Jan 23, 2017 - Shared Myths of North American and South American Amazonian Tribes by Damon Corrie

3 ‘Myths’ of North American tribes that we South American Amazonian tribes ALSO have, did all these tribal nations continents apart just ‘imagine’ all these identical things? Do you know what the statistical odds of probability that multiple peoples with no knowledge of each other could just ‘imagine’ the same thing would be? It is more logical statistically to deduce that there is some grain of truth to these beliefs at core essence.

Mishipeshu: The Water-Panther (WE CALL IT THE WATER TIGER IN GUYANA, NORTH EASTERN AMAZONIA):

The story of the Water-Panther spans multiple North American Amerindian tribes, including Cree, Algonquin, Ojibwe, and Shawnee. It’s usually described as a ferocious feline, and the most common element is the monster’s aquatic habitat; it lurks in lakes and rivers, waiting for humans to come close to the water, then pulls them under and drowns then devours them.

For us it is larger than a Giant Otter with a short slim feline (NOT otter-like) tail, and spotted coat until brown adult phase coloration with white underbelly (also like a Giant Otter).

Artwork by my daughter Sabantho when she was 13

NB – I have 6 signed accounts by different Amerindian leaders or prominent members of Tribal communities – both male & female (in Guyana alone) with reputations for honesty and high moral standing who swear to have survived encounters with this creature.

Sasquatch/Bigfoot (WE CALL IT DAI-DAI/TAI-TAI IN GUYANA, NORTH EASTERN AMAZONIA, BUT NATIVES IN EUROPE, ASIA, AND AUSTRALIA ALSO DESCRIBE THIS SAME CREATURE):

Artwork by RobRoy Menzies

In the American Northwest, and west of the Rockies generally, Amerindian Tribes regard Bigfoot with great respect. He is seen as a special kind of being, because of his obvious close relationship and similarities with humans. Some elders regard him as standing on the “border” between animal-style consciousness and human-style consciousness, which gives him a special kind of power. (It is not that Bigfoot’s relationship to make him “superior” to other animals; in Indian culture, unlike western culture, animals are not regarded as “inferior” to humans but rather as “elder brothers” and “teachers” of humans. But tribal cultures everywhere are based on relationship and kinship; the closer the kinship, the stronger the bond. Man Indian elders in the Northwest refuse to eat bear meat because of the bear’s similarity to humans, and Bigfoot is obviously much more similar to humans than is the bear. As beings who blend the “natural knowledge” of animals with something of the distinctive type of consciousness called “intelligence” that humans have, Bigfoot is regarded as a special type of being.” Sometimes benevolent, sometimes malevolent.

NB – I have over 20 signed accounts by different Amerindian leaders or prominent members of Tribal communities – both male & female (in Guyana alone) with reputations for honesty and high moral standing who swear to have either seen or survived encounters with this creature.

Mermaid (WE CALL THEM ‘WATER PEOPLE’ IN GUYANA, NORTH-EASTERN AMAZONIA, ANOTHER CREATURE THAT PEOPLES OF EVERY RACE AND ON EVERY CONTINENT ON EARTH CLAIM TO HAVE SEEN FROM ANCIENT TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY, SO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE ‘IMAGINING’ THE SAME LIE? OR DID THEY SEE SOMETHING MODERN SCIENCE HAS NOT DISCOVERED YET? REMEMBER 116 YEARS AGO SCIENCE DID NOT KNOW THAT GORILLAS EXISTED – AN APE BIGGER THAN A HUMAN BEING, THEY THOUGHT IT WAS JUST SOME MYTH OF CENTRAL AFRICAN TRIBES):
From the North American Amerindian Mi’kmaq and the Lampeqinuwok of the Maliseet, to the story of Ne Hwas told by the the Passamaquoddy and the story of the first merman told by the Potawatomi, there is no shortage of tales about the half human creatures.

Artwork by my daughter Sabantho when she was 13

The Mi’kmaq tell the tale of Lone Bird who stumbles upon a cove of five beautiful maidens swimming and playing in the water: “They were lovely, it is true, but they looked nothing like human maidens, for humans do not have pale skin, spotted with silvery scales. They do not dress their hair with strands of seaweed. And though maidens adorn themselves with necklaces of bright shells, humans have legs. Their bodies do not end in long fish tails,” from the book Spirits, Fairies, and Merpeople: Native Stories of Other Worlds by C.J. Taylor.

Lampeqinuwok are water sprites from Maliseet and Passamaquoddy stories. The website Native-Languages.org reports that in some stories they take human form, and in others they have fish tails, but in most stories they fall into the power of anybody who can steal their magical garments.

The Passamaquoddy tell the story of He Nwas, the mermaid. It’s about two girls who defy their mother by swimming where they weren’t supposed to. The girls turn into mermaids and instead of playing on the shore, they tow their parent’s canoe for them.

“They were all slimy; they grew to be snakes from below the waist. After sinking a few times in this strange slime they became very handsome, with long black hair and large, bright black eyes, with silver bands on their neck and arms,” from The Algonquin Legends of New England, by Charles G. Leland.

The Potawatomi story “The Adventures of Raccoon” recounts a troublemaker raccoon and how he tricks villagers, crawfish and his brother Wolf. In the end of the story, raccoon’s last trick is to drown Wolf: “When he was within reach, Raccoon sprang upon him and ducked him until he was drowned. Because of this there is a two-legged animal in the water to this day, which the Potawatomi call a merman. He is half fish and half human,” from The Mascoutens or Prairie Potawatomi Indians, Part III, Mythology and Folklore.

There is also a Sekani legend about a man who married a mermaid. He captured her by tying her to a tree by her long hair. During her first winter on land she begged him to let her return to the water. During her second winter her husband wasn’t able to kill much game so he let her return to the water. She brought him and their son food and returned to him.

“After this the mermaid lived very happily with her husband for many years and bore him several children,” the legend says. “Very reluctantly he consented and dug a hole through the ice for her. She dived into the water but returned immediately because her children were unable to follow her. One after another she rubbed their mouths with water and told them to dive in after her. Then they all went down into the water and never returned.”

Another legend called “The Lost Boy” comes from the Lenape. It tells the story of three boys crossing a normally calm, shallow stream. One of the boys was lost when a wave came rushing at them. The boys’ parents went to a mystic man to find their lost son. The man told them their son was alive and had been taken by a woman. The mystic man told them they could see their son at sunrise if they camped on the bank of the great river.

“Before the hour, a great crowd gathered at the appointed place, and the mysterious deep began to roll and throw forth great whirlpools. And thunder or rumbling sounds burst into the air,” from The White Deer and Other Stories Told By The Lenape edited by John Bierhorst. “At sunrise, behold, they saw on the waves of the great river the missing boy. At his side was a beautiful humanlike personage, said to be a mermaid.”

An Ottawa tale tells the love story of Menanna and Piskaret. Menanna showed up at the door of an Ottawa warrior, covered in scales with twin fishtails where her legs should be. She told him she had once been mortal but longed to roam the heavens. The Great Spirit granted her wish, but she grew tired of wandering and was allowed to return to earth, though in a form “neither mortal nor immortal, neither man nor beast—the mermaid shape in which the warrior beheld her. In this guise she became the adopted daughter of the Spirits of the Flood.”

NB – I have over 30 signed accounts by different Amerindian leaders or prominent members of Tribal communities – both male & female (in Guyana alone) with reputations for honesty and high moral standing who swear to have either seen or survived encounters with this creature. My own grandmother told us of a Mermaid encounter story that the English Anglican Missionary priest (Rev. Piercy Austin – who was the Bishop of Guyana no less!) who adopted & Christianized her (after smallpox & measles nearly exterminated our tribe in the late 1800’s) told my great-grandmother personally (as she was his native adopted daughter), and it was not just one encounter, he saw this mermaid on several occasions he said..on the Seawall in Georgetown in Guyana at night, and after each she would go into the sea and dissappear. I all accounts they have the ability to walk with legs on land by night but must return to the water before sunrise, and few who accompany them are ever seen again, but when they are briefly seen they have to return to their captors watery lair before sunrise also and they speak of “a whole parallel world/dimension of existence on the other side of the water”.

Like Humans they can be benevolent or malevolent beings.

Just as any Christian is 100% CONVINCED that Angels have ‘Bird wings’ and that Satan can shape-shift into a snake or Dragon (even though no-one can offer 100% INCONTROVERTIBLE scientific proof to prove ANY of this). traditionalist Amerindians are ALSO 100% convinced that these 3 creatures exist (even though no-one can offer 100% INCONTROVERTIBLE scientific proof to prove this either).

So ‘people in glass houses should NOT throw stones”…which means (for the extra stupid) “that you should never laugh at other peoples unproven beliefs – when you hold unproven beliefs of your own’. EVERYONE has a right to live according to what they have FAITH in to be ‘true’.

By Damon Corrie