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The story of American mythology begins long before European settlers set foot on North American soil. And contrary to popular belief, there’s more to Native American history than buffalo hunts, teepees, and feather headdresses. Hundreds of tribes from Alaska to Mexico (and beyond) nurtured an incredibly complex culture, including a mythological system that rivaled that of the ancient Greeks.

But if you thought Greek mythology was a bit edgy, you’ll find that even the most disturbing antics of Olympia’s ancient gods seem patently tasteful compared to the macabre legends associated with Native American mythology and culture. These monsters have haunted various corners of North America for thousands of years. Because their tradition was an oral one, many of the stories have variants as diverse as the people who still tell them.

Skinwalkers

According to Navajo legend, skinwalkers are accomplished medicine men or witches who reach the highest level of priesthood but choose to use their powers for evil rather than good. Skinwalkers take the form of an animal for the purpose of inflicting pain on others. The initiation procedure is pretty tough—all prospective skinwalkers must kill a close relative. Once a prospective skinwalker passes that test, he gains immense magical powers, including shape-shifting abilities. These abilities enable skinwalkers to turn into any animal they choose, though their top choices are usually foxes, owls, coyotes, wolves, or crows—the most feared or revered animals in Navajo mythology.

Though skinwalker lore goes back into ancient Native American history, stories of the evil sorcerers still circulate today. Witnesses report seeing or hearing them knocking on windows or doors, peering through windows, or otherwise trying to frighten and inflict harm. Skinwalkers are immortal but, according to legend, it is possible to annihilate them: “Those who do track a skinwalker and learn of their true identity must pronounce the name of the evil one in full. Once this happens, the skinwalker will get sick or die for the wrongs they have inflicted against others.”

Two-Face

With parallels among Sioux, Plains, and Omaha tribes, the two-faced monster (also known as Sharp Elbows) is a humanoid, two-faced person who delights in torturing and killing unsuspecting victims. Anyone who sets eyes on Two-Face’s second set of features will be killed or paralyzed by fear. Two-Face most often preys on children and pregnant women, usually killing them by stabbing them repeatedly with his razor-sharp elbows. According to some legends, Two-Face is a cannibal. In all legends, he gruesomely disfigures his victims before moving on.

In Lakota legends, Two-Face is most often a woman who’s been turned into a two-faced monster after trying to seduce the Sun god. According to these legends, one of the faces is beautiful and one is hideous, which to the Native Americans represents disharmony and a departure from tradition. Even in stories where Two-Face isn’t an evil monster out to torture the weak, she still represents nonconformity.

Horned Water Serpent

Countless Native American tribes recall stories of giant snakes, but one of the most captivating is that of the horned water serpent, an almost impossible-to-kill creature with magical scales that give hunters good luck for the rest of their lives. Legends say that the snake, called Uktena in many stories, boasts a powerful body as broad as a tree trunk, intimidating curved horns, and shining spots. Uktena can only be killed when shot in the seventh scale from its head.

According to Cherokee legend, the great warrior Aganunitsi successfully killed Uktena and brought back the shining seventh scale, which resembled a large, transparent crystal with a blood-red streak at its heart. The crystal, like a living thing, retains mysterious powers—if it’s not satiated by being coated in the blood of small game every week, it takes on the appearance of fire and goes out in search of blood, which it takes by murdering people. Legend says that the warrior who owns and feeds the Uktena crystal will enjoy a life of successful hunting, rainmaking, and romance.

Stiff-Legged Bear

The stiff-legged bear makes an appearance in the lore of several Native American tribes. Most often called Katshituashku or Yawkwawiak, the bear is an elephant-sized version of a giant bear with a taste for human flesh. The Penobscot Nation reports that the big, shaggy mammal had a habit of leaning on trees to rest; because it was unable to bend its legs, Katshituashku wouldn’t ever be able to stand up again if it lay down.

In other narratives, the stiff-legged bear is said to have “teeth long enough to puncture seven hunters.” Some anthropologists speculate that the stiff-legged bear of legend might actually be the very real prehistoric woolly mammoth—or, rather, various versions of stories of the mammoth that were imaginatively tweaked as they were passed down through the Native Americans’ complex oral histories. It’s been speculated that members of the tribes unearthed mastodon fossils and came to the conclusion that the massive beast was a carnivorous monster because of its enormous tusks.

Perverted Merman

Although he isn’t a deadly evil spirit—and in reality, compared to some Native American monsters, he looks downright tame—the merman-like creature N-dam-keno-wet is disturbing in his own right. According to Abenaki mythology, N-dam-keno-wet is half man and half fish, with a slender face. He takes up residence in streams and lakes where women frequently bathe. But he doesn’t get his kicks by eating their livers or scaring the living daylights out of them—he just enjoys the sights.

Countless other Native American legends speak of mermaid-like creatures as well. In one story passed down by an Algonquin tribe, two young girls go swimming against their parents’ wishes and become snakelike and slimy from the waist down. In almost every Native American mermaid/fish-person legend, the theft of a merperson’s clothing automatically relieves the being of its magical powers.

Flying Heads

This is the stuff of nightmares. According to Iroquois legends, flying heads (or, in the native language, Kanontsistonties) are disembodied, winged heads, hungry for any human in their path. But their hunger can never be satiated; because they have no body, they’re destined to hunt for blood eternally. The origins of the flying heads vary greatly from story to story. In most cases, they’re somehow the result of a murder scene. Some legends state that those who practiced cannibalism became flying heads as punishment for their horrific behavior.

Some legends also refer to flying heads as whirlwinds (Daqqanoenyent), because they’re often accompanied by a powerful rush of whipping wind. In almost all stories, the heads are undead monsters, but they’re not entirely impossible to kill. One Iroquois story reports that a flying head accidentally ate a hearthstone along with roasted chestnuts that an old woman was preparing. That hearthstone was the last thing the flying head ever ate—it burst into flames and self-destructed, which was probably a relief to the old woman in the story.

Camazotz

Camazotz—or Death Bat—originates in traditional Mexican culture and dates as far back as some Mayan myths. Legend has it that a small group of Maya worshiped the death bat, an anthropomorphic figure with a human body and the head and wings of a bat. Many Native American cultures venerated bats, which were almost always associated with darkness and death. Legends of a similar fearsome bat-man creature have circulated widely throughout Latin America.

Legend has it that pregnant native women in Mexico would offer sacrifices to the bat gods to ensure a healthy baby; its traditional dwelling place, a dark cave, had marked similarities to a woman’s womb. Pregnant women would venture to a specific cave in Veracruz, Mexico to offer sacrifices which they believed would ensure a healthy delivery. Some early American legends from pre-Hispanic Mexico portray the death bat as an otherworldly creature with links to both Earth and the underworld. He operates on a bridge between the heavens and the underworld and wields deadly powers. South American Arawaks believed that Camazotz would carry off villagers who ventured outside at night.

Mishibizhiw

The Mishibizhiw, or underwater panther, is a creature of the underworld who lives in creeks and rivers, waiting to drown unsuspecting victims. According to a Sioux tale, the Mishibizhiw is covered in red hair. “Its body was shaped like that of a buffalo. It had one eye and in the middle of its forehead was one horn. Its backbone was just like a cross-cut saw; it was flat and notched like a saw or cogwheel.” Because of the creature’s characteristic dorsal fins and deadly, spiked tail, some have speculated that the Mishibizhiw is none other than the prehistoric stegosaurus.

A Chippewa tale of an underwater panther reports that the creature lived on an island of mud in a lake that separated two tribal villages. The villagers usually avoided the island because of an evil spirit, but on one festival occasion, two girls crossing the lake came across the underwater panther. The creature flicked its tail at the boat as if to overturn it, so the girl took a swipe at it with an oar. The oar cut a piece right off the panther’s tail, which remained in the boat as a solid hunk of copper and brought them good luck in fishing and hunting for the rest of their lives.

The Owl-Woman-Monster

A Yakama tribesman tells the story of a race of monstrous owl-women who lived in caves. They hunted all the local tribes, but preferred the tastier flesh of children. They also fed on snakes, rats, lizards, and frogs, which were considered the most inedible of animals. The monster women were greatly feared and were considered some of the most dangerous beings on Earth. After one of the owl-women drowned, her eye was used create the entire species of owls, which represent death almost universally across Native American tribes.

Apache legend speaks of “Big Owl,” a man-eating ogre that often functions as a bogeyman figure in children’s stories. More recently, eyewitnesses from southern Texas and Mexico have reported an owl-monster called La Lechuza, which is often seen in connection with deaths and unusual, unexplained events. The Lechuza legend is as alive as ever today. Residents along the Texas-Mexico border still report seeing the ominous owls before car trouble or other strange, unexplained events. Legend has it that the Lechuza is really a witch or the spirit of an annoyed woman who can choose to turn into an owl at will.

Cannibal Dwarves

Cannibal dwarves have a long oral history among the Arapaho, Gros Venture, and Cheyenne Nations. Legends report that these little people are bloodthirsty, child-sized creatures. Also known as Teihiihan, which means “strong” in the Arapaho language, cannibal dwarves surprisingly fierce fighters who are fast enough to outrun an Arapaho warrior.

While cannibal dwarves might be insanely fast and strong, they’re also a bit dense. According to one story published in the Handbook of Native Mythology, a warrior was captured by a cannibal dwarf, so to delay the inevitable, he tried to strike up a conversation. Noticing dwarf hearts hanging on the walls around him, the warrior asked what the gruesome organs were. The dwarf told him that they were the hearts of his relatives, who were out hunting at the time. The warrior then pierced the hearts one by one. The dwarf wasn’t sharp enough to realize that piercing those hearts would kill his family. With a final stroke, the warrior pierced the heart of the dwarf who was holding him captive last, and the dwarf who wanted to eat him immediately dropped dead.

https://listverse.com/2014/04/20/10-eerie-native-american-monsters/

Other Spirits

Thunderbird

Native Americans have wonderful legends of a powerful and magnificent Thunderbird that was sent by the Gods to protect humans from evil.

When this huge, eagle-like bird soared the skies, one could hear its mighty wings beat with the sound of rolling thunder. Its eyes were burning like fire and caused lighting.

The Thunderbird was no ordinary bird. It was the spirit of the storm and a supernatural creature that was just as much feared as admired. Often described as a shapeshifter, it lived in a cloud, above the highest peak the tribe could see or in a cave in the mountains.

Various tribes tell slightly different stories about the magical Thunderbird, but all Indians feared the bird and tried not to anger it. - http://www.ancientpages.com/2017/03/26/powerful-thunderbird-sent-gods-protect-humans-evil-native-american-legends/

Native American Gods

From:http://http://www.gods-heros-myth.com/mythmore-namerican.html

ANGUTA (Inuit/Eskimo)
Gatherer of the dead. Anguta carries the dead down to the underworld, where they must sleep with him for a year.

ANINGAN (Inuit/Eskimo)
The moon, brother to the sun whom Moon chases across the sky. Aningan has a great igloo in the sky where he rests. Irdlirvirissong, his demon cousin, lives there as well. The moon is a great hunter, and his sledge is always piled high with seal skins and meat.

ASGAYA GIGAGEI (Cherokee)
The Red Man or Woman evoked in spells to cure the ill. Asgaya Gigagei is either male or female, depending on the sex of the patient.

ATIRA (Pawnee)
The Earth, Sacred Mother of every living creature.

The Pawnee were hunters. When told to abandon hunting and settle down to farming, their priest replied: "You ask me to plow the ground! Shall I take a knife and tear my mother's bosom? Then when I die she will not take me to her bosom to rest. You ask me to dig for stone! Shall I dig under her skin for her bones? Then when I die I cannot enter her body to be born again. You ask me to cut grass and make hay and sell it, and be rich like white men! But how dare I cut off my mother's hair? It is a bad law and my people cannot obey it."

AWONAWILONA (Pueblo Indians)
" The One Who Contains Everything." The Supreme God, the Creator of All. Before the creation there was only Awonawilona; all else was darkness and emptiness. Both male and female, Awonawilona created everything from himself and taking form became the maker of light, the Sun.

BIG HEADS (Iroquois)
Demon gods. Giand heads without bodies which fly about in storms. They find men very tasty.

BREATHMAKER (Seminole)
Breathmaker taught men to fish and dig wells, and made the Milky Way. When the virtuous die, they follow the Milky Way to a glorious city in the western sky.

COYOTE (Southwestern Indians, but known in other areas as well)
A trickster, a clown. The creator and teacher of men. Like Loki, Coyote is always lurking about, causing trouble and playing pranks. To the Zunis, Coyote is a hero who set forth the laws by which men may live in peace. The Pomo Indians maintain that Coyote created the human race and stole the sun to keep them warm. The Montana Sioux say that Coyote created the horse.

The Chinook tell how Coyote and Eagle went to the land of the dead to bring back their dead wives. On reaching the land of the dead, they found a meeting lodge lit only by the moon which lay on the floor. Every night an old woman would swallow the moon and the dead would appear in the meeting lodge. Recognizing their wives among the spirits of the dead, the two gods devised a plan. The next day, after the old woman had vomited up the moon and the dead had disappeared, Coyote built a huge wooden box and placed in it leaves of every kind of plant. Coyote and Eagle then killed the old woman, and Coyote donned her clothes. When the time came, Coyote swallowed the moon. The dead appeared, but Eagle had place the box outside the exit. When Coyote vomited up the moon, the dead filed out and were trapped in the box. Coyote pleaded to be allowed to carry the box, and Eagle gave it to him. But Coyote couldn't waitto see his wife and opened the box. The spirits of the dead rose up like a cloud and disappeared to the west. So it is that people must die forever, not like the plants which die in winter and are green again in a season.

DEOHAKO (Iroquois/Seneca)
Spirits of maize, beans and gourds who live together in a single hill. Searching for dew, the maize spirit Onatha was captured by the evil spirit Hahgwehdaetgah who took her off to the underworld. Sun rescued her, and ever since she has remained in the cornfields until the corn is ripe.

ESTANATLEHI (Navajo)
First Woman's adopted daughter. To punish mankind for pride, First Man and First Woman sent a plague of monsters to kill and devour them. The time came when First Woman repented of the evils she and First Man had visited upon men, and she sought a means for their deliverance. First Woman discovered the infant Estanatlehi lying on the ground near First Woman's mountain, and took her in. The infant Estanatlehi grew to adulthood in four days. Making love with the Sun, she gave birth to the Twin Brothers who after many adventures slew the monsters.

EVENING STAR (Pawnee)
An evil star who drives the sun down out of the sky and send his daughter to hinder Morning Star from the sun back up again.

FIRST MAN AND FIRST WOMAN (Navajo)
In the beginning, First Man and First Woman ascended from the underworld together with Coyote, leading the people through trials and tribulations into the surface world which became their home. Deciding that the sky was too empty with only Sun and Moon, First Man, First Woman and Coyote gathered up glittering stones and placed them in the sky to serve as stars.

GAHE Also GA'AN (Apache)
Supernatural beings who dwell inside mountains. The can sometimes be heard dancing and beating drums. Because they can heal and drive away disease, they are worshipped. In the ritual dances of the Chiricahua Apache masked dancers painted a different color for each point of the compass represent all the Gahe except the Grey One. The Grey One, though he appears as a clown, is really the mightiest of all the Gahe.

GLUSKAP (Algonquin)
The Creator, or more exactly, the creator force. Generally benevolent, but often whimsical. Gluskap created the plains, the food plants, the animals and the human race from the body of the Mother Earth. His rival was his wolf brother Malsum, who made rocks, thickets and poisonous animals. After a long struggle Gluskap killed Malsum and drove his evil magic under the earth. Gluskap drove away monsters, fought stone giants, taught hunting and farming to men, and gave names to the stars. His work done, Gluskap paddled towards the sunrise in a birch bark canoe. Some day he may return.

HINO (Iroquois)
Thunder god, god of the sky. The Rainbow is his consort. With his fire arrows, Hino destroys evil beings.

IRDLIRVIRISISSONG (Inuit/Eskimo)
The demon cousin of the moon. Sometimes Irdlirvirissong comes out into the sky to dance and clown and make the people laugh. But if anyone is nearby, the people must restrain themselves or the demon clown will dry them up and eat their intestines.

KACHINAS (Hopi)
Nature spirits which inhabit and control everything -- animal spirits, spirits of departed ancestors, spirits of natural resources such as wind, rain and thunder. Their exact number is not known, but at least five hundred appear in the mythologies of the different villages.

KANATI (Cherokee)
" The Lucky Hunter." Sometimes called First Man. He lives with his wife Selu ("Corn") in the east where the sun rises, and their sons, the Twin Thunder Boys, live in the west.

KITCKI MANITOU (Algonquin)
The Great Spirit, the Supreme Being. The Uncreated, the Father of Life, God of the Winds. The Great Spirit is present in some way in nearly every North American Indian mythology.

MICHABO (Algonquin)
The Great Hare. A trickster. A shape-shifter. Creator of men, the earth, deer, water and fish. Michabo drives away cannibal spirits. In the House of Dawn, Michabo is host to the souls of good men, feeding them succulent fruits and fish.

MORNING STAR (Pawnee)
A protector who leads the sun upward into the sky. A soldier god.

NAGENATZANI (Navajo)
Elder Twin Brother.

NESARU (Arikara)
Sky spirit. In the beginning, Nesaru had charge over all creation. Displeased with a race of giants in the underworld who would not respect his authority, Nesaru sent a new race to the underworld to replace them and sent a flood which destroyed the giants without destroying the new men. When the new men cried out to be released from the underworld, Nesaru sent the Corn Mother for their deliverance.

NOKOMIS (Algonquin)
" Grandmother." The Sacred Earth Mother. Nokomis nurtures all living things.

NORTH STAR (Pawnee)
A creator god. Beneficiant and venerated.

OCASTA (Cherokee)
" Stonecoat." The name comes from his coat which was made of pieces of flint. Equally good and evil, Ocasta was one of the Creator's helpers. Ocasta created witches and drifted from village to village stirring up turmoil. Some women trapped Ocasta, pinning him to the ground with a stick through his heart. The men cremated the dying Ocasta, who while burning on his funeral pyre taught them songs and dances for hunting, fighting wars and healing. Some of the men were granted great power and became the first medicine men.

OLELBIS (Wintun, Pacific Coast)
The Creator who lived in Olelpanti (Heaven) with two old women. When the first people destroyed the world with fire, Olelbis sent wind and rain to quench the flames, and repaired the earth. Olelbis intended men to live forever. When they grew old, they were to climb to heaven and join Olelbis in paradise. Olelbis set two vultures to the task of building a ladder to Olelpanti for men to ascend, but Coyote persuaded them to stop work.

RABBIT (Southeastern tribes)
Like Coyote and Michabo, a trickster god. Through a sly trick, Rabbit brought fire to man.

RAVEN (Northwestern tribes)
Another trickster god. Very greedy, forever seeking food. Raven stole the moon from a miser and placed it in the sky.

SEDNA (Inuit/Eskimo)
Goddess of the sea and the creatures of the sea. A one-eyed giant. A frightfull old hag, but she was young and beautiful when her father threw her in the sea as a sacrifice. A sorcerer wishing to visit Sedna must pass through the realms of death and then cross an abyss where a wheel of ice spins eternally and a cauldron of seal meat stews endlessly. To return he must cross another abyss on a bridge as narrow as a knife edge.

SELU (Cherokee)
" Corn." Sometimes known as First Woman. Kanati's wife. Selu created corn in secret by rubbing her belly or by defecating. Her sons, the Twin Thunder Boys, killed her when they spied upon her and decided she was a witch.

SHAKURA (Pawnee)
Sun god. The Pawnee performed their famous Sun Dance for Shakura's sake. Young warriors attached themselves to tall poles with strips of hide which were tied to sharp stakes. The stakes were driven through the skin and flesh on the chest. The young brave would then support his entire weight with the hide ropes as he slowly circled the pole following the sun's movement in the sky. This lasted until the sun went down or the stakes ripped out of the brave's flesh.

SOUTH STAR (Pawnee)
God of the underworld, the opposite of North Star. Magical and feared.

SUN (Cherokee)
A goddess. When Sun's daughter was bitten by a snake and taken to the Ghost Country, Sun hid herself in grief. The world was ever dark, and Sun's tears became a flood. At last the Cherokee sent their young men and women to heal Sun's grief, which they did with singing and dancing.

SUN (Inuit/Eskimo)
A beautiful young maiden carrying a torch who is chased through the sky by her brother Aningan, the moon. The planet Jupiter is the mother of the sun and very dangerous to magicians. If they are careless, she will devour their livers.

TEKKEITSERKTOCK (Inuit/Eskimo)
The earth god, master of hunting to whom all deer belong.

TIRAWA-ATIUS (Pawnee)
The Power Above, creator of the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning Tirawa-Atius called the gods together to announce his plan to create the human race and promised the gods a share of power for their help. Shakura the Sun was assigned to provide light and heat, Pah the Moon was assigned the night, and Tirwara-Atius placed the Evening Star, the Mother of All Things in the west. The Morning Star he set to guard the east. After the gods had raised dry land from the watery chaos, Tirawa Atius told Sun and Moon to make love, and they gave birth to a son. He then told Evening and Morning Star to make love, and they gave birth to a daughter. So the human race was made.

All would have been well if Coyote had not stolen a sack of storms from Lightening. Opening the sack, Coyote loosed the storms and so brought death into the world.

THOBADESTCHIN (Navajo)
Youngest Twin Brother.

THOUME' (Chitimacha)
Thoume' taught the people to make clothing and fire, and how to make love. After making the moon and the sun, Thoume' sent the trickster god Kutnahin to teach medicine and food preparation to men. Kutnahin traveled through the world disguised as a derelict covered with buzzard dung.

TORNGASAK (Inuit/Eskimo)
The good spirit, representing everything in nature good and helpful to man.

TWIN THUNDER BOYS (Cherokee)
The sons of Kanati and Selu. Kanati and Selu live in the east, the Twin Thunder Boys live in the west. When thunder sounds, the boys are playing ball.

WACHABE (Sioux/Osage)
Black Bear. A guardian. Symbol of long life, strength and courage.

DW Owens http://https://www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/North_america/native_american_gods.htm