storytelling depending on the culture. It’s in all cases a spiritual entity, with powers; a coincidence of a cloud formation is not what it “is” but another interesting story. Nice pics!
Thunderbird as understood and revered in many North American Native societies is well discussed in many disciplines. Brief references:
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/rulers-upper-realm-thunderbirds-are-powerful-native-spirits
https://www.shopgarlands.com/blogs/news/70545283-thunderbird?srsltid=AfmBOopJN8BprgeDCpha6NUt1ukcMSRE_gh3Bx0FpJuot1iTKWHEt0w6
https://www.palmstrading.com/native-american-symbolism-the-thunderbird/
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We have the Thunderbird mythology among the First Nations here in Canada also! It’s tremendously widespread.
Just for fun, here’s an example of a Thunderbird 18K gold bracelet by the late great Lloyd Wadhams Sr. (Kwakwaka’wakw nation, Vancouver Island, British Columbia). As is traditional with Vancouver Island First Nations silversmiths, he depicts it with a distinctive curled topknot. Here’s an equally dazzling one he created in sterling silver. [source: Lattimer Gallery]
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