Native American Legends of Mount Katahdin: Home of Powerful Thunderbirds and the Lord of Storms

Located in Piscataquis in Piscataquis County, Maine, Mount Katahdin rises to a height of 5,267 feet (1605.38 meters). A central feature of Baxter State Park, Mount Katahdin is the tallest mountain in Maine and marks the northern terminus of the Appalachian Trail. The mountain was formed around 400 million years ago when an island arc collided with North America. There are multiple glacial formations, ponds, and eskers in the mountain. These features and others have inspired music, paintings, and other forms of art since Europeans first observed the mountain in the 17th century. According to traditions of the tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy, there is something ancient and primal which lives in Mount Katahdin, which has been long forgotten by westerners in their ruthless pursuit of reason and “progress”. There are Native American legends of Mount Katahdin, for example some of the local Algonquian speaking tribes understood this wonder of the New England landscape to be a home of the powerful entities called Thunderbirds.

The Three Native American Realms

Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands and the Plains viewed the cosmos as divided into three “realms”: The Above Realm, the Earth Realm, and the Beneath Realm. The Great Spirit (Gitchie Manitou), the celestials, and the Thunderbirds inhabited the Above Realm; the Earth Realm is the world in which humans, plants, and animals live; and the Beneath Realm is a watery abyss beneath the earth, inhabited by water-born creatures. The ruler of the Beneath Realm is the “Great Horned Serpent” or “Underwater Panther”, a being associated with death and destruction, but also magic and medicine.