Edge Rewrite
everything Source code View original
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a25e6b133d6dcf7d

Jump to content

// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Piasa say to its date? "You're a bird-brain for liking me.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Piasa bird reproduction installed on cliff
Modern reproduction of the "Piasa Bird" installed on the bluffs of the Mississippi River in Alton.
Piasa Bird
—Pen and ink drawing by William Dennis, 3 April 1825.[1]

The Piasa (/ˈpaɪ.əsɔː/ PY-ə-saw[3]) or Piasa Bird (aka Paillissa, Piesa) is a creature from Native American mythology depicted in one of two murals painted by Native Americans on cliffsides above the Mississippi River. Its original location was at the end of a chain of limestone bluffs in Madison County, Illinois, at present-day Alton, Illinois.

The original Piasa petrograph no longer exists; a newer 20th-century version, based partly on 19th-century sketches and lithographs, has been placed on a bluff in Alton, Illinois, several hundred yards upstream from its origin. The limestone rock quality is unsuited for holding an image, and the painting must be regularly restored. The original site of the painting was on lithographic limestone, which was quarried away in the late 1870s by the Mississippi Lime Company.[4][5]

Nomenclature

[edit]

The name Piasa for the petrographs and landmarks has been attested since the 17th century by French missionaries.[6] But the assertion that Piasa means "man-devouring bird" in the native Illinois language has been refuted as complete fabrication.[7] The word is actually Pa-i'-sa (pl. Pa-i'-sa-ki) referring to the race of Little People[8] and the cliffs where the pictographs occur are called Pa-i'sa Rock by the Illinois people, as investigated by Jacob Piatt Dunn.[9] This etymology of Piasa derived from páyiihsa (=Pa-i'-sa) 'little people'/'small supernatural' being is reiterated by David J. Costa (2005).[2]

Dunn did not arrive at the knowledge or conviction that the native considered the Piasa to be the artists who crafted the pictographs, and only floated this as a hypothetical possibility.[10] However, there is tradition among other Algonquian-language family tribes that the little people were carvers of petroglyphs.[11]

Since the "Payiihsa" (Pa-i'-sa) is a " being" or "little people" usually said to live in water,[12] Costa goes as far as to say that the Piasa actually depicted in rock art (underwater panther) and the Piasa only of word origin (páyiihsaki=Pa-i'-sa-ki, the little people) do at least have the habit of attacking river travelers in common.[2] (Though in the collected folktales, tales about the payiihsa and those about the underwater panther or Lĕnnĭpĭnja (lénipinšia) remain clearly distinguished[13]).

Others go further and suggest conflation or commingling. The "Payiihsa" often bear large feet with 4 or 6 toes and are referenced frequently in pottery and rock art symbolism along with the symbolism of the underwater panther.[citation needed]

To complicate matters, the scholars cataloguing the iconography of these creatures began in 1970s[14] to apply the term "Piasa" to any symbolism matching the "protean super theme" of underwater panthers (including flying underwater panthers, human impersonators of underwater panthers, and quadrupeds[15]) and underwater serpents, etc.[16][16] This sort of appropriation of the term "Piasa" was only possible because as far as the iconographers were concerned, no genuine image of the "Piasa [bird]" has actually survived.[18]

Identification of creatures

[edit]

Underwater panther

[edit]
Underwater Panther, George Gustav Heye Center, National Museum of the American Indian

The creature represented, according to J. P. Dunn (1917, etc.), was Lĕn'-nĭ-pĭn'-ja or "Man-cat" of the Miami, Illinois, and Peoria people,[8][9] known as Mĭ-cĭ-bĭ-sĭ ("Big Cat" or "Panther", var. mishibizhii, mishipeshu) to the more northerly[8][9][10] Ojibwe tribe, i.e., the underwater panther.

Esarey, Costa, Wood, et al. (2015) also endorse the underwater panther identification,[19] noting that the French description from 1637 (Marquette's, cf. § Discovery) lacks mention of any wings.[20]

This legend of the Payiihsaki and the cliff art of underwater panther, as misinterpreted by Russell (as "Piasa Bird', cf. § Piasa Bird) and others, is now believed by Esarey to be the origin of Russell's story of the Piasa.[21][timestamp needed]

The Underwater Panther origin is supported by research by Dr. Mark J. Wagner, Director, Center for Archaeological Investigations and Professor, Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.[22]

Thunderbird

[edit]

However, the identification with some sort of monster bird myth had been noted by writer Perry A. Armstrong (1887), who demonstrated that certain mythical birds were associated with the rock pictographs in local native lore. Miami legend relates that when warfare broke out between them and the neighboring Mestchegamies (Michigamies), there were two monstrous cave-dwelling birds, described as "two huge monsters, with the body and claws of an alligator, wings of an eagle, but ten times larger; horns of an elk or deer, ears of a fox, face of a man, mouth, teeth and beard of a tiger, and tail of a serpent or fish", known amongst the Indians as devil-birds. One bellowed like a bull, the other roared like a panther, but aside from the terrible noises they issued, originally did not bring humans into harm's way. However, the birds interceded in the tribal wars on the side of the Mestchegamies causing the Miami to be routed.[23][24] However, the Miami joined the Peuotomies confederacy, and this time crushed into oblivion the Mestchegamies who joined the Illinois Confederacy. When the Miami reclaimed their land they noticed the images of the dreaded devil birds or Piasa on the rock.[25][1] According to native tradition, these birds were to be found "many thousands of moons" before the arrival of white men according to the Illini (or even "several thousand winters before" according to the Miami).[26][a] Writer Clara Kern Bayliss (1908, 1909) later made connection to the widespread thunderbird across many Amerindian tribes.[28]

There is another piece of folkloric evidence presented by Bayliss as the anecdote of the "man-devouring bird" that snatched people, but defended unscathed by the valiant Illini chieftain Waw-to-go. Bayliss ascribes this legend to A. D. Jones (1838) before John Russell (1848) took up the topic,[29] but in fact John Russel (1836) wrote about this tale involving "Ouatoga" first, though there is a pall of suspected fabrication over Russel's published tales[30] (cf. § John Russell account).

History

[edit]
The Piasau Rock
—Henry Lewis, c. 1849, published in Douglas, George B. (c. 1858) Illustrierte Mississippithal.[31]

Murals

[edit]

The original mural was created prior to the arrival of any European explorers in the region. The location of the image was at a river-bluff terminus of the American Bottom floodplain. It may have been an older iconograph from the large Mississippian culture city of Cahokia,[32] which began developing about 900 CE. Cahokia was at its peak about 1200 CE, with 20,000 to 30,000 residents. It was the largest prehistoric city north of Mexico and a major chiefdom. Icons and animal pictographs such as falcons, thunderbirds, bird men, and monstrous snakes were common motifs of the Cahokia culture.

A Thunderbird petroglyph at Washington State Park in Missouri

An Alton Evening Telegraph newspaper article of May 27, 1921, stated that seven smaller painted images, carved and painted in rocks, believed to be of archaic American Indian origin, were found in the early 20th century about 1.5 miles upriver from the ancient Piasa creature's location. These pictures were authenticated in the Levis Bluffs area by George Dickson and William Turk in 1905.[33] According to the article, four of these paintings were of "an owl, a sun circle, a squirrel, and a piece showing two birds or some kind of animals in a contest", the other three paintings were of "a great animal, perhaps a lion, and another an animal about as large as a coyote". These paintings were photographed by Professor William McAdams and were to be placed in his book Records of Ancient Races in the Mississippi Valley. These seven archaic American Indian paintings were lost in transit to the Missouri Historical Society c. 1922. Other Native American carved petroglyphs of a similar time period and region as the Piasa monster are carved into the rocks at Washington State Park in Missouri about 60 miles southwest of the current Piasa image.[34]

The 1797–8 map of French explorer Nicolas De Finiels shows the cliffs above the Piasa labeled as Hauteurs De Paillisa.[citation needed]

An earlier 1778 map titled "A new map of the western parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina; comprehending the river Ohio, and all the rivers, which fall into it; part of the river Mississippi, the whole of the Illinois River, ... Author Hutchins, Thomas, 1730–1789" clearly shows the place name "PIASAS" where the present day City of Alton is located and bounded by the Wood River to the east. This map is one of the earliest documented references for the word Piasa.[35]

Discovery

[edit]
Piasa Bird Historic Site marker. Alton, Illinois

In 1673, Father Jacques Marquette saw the painting on a limestone bluff overlooking the Mississippi River while exploring the area. He recorded the following description:

"While skirting some rocks, which by their height and length inspired awe, we saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at first made us afraid, and upon which the boldest savages dare not long rest their eyes. they are as large as a calf; they have 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, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a fish's tail. green, red, and black are the three colors composing the picture. Moreover, these two monsters are so well painted that we cannot believe that any savage is their author; for good painters in France would find it difficult to reach that place conveniently to paint them. Here is approximately the shape of these monsters, as we have faithfully copied it".—Marquette, Jacques (1673)'s journal[36][37]

Marquette produced a drawing of the rock art, but it has not survived.[38]

The French cartographer Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin compiled a map titled "The Mississippi" in about the year 1682, from Louis Jolliet's description of his 1673 journey with Father Marquette.[39] A creature similar to the underwater panther is sketched on the map east of the Missouri River and south of the Illinois River. As in Marquette's description, the animal is wingless with no resemblance to a bird.

Later French explorers, like St. Cosme, reported that by 1699 the series of images were badly worn due to the habits of the local Indians to "discharge their weapons" at the images as they passed. Author A. D. Jones, in his book "Illinois and the West" c. 1838, also describes the ravages of weapons (firearms) upon the images, and further refers to the paintings as being named "Piasua".[40]

The original image was the largest Native American painting ever found in North America.[citation needed]

John Russell account

[edit]
Restored Piasa Bird carving along the Mississippi River near the junction with the Illinois River.

The monster depicted in the mural was first referred to as the "Piasa Bird" in the article "The Piasa: An Indian Tradition of Illinois", published in the August 1836 issue of The Family Magazine by John Russell[30][41] of Bluffdale, Illinois. John Russell was a professor of Greek and Latin at Shurtleff College, Upper Alton, Illinois.[42]

Russell then wrote a drastically different version of the tale, identifying the bird as a condor, published in the Oct. 28, 1847 issue of the Illinois Journal of Springfield.[30] Russell then backpedaled to a revision of his 1836 article (omitting the discovery of the cave) which appeared in July 14, 1848, issue of the Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate.[43]

The article (1836, 1848) claimed the origin of the word to be from a nearby stream: "This stream is the Piasa. Its name is Indian, and signifies, in the Illini, "The Bird That Devours Men".[44][45] The original Piasa Creek ran through the main ravine in downtown Alton, and was completely covered by huge drainage pipes around 1912. According to the story published by Russell, the creature depicted by the painting was a huge bird that lived in the cliffs. Russell claimed that this creature attacked and devoured people in nearby Indian villages shortly after the corpses of a war gave it a taste for human flesh. The legend claims that a local Indian chief, named Chief Ouatoga, managed to slay the monster using a plan given to him in a dream from the Great Spirit. The chief ordered his bravest warriors to hide near the entrance of the Piasa Bird's cave, which Russell also claimed to have explored.[46] Ouatoga then acted as bait to lure the creature out into the open. As the monster flew down toward the Indian chief, his warriors slew it with a volley of poisoned arrows. Russell claimed that the mural was painted by the Indians as a commemoration of this heroic event.[47]

Some sources report that this account was simply a story created by John Russell. In the book Records of Ancient Races in the Mississippi Valley ... Chapter 2, 1887, by W. McAdams, the author says he contacted John Russell, who admitted the story was fabricated.[b]

The bird imagery is not reported in Father Marquette's description, which makes no mention of wings. It is also possible that Marquette's description and Russell's account were both accurate for their respective times. The image may have been repainted at some point between 1673 and 1836 to revise its appearance.

When contemporary historians, folklorists, and tourism promoters are looking for a narrative description of the story behind the Piasa "Bird", they often rely on Russell's account.

See also

[edit]

Explanatory notes

[edit]
  1. ↑ Leading Armstrong to fancy that some paleo-flying reptile (particularly Rhamphorhynchus) had been encounter by early natives, and known in their folklore, though the depictions on rock were made more recently.[27]
  2. ↑ Dunphy (1996) stated "..scholars have long noted that Russell later admitted to his son that the story was simply fiction that had been inspired by the account of those eerie bluff paintings seen by Marquette and Jolliet". Dunphy (2018) does not repeat this claim, but emphasizes as the "incredible portion of this tale" Russell's claim to have been led to an actual cave laden with the skulls and bones of the victims of the bird monster.[30]

References

[edit]

Citations

[edit]
  1. 1 2 Bayliss (1909), p. 116.
  2. 1 2 3 Costa (2005), p. 297.
  3. ↑ "pronounced PIE-a-saw",[2]
  4. ↑ Mississippi Lime Co. records
  5. ↑ Shuker, Karl (1995). Dragons: A Natural History. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-81443-9.
  6. ↑ Bayliss (1908), pp. 74–75.
  7. ↑ Dunn (1919), pp. 66–67.
  8. 1 2 3 Dunn (1919), p. 67.
  9. 1 2 3 Dunn, Jacob Piatt (April 1917). "Shall Indian Language Be Preserved?". Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society. 10 (1): 90–91.
  10. 1 2 Dunn, Jacob Piatt (1923). "Marquette's Monsters". Americana Illustrated. 17: 106.
  11. ↑ Cave, Beverley (September 2005). The Petroglyphs of Kejimkujik National Park, Nova Scotia: A Fresh Perspective on their Physical and Cultural Contexts (M.A.). Memorial University of Newfoundland. pp. 2–3.
  12. ↑ Costa (2022), pp. xx–xxi.
  13. ↑ Costa (2022), pp. xxi–xxii.
  14. ↑ Citing Perino (1971) and Phillips & Brown (1978).
  15. ↑ Esarey et al. (2015), 9:46–9:56.
  16. 1 2 Esarey et al. (2015), 8:56.
  17. ↑ Esarey et al. (2015), 9:29.
  18. ↑ "In doing this, Phillips and Brown in 1978 was particularly comforted by the fact there was no authentic image of the creature known as piasa at Alton".[17]
  19. ↑ Esarey, Duane; Steponaitis, Vincas; McCafferty, Michael; Costa, David (15 January 2015). Untangling the Piasa's Tale: A Revised Interpretation of Illinois' Most Famous Rock Art. Illinois State Archaeological Survey / East Central Illinois Archaeological Society (ECIAS).
  20. ↑ Esarey et al. (2015), 4:42.
  21. ↑ Esarey et al. (2015).
  22. ↑ "Piasa Bird | Mythic Mississippi Project - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign".
  23. ↑ Armstrong (1887), pp. 36–39.
  24. ↑ Bayliss (1909), p. 115–116.
  25. ↑ Armstrong (1887), pp. 39–42.
  26. ↑ Armstrong (1887), p. 45.
  27. ↑ Armstrong (1887), pp. 45–48.
  28. ↑ Bayliss (1908), pp. 77–78; Bayliss (1909), pp. 117–122.
  29. ↑ Bayliss (1908), pp. 75–76; Bayliss (1909), pp. 116–117.
  30. 1 2 3 4 Dunphy, John J. (5 February 1996). "Piasa Legend Is Pure Fiction". Dunphy – via Proquest. Cf. Dunphy (28 December 2018) "The Piasa Bird: More Fiction Than Fact".
  31. ↑ Bayliss (1908), pp. 74, 76.
  32. ↑ "Cahokia Mounds".
  33. ↑ Alton Evening Telegraph, May 27, 1921, p.1, col. 5
  34. ↑ "General Information | Missouri State Parks". 6 February 2011.
  35. ↑ "A topographical description of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and North Carolina". illinois.edu.[dead link]
  36. ↑ Thwaites (1900), pp. 139–141.
  37. ↑ Greer, Allan, ed. (2000) The Jesuit Relations: Natives and Missionaries in Seventeenth-Century North America. Bedford/St. Martin's: Boston, New york, p. 205.
  38. ↑ Temple (1956), p. 4.
  39. ↑ Franquelin, Jean Baptiste Louis, and Louis Joliet. The Mississippi. [1682] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2002626428/ located in the Library of Congress, Washington DC.
  40. ↑ Jones, Abner Dumont, Illinois and the West: With a Township Map, Containing the Latest Surveys and Improvements (1838)ISBN 0526347864
  41. ↑ Reprinted in Russell (1837), pp. 101–102
  42. ↑ "Shurtleff College".
  43. ↑ Reprinted in Armstrong (1887), pp. 28–31, etc.
  44. ↑ Russell (1837), pp. 101–102.
  45. ↑ Armstrong (1887), pp. 28–31.
  46. ↑ Steiger, Brad (1991). "Giant Birds, Beasts, and Human Skeletons of Great Size". Beyond Belief. Scholastic. pp. 38–39. ISBN 0-590-44252-X.
  47. ↑ Geary, Pat; Clarke, Tina (2015). "Piasa Bird". Madison County ILGenWeb. Retrieved 12 September 2022.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • O'Conner, Mallory McCane. Lost Cities of the Ancient Southeast, Gainesville, Florida: The University Press of Florida, 1995. ISBN 0-8130-1350-X

{{harvp|

  • Russell, John (July 1848). "The Piasa: An Indian Tradition of Illinois". The Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate. Utica, New York. p. 18.
  • Sparks, Everett. In Search of the Piasa, Alton Museum of History and Art (1990)
  • Temple, Wayne Calhoun (1956). The Piasa Bird: Fact Or Fiction?. Springfield: Illinois State. (Reprinted from Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society Vol. 49, No. 3, Fall Issue)
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Piasa&oldid=1367660528"