American Alligator

Not much going on today.

Animal
photo by uncleboatshoes
Mythology
The American alligator taught the Choctaw to hunt patiently and wait for the correct deer. For the Creek, rabbit tricked the alligator into his ridged back by convincing him to sit in a fire and endure a terrible burn to prove his bravery and lack of fear of the "devil". In New York the sewers are filled giant blind albino alligators that are descended from escaped pets. The colonizing Spaniards thought a stone cut from an alligator could relieve fevers. The Ojibwa had a monster called the rugaru, part wolf and part alligator anyone who saw one became one. For the Maya, Tamcaz was an alligator that made up the milky way and his jaws led to the underworld and the alligator is featured on their calender.

Drawing of alligators from an account of William Bartam 1791

Native American alligator effigy pipe