## **The Anishinaabe Cosmos and the Powers Below** To comprehend the profound significance of the being known as Mishibizhiw, one must first enter the world as understood by the Anishinaabeg-the collective of culturally related Indigenous peoples, including the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi, whose homelands are centered around the Great Lakes of North America. This is not a world of inert matter, but one that is alive, interconnected, and layered. Broadly shared among many Indigenous peoples of the Americas is a cosmological map that divides the universe into at least three layers: the Above World, the Middle World where humans live, and the Beneath World. Each realm is populated by a host of *manidoog* (singular: *manidoo*), powerful spiritual beings or other-than-human persons who are active forces in the world. The Great Lakes region is the spiritual and physical heart of the Anishinaabe world, a destination foretold in prophecies that guided their centuries-long migration from the Atlantic coast. Oral histories recount how they were instructed to journey west until they found the "land where food grows on water"-a clear reference to the wild rice that is a staple of the region-following the sacred *miigis* (whiteshell) shell. This deep, historical, and spiritual connection to the land and its waters is the foundation upon which their worldview is built. Within this vibrant cosmos, two dominant forces represent a primary cosmological axis. In the Above World reside the *Animkiig*, or Thunderbirds, masters of the sky and its phenomena. In the Beneath World, a realm of water and earth, dwell the underwater spirits, the most powerful and important of whom is Mishibizhiw, the Underwater Panther. These two powers are locked in an eternal conflict, but their relationship is far more complex than a simple dichotomy of good versus evil. They are described as an "opposing yet complementary force". The Thunderbirds, which we will discuss more in depth in the future, represent order, while Mishibizhiw embodies the chaotic, powerful, and generative forces of the depths. Their struggle is not a war to be won but a dynamic tension that maintains the balance of the cosmos. This is evidenced by ceremonies, which were performed to placate the Underwater Panther and "maintain balance with the Thunderbird". The goal is equilibrium, not annihilation as the world cannot work without both, a philosophical cornerstone for understanding the legends that follow. --- ### **The Great Lynx \- Anatomy of a Manidoo**

Artistic image of Mishibizhiw with copper horns and tail

Mishibizhiw's core form is that of a great wild feline, like a cougar or lynx with a serpentine tail and bison-like horns.

Mishibizhiw is a figure of immense power and complexity, whose identity is woven through a tapestry of names, physical forms, and a dualistic nature that embodies the very element it commands. The being's primary name, *Mishibizhiw* or *Mishipeshu*, is most often translated from the Ojibwe language as "Great Lynx", it is also translated as Underwater Panther. This anchors the being in the familiar form of a powerful feline predator, yet elevates it to a spiritual plane. The variety of spellings found in historical and ethnographic records-such as *Mishipizhiw*, *Mishepishu*, and *Michipeshu*-speaks to the fluidity of oral tradition and the challenges of transliterating the Anishinaabe language. Other names reveal deeper layers of its character. It is also called *Gichi-anami'e-bizhiw*, which translates as the "fabulous night panther," a name that evokes a sense of awe, mystery, and nocturnal power. The fact that "Mishipeshu" was also used as a family name indicates that the being was not perceived as exclusively malevolent, but as a source of power and identity that a family might align with. --- ### **A Being of Composite Form** Mishibizhiw is a complex creature, an amalgam of powerful animal forms that is vividly described in oral traditions and immortalized in ancient pictographs, most famously at Agawa Rock in Lake Superior Provincial Park. While details can vary by region and story, a consistent image emerges. Its core form is that of a great wild feline, like a cougar or lynx, but it possesses features from other domains. It has the horns of a deer or bison, which are symbols of its spiritual power. Its back and immensely long, powerful tail are covered in scales, and the tail itself is often described as serpentine. The feet are palmed like a waterfowl's, enabling it to swim with great speed. Some accounts add dagger-like spikes along its spine or even patches of feathers. Though it has a feline shape and is described as an amphibian in nature. A particularly detailed account comes from the French Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette, who in 1673 saw pictographs of the being and recorded the descriptions given to him by his Indigenous guides. He wrote of a creature "as large as a calf" with "horns on their heads like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger's, a face somewhat like a man's, a body covered with scales, and so long a tail that it winds all around the body". This 17th-century description confirms the antiquity and consistency of Mishibizhiw's core attributes. This powerful image has been a recurring motif in Anishinaabe art for centuries. --- ### **Powers and Persona \- The Duality of Water** The character of Mishibizhiw is a study in duality, embodying both the life-sustaining and life-threatening nature of water. On one hand, it is a being of immense danger, feared as the cause of sudden storms, violent rapids, and treacherous whirlpools that could capsize canoes and drown travelers. It is said to roar or hiss in the sounds of rushing water. In winter, it is equally perilous, possessing the power to break the ice from below, claiming unsuspecting victims in the frigid depths. This drowning power was so central to its identity that children in the Churchill River area played a game called "Mishipeshu," where one child, acting as the monster, would try to catch others and throw them into the water. Yet, this fearsome being is also a vital source of power and beneficence. Some traditions hold that it can be a protective creature, offering shelter and sustenance to those who fall through the winter ice. More significantly, Mishibizhiw is a powerful *manidoo* for medicine and abundance. It endows shamans and other spiritual practitioners with healing knowledge and power, and its aid could be sought for successful hunts and bountiful fishing. To ensure safe passage across a lake, travelers would make offerings of tobacco to placate the spirit. This duality is not a contradiction but a sophisticated and accurate reflection of the Anishinaabe relationship with the Great Lakes. The lakes are the center of their world, providing food, transportation, and spiritual sustenance. Their entire way of life, from fishing to travel in birch bark canoes, was predicated on the water. At the same time, the Great Lakes are notoriously dangerous, capable of producing violent, unpredictable storms that can bring sudden death. Mishibizhiw’s persona perfectly personifies this reality. When respected, it provides the bounty of the water; when disrespected or turbulent, it unleashes the water's destructive force. The legends of Mishibizhiw are thus not merely monster tales, but complex ecological and philosophical teachings about respecting the fundamental nature of the most vital and dangerous element in the Anishinaabe world. --- ### **The Guardian of the Red Metal \- Mishibizhiw and the Sacred Copper** The connection between Mishibizhiw and copper is one of the most significant aspects of its lore, transforming a geological resource into a substance of immense spiritual power and grounding Anishinaabe ethics in a sacred relationship with the land. --- ### **The Sacredness of Copper** For the Anishinaabeg, copper (*miskwaabik*) is far more than a malleable metal. It is a sacred substance intrinsically linked to Mishibizhiw. The being is considered the ultimate guardian of the vast copper deposits of the Great Lakes region, particularly the 99% pure native copper found around Lake Superior. This guardianship is deeply personal, as the copper is believed to be a physical part of the *manidoo* itself. Oral traditions state that Mishibizhiw’s horns and scales are made of pure copper. This belief imbued any piece of copper with the spirit's power. In the 1850s, the ethnographer Johann Georg Kohl was shown a piece of copper by a Fond du Lac Ojibwe chief, who explained that it was a strand of Mishibizhiw's hair and was therefore considered "extremely powerful". To possess copper was to hold a fragment of a *manidoo*, a powerful medicine that could bring luck and success. Consequently, taking it was governed by strict spiritual protocols and taboos. --- ## **Legend of the Four Ojibwe Copper Thieves** One of the most potent and widely cited legends illustrating this sacred relationship was recorded in the 17th century by the Jesuit missionary Claude Dablon, who heard the story directly from Ojibwe people. It serves as a stark cautionary tale. The story tells of four Ojibwe men who embarked on a journey to Michipicoten Island in Lake Superior, an island known to be the home of Mishibizhiw. Their intent was to take copper from the island, an act that was strictly forbidden. The disrespect inherent in their mission was compounded by their mundane purpose: they wanted the sacred metal simply "to use it to heat water". After gathering the copper and pushing their canoe back into the lake, their transgression was met with immediate spiritual retribution. They heard the terrifying, growling voice of Mishibizhiw rising from the water, who accused them of stealing the "playthings of his children". The lake erupted into a furious storm. All four of the men perished during their return journey; only one lived long enough to reach his village and recount the story before he, too, died. The legend of the four thieves is not a simple story about theft. Its deeper meaning is a powerful lesson about the Anishinaabe principle of reciprocity, a core tenet of living a good and balanced life (*mino-bimaadiziwin*). The men's crime was not taking a resource, but violating a sacred relationship. They did not make an offering, they did not ask for permission, and they intended to use a sacred substance for a profane purpose. They acted with a sense of entitlement, treating the world as a storehouse of materials for their taking, rather than as a community of living beings with whom one must maintain respectful relations. Mishibizhiw's reaction-framing the theft as taking his "children's playthings"-personalizes the offense, shifting it from a property crime to a violation against family. This contrasts sharply with other stories where humans successfully acquire copper. In one account, a youth who bravely fights Mishibizhiw and manages to break off a piece of its copper tail is rewarded with great luck in hunting and fishing. In another, a shaman who respectfully invokes the *manidoo* may be granted permission to scrape copper fragments from its horns for medicine bundles. The critical difference lies in the nature of the exchange. The thieves acted unilaterally. The youth and the shaman, however, engaged in a direct, reciprocal relationship with the spirit. Even in combat, the youth engaged with Mishibizhiw as a powerful being, and the resulting copper was a trophy won through a contest of power, not something stolen while the owner's back was turned. The legend of the four thieves is therefore a foundational parable teaching that power and resources from the land are not to be taken, but can be received through respectful, reciprocal engagement with the *manidoog* who guard them. --- ### **The Eternal War \- Mishibizhiw and the Thunderbird** The cosmic order of the Anishinaabe world is defined by the dynamic, ongoing conflict between the powers of the sky and the powers of the water, personified by the Thunderbird and the Underwater Panther. --- ## **Introducing Animikii, the Thunderbird**

The Thunderbirds are seen as the special protectors of the Anishinaabe people. Their immense power manifests in the weather; the sound of thunder is the beating of their enormous wings, and lightning flashes from their eyes

The Thunderbird, known as *Animikii* or *Binesi* in *Anishinaabemowin*, is the master of the Upper World and one of the most powerful and revered *manidoog* in the Anishinaabe pantheon. The Thunderbirds are seen as the special protectors of the Anishinaabe people. Their immense power manifests in the weather; the sound of thunder is the beating of their enormous wings, and lightning flashes from their eyes as they attack their enemies below. Their seasonal behavior mirrors that of the storms. They are said to arrive in the spring and migrate south in the fall, their presence coinciding with the seasons of greatest thunderstorm activity and, consequently, the time when the underworld spirits are most active and dangerous. --- ### **The Conflict** The battle between the Thunderbirds and the underworld spirits, led by Mishibizhiw, is a central theme in the mythology of the Great Lakes peoples. This is not a singular, historical war with a defined beginning or end, but an eternal conflict that describes the fundamental state of the cosmos. According to Ojibwe tradition, the great culture hero Nanabozho created the Thunderbirds for the specific purpose of fighting the underwater spirits and protecting humanity from their malevolent potential. The Menominee people of Wisconsin tell a similar story, framing the conflict as a war between the Thunderbirds and the *Misikinubik* (Great Horned Serpents), a related class of underworld beings. In this version, the Thunderbirds are credited with preventing these serpents from overrunning the earth and devouring humankind. The conflict is so fundamental that it is even used to explain the creation of the physical landscape. The Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) people attribute the formation of the Baraboo Hills in Wisconsin to a primordial war between the Thunderbirds and the water spirits. --- ### **A Battle for Balance** As established, this cosmic war is best understood not as a struggle between absolute good and evil, but as a necessary process for maintaining balance. Mishibizhiw and the underwater spirits represent the potent, chaotic, and dangerous powers of the water and the earth. The Thunderbirds represent the powers of the sky and a form of celestial order. The eternal conflict between them prevents either force from becoming dominant and overwhelming the Middle World, the realm of humans. This concept of balanced opposition is visually encoded in traditional Anishinaabe art. It was common for historical twined and quilled bags to feature an image of the Underwater Panther on one panel and the Thunderbird on the opposite panel. This artistic choice is a clear and deliberate representation of their opposing yet interconnected relationship. They are two halves of a whole, locked in a struggle that defines the world. --- ### **The Enduring Presence of the Great Lynx** Mishibizhiw, the Great Underwater Lynx, is far more than a monster from myth. It is a complex and central figure in the Anishinaabe cosmos, a being that embodies the profound dualities of existence. It is the personification of water itself-a source of life, sustenance, and travel, but also a force of unpredictable chaos and death. Its eternal conflict with the Thunderbird is not a simple tale of good versus evil but a sophisticated representation of the dynamic balance necessary to sustain the world. The legends connecting Mishibizhiw to copper ground Anishinaabe ethics in a sacred relationship with the earth, teaching that its gifts must be received through reciprocity and respect, not taken through entitlement. The presence of the Great Lynx has been a constant in the Anishinaabe world for centuries, its image carved into ancient rock faces at sacred sites like Agawa, quilled onto historical bags, and painted onto ceremonial scrolls. This legacy continues unbroken into the modern era. The Woodlands School of art, pioneered by Anishinaabe masters like Norval "Copper Thunderbird" Morrisseau, revitalized this ancient iconography, ensuring that Mishibizhiw and the Thunderbird continue to inhabit the contemporary imagination. Today, Mishibizhiw remains a living presence. The beliefs and protocols surrounding this powerful *manidoo* continue to inform Anishinaabe relationships with the Great Lakes. The work of tribal governments, such as the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians who feature the Water Panther on their environmental program logo to represent balance, demonstrates the direct lineage from ancient story to modern governance. Intertribal agencies like the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC) manage the resources of the Ceded Territories, a landscape still understood to be the domain of these powerful beings. Mishibizhiw is not a relic of a forgotten past; it is an enduring symbol of the sacredness of the waters and a vital component of the living, breathing culture of the Anishinaabe people.

The Great Lynx of the Depths, Mishibizhiw