Bear

by Wolf D. Storl

  It is not uncommon for woodland peoples to refer to clans, as well as entire tribes, as descendants of mystic bears. They claim to be bears in human shape. In Homer’s Odyssey, too, it is suggested that the superhero Odysseus comes from bear genes. His father, Laertes, is described as “bear-like” and his forebears go back to Cephalous, who is claimed to have sired a bear son, an Arkeisios, with a female bear (Sanders 2002, 164).

  Anthropologists call this widely spread belief of having wild animals as forebears “totemism.”1 Consequently, members of the same clan or small tribe who originate from the same totemic animal are not allowed to marry each other as that would be incest. The members of a kin group are said to have the qualities of their totem animals. For instance, eagle people have large noses and especially piercing eyes; wolf people are courageous and wild and have a lot of stamina; ant people are always busy; buffalo people are stubborn. Bear people are called thick skulled but clever; they appear to be slow and cuddly, but woe to whomever crosses them. They are often of strong, sturdy stature and, like their animal relatives, have a weakness for sweets. Clan members often have names that allude to their totem animal.

  It was believed that the elders, priests, or shamans of the clan could communicate with the totem animal or even occasionally turn into this animal and roam through the wilderness. Of course, a totem animal is not hunted like other animals, which would be like killing a relative. Its flesh was also taboo except on very special days when it was hunted ritually and eaten ceremoniously. At such sacred totemic feasts—which anthropologists compare to the Christian Last Supper—the clan members take in the strength, wisdom, and other virtues of the sacred animal and reconnect with the ancestral spirit that blesses and protects them.

  Osborn (Asbjørn), the Divine Bear

  Many European peoples, such as the Goths and the pagan Danes, also believed that they were descendants of a bear ancestor. This bear was not a common bear, however, not the kind one can meet up with in the woods. He was Osborn (Scand. Asbjørn or Old High German Anspero), the Asen- or god-bear himself who was none other than mighty Thor (Donar, Thunar). Thor is the full-bearded, red-haired storm god. His firestone hammer causes lightening to sear across the sky, and, while thundering loudly, it pulverizes the skulls of monsters, lindworms, and ice and frost giants that make life hard for farmers. He is the hero and friend of the spring goddess, Freya, who drives winter numbness and infertility from the countryside. His hammer spews fiery, starry sparks out into the cosmos and, at the same time, causes fertile rain to fall, refreshing the dry earth.

  It is surely no coincidence that for peoples in East Asia and Siberia, such as the Ainu and natives of Kamchatka, the weather god is a cosmic bear. They hear it roaring during storms and howling wind and see its shape in mighty, dark thunderclouds. For the Navajo, a whirlwind is a huge grizzly bear in the sky (Arens and Braun 1994, 48):

  With zigzag lightning projecting from the ends of my feet I step.

  With zigzag lightning streaming out of my knees, I step . . .

  With zigzag lightning streaming out from the tip of my tongue I speak.

  Now a disc of pollen rests on the crown of my head.

  Gray arrowsnakes and rattlesnakes eat it.

  Black obsidian and zigzag lightning streams out from me in four ways.

  Where they strike the earth, bad things, bad talk does not like it.

  It causes the missiles to spread out.

  Long life, something frightful I am.

  Now I am.

  There is danger where I move my feet.

  I am whirlwind.

  There is danger where I move my feet.

  I am a gray bear.

  When I walk, where I step, lightning flies from me.

  Where I walk, one to be feared.

  Where I walk, Long Life.

  One to be feared I am.

  There is danger where I walk.

  Left: Thor’s hammer as an amulet, tenth century. Right: Cave painting in Sweden from the Bronze Age, probably representing the hammer god, Thor.

  Nearly everywhere bears stand for fertility. God-bear Thor is no exception. He increases fertility in the gardens and fields and also helps people have children. His sparkling hammer symbolizes a man’s member, and Germanic tribes used to put a hammer, Thor’s hammer, in the lap of the bride at the wedding to ensure that the blessings of fertility would accompany the marriage.

  Thor, son of the heavenly king, was also worshiped as Jardar Bur, the son of the earth. He is earthy and bawdy, like a bear, and the biggest and strongest of the gods (Asen). His ravenous hunger and sheer unquenchable thirst are infamous. Only a chieftain or a coarse farmer who works the earth can drink and eat as much. Like the forest bear, he also loves the sweet honey of the bees—but preferably in the form of mead, or honey wine. Over the course of time, the characteristics of Thor were transferred to the first and mightiest of men, to Charles the Great (Charlemagne). Just as the bear is the king of the animals, Charles the Great is the king of men, chosen by the goddess. We will learn more about Charles the Great, bear among men, later.

  Bear Children

  Throughout Siberia, one finds peoples who proudly claim they are descended from bears. The Ainu claim to be descendants of a bear goddess and a human to whom she gave her love. Some tribes tell that they are descendants of children who had been set out in the woods and adopted, nursed, and raised by female bears. Someone raised on bear’s milk would inevitably become strong and courageous—the perfect tribal founder for tribes that have a healthy portion of self-esteem. The Oroqen, a tribe of hunters and fishermen living on the banks of the Amur River in Siberia, believe that a mystical female bear that lives in a cave on the dark side of the moon was their first ancestor. She nurses the unborn human souls before they descend to earth into a womb. When an Oroqen dies, the soul returns to this ancestral bear. The Evenks, to whom we are indebted for the word “shaman,” are also a Siberian tribe that subsists from fishing, hunting, and reindeer husbandry. The following legend tells of their first ancestor, a girl named Kheladan:

  Kheladan lived many, many years ago, at a time when hunters still stalked game with stone-tipped spears. One day, the young woman rambled deep into the forest where she encountered many animals. When she met a bear, it said: “Kill me and butcher me! And then when you lie down to sleep, put my heart very near to you. Put my kidneys on the hearth where it is nice and warm and the spirits go in and out. Put my head near the fire too. Put the duodenum and the anus opposite yourself on the wall. Spread my fur coat across the ditch outside in front of the door so that it can dry well, and, finally, hang the intestines in the trees near the door to dry!”

  The fearless young maiden did as she was told. When the merry chirping of the forest birds woke her up the next morning, she discovered, instead of the bloody bear’s heart, a beautiful, strong young man lying next to her. Next to the hearth where she had put the kidneys, there were two rosy-cheeked children sleeping peacefully. The bear’s head had turned into an old man who was watching over the children. On the opposite wall where she had put the duodenum and anus, an old grandfather and grandmother were sleeping and snoring.

  When she opened the door of the yurt and squinted into the sun, she saw that the fur coat had turned into a herd of fat reindeer. There were so many that they filled the entire valley. The intestines in the trees had turned into reindeer halters. That is how the bear sacrifice of the ancient ancestor brought forth not only the Evenk race but also their entire livelihood.

  Other Evenks tell the tale of their primeval ancestor somewhat differently. They trace the origin of their tribe back to the marriage of the young woman to a bear rather than the bear’s sacrifice. Some tales from Siberia and North America tell that it was not at all a case of humans descending from bears, but that bears originated from humans. According to an Altai-Turk legend, only two humans remained on earth after a deluge: an old man and his wife. They fled into the forested mountains, ate bark and roots, and
gradually turned into bears. This is why bears have an almost human intelligence.

  The Cherokee also believe that humans are not descended from bears, but, to the contrary, bears come from a human ancestor. The following story about the origin of bears emphasizes the similarity between bears and humans (Mooney 2011, 148):

  In the long ago time, there was a Cherokee Clan call the Ani-Tsaguhi (Ahnee-Jah-goo-hee), and in one family of this clan was a boy who used to leave home and be gone all day in the mountains. After a while he went oftener and stayed longer, until at last he would not eat in the house at all but left at daybreak and did not come back until night. His parents scolded him but it did no good. The boy still went every day until they noticed that long brown hair was beginning to grow all over his body. Then they wondered and asked him why it was that he wanted to spend so much time in the woods and why he would not even eat at home. Said the boy, “I find plenty to eat there, and it is better than the corn and beans we have in the settlements, and pretty soon I am going into the woods to stay all the time.” His parents were worried and begged him not leave them, but he said, “It is better there than here, and you see I am beginning to be different already, so that I cannot live here any longer. If you will come with me, there is plenty for all of us and you will never have to work for it. But if you want to come, you must first fast seven days.”

  The father and mother talked it over and then told the headmen of the clan. They held a council about the matter and after everything had been said and thought over they decided: “Here we must work hard and do not always have enough. He says there is always plenty without work. We will go with him.” So they fasted seven days, and on the seventh morning all the Ani-Tsaguhi left the settlement and headed for the mountains as the boy led the way.

  When the people of the other towns heard of it they were very sorry and sent their headmen to persuade the Ani-Tsaguhi to stay at home and not go into the woods to live. The messengers found them already on the way and were surprised to notice that their bodies were beginning to be covered with hair like that of animals because for seven days they had not taken human food and their nature was changing. The Ani-Tsaguhi would not come back, but said, “We are going where there is always plenty to eat. Hereafter we shall be called Yonv(a) (bears). But you will always be our relatives and when you yourselves are hungry come into the woods and call us, we shall come to give you our own flesh. You need not be afraid to kill us, for we shall live always.” Then they taught the messengers the songs with which to call them and bear hunters still have these songs. When they had finished the songs, the Ani-Tsaguhi started on their way again and the messengers turned back to the settlements, but after going a little way they looked back and saw a drove of bears going into the woods.

  Golden Bears

  Sir Francis Drake, who sailed the world’s oceans by order of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I of England and lightened numerous Spanish galleons of their freights of gold, also reached, among other places, the coast of what is now Northern California. There, he discovered a beautiful park-like countryside where simple, friendly people lived. They appeared to him to be so happy and healthy that he called them “Arcadian people.” He could not compare the beautiful country to any other than classical Arcadia, the Greek province in which simple shepherds lived in peace and natural grace. The old pirate—for the Spanish, Sir Francis Drake was nothing but a pirate—certainly hit the mark with his choice of words. Arcadian means “bear country,” and there was an exceptional number of bears in the Northern California wilderness at that time; they were also especially beautiful with their golden, shiny fur. The white settlers, who came to the area later, called them “golden bears.” This American Arcadia was a blessed land with a mild climate and never lacked rain. The oak, manzanita, and madrone forests, which were interspersed with flowering meadows, transitioned into pine forests at higher altitudes and offered humans and bears—whose tastes are not very different at all—a rich and nourishing food supply.

  The main nourishment for both humans and bears were acorns from different kinds of oak trees. The Native Americans gathered them, ground them to meal, and filled finely woven baskets with it. They then placed the baskets in flowing water in order to filter out the indigestible bitters and tannic acid. The treated acorn meal was then stored for winter and used to make soups and bake a kind of unleavened flat bread. The bears definitely had an easier time of it—they ate acorns until they were fattened up and could spend the entire winter lazily hibernating in their cozy dens.

  The food supply was not restricted to acorns, however. All kinds of fish, river crabs, small animals, seeds from wild grasses, roots, wild onions, oil-bearing pine nuts, mushrooms, berries, the strawberry-flavored fruits of madrone trees, chestnuts, and sweet-sour manzanita berries enriched the menu. With such abundance, the native peoples were not only able to survive without hard work and technology but were also able to live a truly good life—and the golden bears had it just as good. The indigenous tribes of the area respected bears and did not hunt them for they felt closely related to them. The bears were able to prosper and have a large population without any rivalry with humans. It was a true paradise, an Arcadia.

  For the Pomo, a tribe of Californian natives, the bear spirit initiated young people into the hidden secrets of life and revealed the duties of adulthood to them. A young Pomo adult would spend four days in the forest, completely naked and without water. During this time, a big bear appeared to him, tested his courage, “killed” him with blows from his paws, taught him, and then gave his life back to him in the end. The scars that were left from the bear claws were to remind the victims of this meeting with the bear for their entire life, and the sacred teachings the bear had imparted to them.

  The Shasta, from farther north, are said to be nearly indistinguishable from bears. That is, for them, human beings are simply a cross between the forest bear and the Great Spirit. The bear was something along the lines of the father of humanity. How it came to be human is told in the following legend:

  The Great Spirit once roamed the earth but was not pleased because the earth was dry and there were no animals. He picked up dry leaves and tossed them up into the air while singing magical songs; hence, the dry leaves turned into colorful birds and flew off into the distance. Then he took the stick that he had been using to walk with and broke it into many pieces. He strew the tiny splinters from the bottom of the stick into the water where they became fish and swam off. The rest of the short and long pieces were turned into different animals that now populate the mountains, forests, prairies, and deserts.

  He put a lot of effort into the top end of the stick that was very hard and thick and had been the knob. Out if it, he formed the crown of his creation—the bear. The bears became so big and strong that the Great Spirit almost became worried about his own creation. These golden-furred beings went on two legs and were gifted with their hands like human beings later were. They grouped into big clans and lived from hunting. They used clubs to stalk other animals.

  The Great Spirit left the earth to them and retreated into the inside of Mount Shasta. In the middle of this mountain, there is a sunny land where all gods and spirits are at home. The souls of dead animals come to this land to gather up strength until they are reborn in the outer world. The Great Spirit felt very good with all of these beings.

  One day a horrible hurricane rampaged in the outer world so that even the huge mountain quaked. The Great Spirit told his young daughter she should go out to see what was going on and tell the wind to calm down. As soon as the little red-haired girl peeped out from behind the cliff, the wild wind snatched her and flung her to the foot of the mountain. What wonderful things she saw in the outer world! She marveled and admired everything until, completely exhausted, she fell asleep under a tree. A bear found her there asleep when he came back from hunting. He grabbed the helpless girl’s arm and dragged her along to his hut. The bear wife took pity on the cute little being and gave her milk from
her breast so that she could regain her strength. She raised the child with her own son as if she were her own child.

  The years passed and the girl grew up to be a beautiful young maiden. The bear’s son fell in love with her and they married. The children that were born of this union were especially beautiful. They all had smooth reddish skin and an especially fine spirit—after all, their mother was a child of the Great Spirit. At the same time, they had the courage and strength of the bear lineage. The entire bear population was very happy about the finely developed children. With great pride, they sent a messenger to the Great Spirit to tell him that his daughter was now a married woman and a mother.

  When the Great Spirit heard this, he was not at all pleased. This had all happened without his knowledge and agreement. He charged down the mountain to the bears, raging in anger. The old bear mother died straight away of fear when he appeared, and the other bears were completely at a loss. They wailed and begged for forgiveness, but that only made the Great Spirit even angrier.

  “Be quiet! Be quiet forever!” he cursed them, and since then bears cannot express their thoughts in words.

  “You will have to walk on all fours like ordinary animals,” he continued, “and instead of with clubs, you will have to use your teeth and claws to fight.”

  Then he drove the new race, which was half bear, half Great Spirit, away from the bears. From then on, they were to live separately. He took his daughter and disappeared with her into Mount Shasta.

  These new beings—half animal, half god—were the first human beings, and, because they were descendants of bears, real human beings respect bears and would never hurt them.

  Sacred Mount Shasta, a dormant volcano, crowned with eternal snow, and 14,179 feet high (4,322 meters) reigns majestically over the forest and lava landscape of Northern California. The children of the mountain, the Arcadians and the golden bears, have long since disappeared. For the gold diggers, who swarmed to California like locusts in 1848, the “redskins” were nothing but bothersome, unpredictable savages, who stood in the way of civilization and progress.