Haudenosaunee TraditionCreature
Nia'gwahe, the Monster Bear
- Shape-changing
- Tireless running
- Near-invulnerability
The most feared of the magic beasts of Seneca tradition, a gigantic bear that challenges people to race for their lives and can be killed only by striking a hidden spot on the sole of its foot.
About Nia'gwahe, the Monster Bear
The racer
Parker names the Monster Bear, Niă'gwai'he'gōwā, as the most feared of the magic beasts and the one most often entangled in human lives. It loves to race: in various forms it tries to persuade people, boys especially, to bet their lives on a race that runs from sunrise to sunset. It has a vulnerable spot on the bottom of one foot, and unless a hero strikes that spot, it does not die.
After death
Its bones, Parker adds, were prized in magic medicine, and dust from its leg bone was said to make a runner invincible, a detail this site notes without describing any practice. Tales 57 to 59 in Parker's collection, including 'Nia'gwahe the Mammoth Bear', tell of boys who outwit or defeat it, usually by finding the one place where it can be wounded.
Sources and further reading
Source notes
These references are recorded in the catalog. Their passage wording and translation have not been checked, so quotations are not displayed here.
- Arthur C. Parker, Seneca Myths and Folk Tales
- Arthur C. Parker, Seneca Myths and Folk Tales
About this entry
By Elizabeth Stein for Mythos Atlas. About the author. Editorial notes are grounded in the site's cited sources and can be challenged through the contact page.
The danger rating is an editorial shorthand for how the myths portray the creature, not a claim made by the sources.