Both giant effigies are estimated to be 3500-6000 years old, embodiments of ancient legends and traditions writ large in stone and connected to ‘The People’ through ceremony and acts of cosmic renewal. The ‘Star-being’ is a mirror-image of the (western) constellations of Scorpius and Libra (with Sagittarius) the Starman is an almost exact representation of Taurus and the Pleiades. Each giant lithic effigy appears to be a reflection of certain constellations and stars. Both the Starman and Star-Being lithic complexes are codified by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin as archaeological sites of Archaic age. There is another of almost the same size called the Starman which also has a red coloured, bison-shaped headstone aligned to face the summer solstice sunrise. The ‘Star-being’ is but one of two human-like petroform effigies discovered in south-eastern Wisconsin. However, it is not a lone or singular occurrence. Configured in stone, it is approximately 20 metres in length with a red coloured, bison-shaped headstone aligned to face the summer solstice sunrise. Discovered in a prehistoric effigy-mound group (the Kolterman Mounds) in south-eastern Wisconsin (U.S.A.) is a human-like petroform or lithic effigy with a serpentine body and wing-like arms known as the ‘Star-being’. These old stories may have real world counterparts. Other Plains tribes such as the Black Feet, Gros Ventres and Lakota have similar stories. They called them haztova hotoxceo or “two-faced star people”. The Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) have a name for the giant beings that their ancestors encountered during the early migration to the grasslands of the Great Plains. Even the first humans were said to be giants, some half man, half animal. They all talk of giant Thunderers or Thunder-beings, giant snakes and great Thunderbirds. Native American myths, legends and oral traditions are rich with stories of giant beings existing in ancient times. Keywords: Thunderbird, storms, thunder, lightning, vision quest, dream, transformation, anthropomorph, hourglass shape, eagle, swallow. In this program, we will examine these human-like forms, their physical setting, differing styles and the cosmology sometimes associated with the Thunderbird. Of these, some forms are stickman-shaped figures or hybrid human/bird images far more anthropomorphic in appearance than a bird form only. Thunderbirds have occurred as a rock art motif for millennia, the pecked, painted and incised images dating back at least 7000 years or more. Lightning is said to flash from its eyes and the thunder is said to be the noise of a battle between the great bird and giant, underground serpents. ‘He’ is said to arrive in the Spring of the year, his coming announced by thunderstorms. Stories of Thunderbirds are part of almost every tribe’s mythology. Thunderbird tradition is likely one of the most ancient and widespread Native American traditions in all of North America.
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