Topic Research: Weather in Native American Stories

Illustration of the mythical Native American Thunderbird, which brought
storms anywhere that it flew. Source: Legends of America.

Story 1: When the Storm God Rides by Florence Stratton

This story tells about the islands along the Texas coast in the Gulf of Mexico and how they came to be a place of refuge for birds. This is related to weather because the Storm God and his thunder bird, Hurakan, are the two forces responsible for creating said islands. When retelling this story, I could tell it from the point of view of a bird who seeks refuge on one of the islands.

Story 2: The Lone Lightning by Katharine Berry Judson

A boy runs away to escape his abusive uncle and during his trip, a person guides him to to the upper sky to give him twelve magical arrows so he can fight evil manitoes, or spirits. He wastes eleven of them over time by missing the manitoes when he shoots because the magic in them is so strong, so he uses his last one on the chief of evil manitoes. He quickly turns into a rock, lives, and turns the boy into the "trail of his arrow", thereby creating single strikes of lightning.

Story 3: The Bird whose Wings Made the Wind by Stith Thompson

The boy of an Indian family that lived along the shore set out to find fish that floated ashore since extreme winds were preventing them from fishing and they were hungry. On his trip, he sees the storm-king in form of a bird viciously flapping his wings and causing the wind, so the boy tricks him by carrying and accidentally dropping him, breaking his wing and stopping the wind. After a few days, they realize they need SOME wind to live, so they cure the bird's wing and tell him to only flap them lightly.