Thunder/Firebirds
of the North American Tribal Dances

In North Virginia in heart of Great Dismal Swamp, Lake Drummond lies in a hollow, shallow, egg shaped depression burned out of the peat floor of the swamp. Indians say a "fire bird" scientists say meteorite but none found yet. 1

The above quote is from a team of geologists who used traditional beliefs of the natives as a basis for their research. Although nothing concrete was discovered, the description matches that of a ball of fire that hit the earth. Up to January, 2000, no one had a clue as to what was implied by the tribal elders. Since the myths of the various areas in the North American continent were many, and the dance routines so numerous, no one gave the "firebird" concept a second thought.

The image I have is of the tourists at these dances is they are sunburned, wearing sun glasses and gaudy clothes. They gawk at the "noisy" display of the Thunderbird (Firebird) dance routine. It is probably interesting to some, but others probably think it is too "noisy" and "fast" to be interesting for very long. They wander over to the native sales area and buy rugs, jewelry, or other items that show an image of the stylized Thunderbird or Firebird. When they arrive home, they usually find they have nowhere to display these items, so they get stashed away in a trunk or closet, to be brought out only at "dress-up" time. Then one day . . . . .

On January 18, 2000, a meteorite fell into Lake Tagish, Canada where a home video shows a meteorite that fell into the lake in northern British Columbia, Canada. The video also recorded the sounds of the event. It is the first verification that we have of the Indian myth and can prove that their "firebird" and the "thunderbird" was never their imagintion, only their interpetation in art of a real event. Thunder did not only mean thunder of the rain clouds, but also the sonic boom of a fireball or meteorite entering out atmosphere. They were our first astronomers. They knew it was an event that should be remembered, so they translated the event, not only as patterns on blankets, pottery or jewelry, but also as a dance.

Their dances portray real events. The kachina doll is an example of a specific star event that is remembered around the world. This star was a nova that blazed up, then finally disappeared into the void. It was a blue star, recorded in the Bible, in Europe, in India, in China, in Mexico, in Central America and South America. The whole world saw this star emerge as a blue nova, then recede to its normal brightness. Mexico tells how the star was made to be less bright.

It seems that the hero twins, Hunaphu and Ixbalenque went to the home of Seven Macaw to retrieve Hunaphu's arm. Because they had struck his jaw earlier with their blow guns, they heard that he was in pain. They pretended to be dentists and extracted the blue teeth from the jaw of Seven Macaw, replacing them with white corn. Here is an asronomically correct view of a "blue" star that burned down to a normal white sparkling star in our skies. This was done without telescopes

The Hopi kachina only shows a blue star form. No eyes, no mouth, just the blue star.2 The text that comes with this doll indicated that the natives were not sure if the doll was a representation of a comet or if it was related to something else. Was this "maybe" statement because of the reticence of the natives who knew it would never be believed, or was it a decision of the author to write it as an indecisive statement because he did not feel the native description was practical. No matter.

The kachina doll also carries a little bell. Even his bright silver bracelet is an important feature together with the arrows. Referring again to the Tagish meteorite, we can infer that the bell is out of tune, and a series of them would be a cacophony of raucous sound, similar to the sonic boom that hurt the ears as it followed the meteorite to earth. The arrows infer the destruction of all in its path, while the flashing silver, as the arrows fly from his hand, glows as the meteorite path. It is very simple to understand if one can drop back to the time that there were no televisions, radios, or movies to duplicate sights and sounds that suddenly came out of nowhere. It was a time when man had to depend upon his senses and his memory, using only the materials available to duplicate the sounds he had heard.
1 Goldsmith, D. (1985)Nemesis: The Death Star and Other Theories of Mass Extinction, New York, Berkley Books p. 113

2 Wright, Barton (1990) Hopi Kachinas: The Complete Guide to Collecting Kachina Dolls, Flagstaff, Arizona: Northland Publishing.