Until the mid 17th Century Erie Pennsylvania held the tribal center of the Eriez Indians. The name Eriez or Erie is a shorter form of the Iroquoian word "Erielhonan" meaning literally "long tail" referring to the native panther skins that many of the tribe wore ceremonially. The panther (cougar or mountain lion) was the native Eriez totem. They honored and emulated the stealthy cats that were the top of the contemporary indigenous food chain. Although a small tribe when compared to their neighbors the Seneca or Susquehannocks, they stood boldly against larger enemies and welcomed refugees from neighboring wars. this did not make them very popular with the other tribes in the area and by the late 17th century the Eriez tribe had been either wiped out by war or assimilated by the Iroquois. Within a century the large panthers that were the totem of the Eriez had also vanished from the lands of North Western Pennsylvania.
Or did they?
Historically the last Indigenous big cats of Western Pennsylvania were in 1871 near a small town Clinton County.
However there are hundred of reported sightings of Pennsylvania Panthers every year. Most have the appearance of a Mountain Lion or Cougar, but some are of the familiar Black Panther type that are being reported across the Eastern United states, great Britain and Europe.
Recently Cryptomundo reported such a Black panther sighting in Loren Coleman's hometown of Decatur Illinois earlier this month (March). A Black Panther was seen scurrying through a Decatur suburban neighborhood.
The previous month, on February 17th 2010 I myself had a simlar experience. However, I have to believe the Black Panther that I experienced that cold February afternoon was not entirely physical.
To read of this incident, plese look to my book, "Eerie Erie:Tales of the Unexplained from Northwestern Pennsylvania" out August 2011 from The History Press.
10 comments:
I believe your assessment of this creature as "transdimensional" is correct. The Blogsquatcher just did an excellent piece discussing four possibilities of the nature of Bigfoot, with "transdimensional" and "paranormal" more or less posited as interrelated or perhaps one-and-the-same. As with the hundreds, if not thousands, of credibly witnessed Bigfoot and big cat sightings, it is the only logical explanation for such anomalies not discernable through scientific methodologies or "hard evidence". Now this may raise the question "are some of us more likely to experience these type sightings due to some special ability to see into other realms?" Do some of us "attract" these beings? I accept the reality of Bigfoot due to the volume of credible reports and also believe the "big cats" being sighted are not mere mistaken cases of identity for the same reason - too many credible witnesses.
I always find these types of big cat reports interesting. On one hand it makes sense that big cats like coyotes encroach on urban areas. Given loss of habitat and being protected species, like many cats they are adept at surviving, hiding and surviving on human refuse. On the other hand, given the plethora of various reports I would imagine there are many types of multidimensional (or otherwise) creatures or entities. Who is to say what is out there? On another note, the human mind is a wondrous thing, yet not always adept at handling information. Thus misinformation and errors in observation is the eternal trap.
As always I really enjoy your posts and information you share. :)
I saw a smaller cat-like animal once, not black, but I doubted it's reality. I felt it coming, if you know what I mean. I knew something was about to happen, walked around the corner of the house to see what it was, and it appeared. It was accompanied by a terrific gust of wind, ran across the yard, and vanished.
Great post!
No European ever saw an Erie, and are unaware that we were not massacred or assimilated in the usual sense of the word. I am Matriarch of the Erie. On occasion, I spontaneously merge with another in total empathy, and actually become them for short periods. The subjective experience of that entanglement is what we call psi, mystical experience, or in general: Erie. Erie understand the psyche. And overcome it.
We each are capable of immediate connection with the sacred: Consciousness unconfined by space. Or time. Or a physical being. Free. The essence of our BEING is unconditional love. As the Erie say, Love, without reservation.
We are the wild (free) Indians, us Erie, notorious for intense psychic abilities, doing too many hallucinatives and a disposition for difficulty with authority..
We sold Manhattan for a few beads. Because no one can own the Earth. The Erie are the original Indian Givers. We are responsible for Thanks-giving. Giving and receiving are the same thing.
Erie have no concept of ownership or one person subjugating another.
The Erie is in direct contact with God. Each individual is a sovereign nation; we each draw our power from a central Creator. We don't label, not even relationships. Us Erie, we just belong to each other. Free from the establishment, and the struggle and conflict of religions, class-states, borders and laws, the Erie take responsibility for our own reality, without using power over one another.
I'm Erie Matriarch. The Matriarch connects all Erie. Erie mental structuring is not in linear form, but rather holographic: each piece contains the whole. Rather than one leader, the Erie act together through dynamic, cooperative processes of self-organization. that demonstrates the possibilities of biological systems organizing on spiritual principles and cooperating on a global scale that mimics the dynamics of natural living systems.
The Erie have the ability to move energy almost instantly from one to another, wherever it's needed, through psychic powers. Time and space have no meaning to Erie. Just like subatomic particles, every Erie always knows what every other Erie is doing. Each maintains its integrity as an independent being, yet is devoted to the whole, balancing the individual interest with the collective interest, as birds fly in a flock.
We are about to reach a critical mass: world enlightenment. This is the spiritual awakening that we are beginning to witness now. A still relatively small but rapidly growing percentage of humanity is experiencing within themselves the breakup of the old egoic mind patterns and the emergence of a new dimension of consciousness: Erie.
You are Erie. We all are.
For more information I can be contacted at Yinarchy@Yahoo.com
Mariev Finnegan
Please, I have spent much time trying to leave a comment from the Matriarch of the Erie. I'm new to the internet. I don't know if you received my comment. Seems like much blah, blah. If you get this, and my comment, but did not post it, would you let me know? No need to explain why. I'll know. If I recieve no response, I will assume you never recieved this and I will spend more time figuring how to send you my comment.
Best,
Mariev Finnegan
Matriarch of the Erie
I'm tempted to make a Ross Perot comment, but instead I'll ask: Do you think this is the kind of black cat that indicates or causes bad luck by crossing your path?
Matriarch of the Erie? In your dreams, Here's how it worked with Us Onkwehonwe (Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga). When another tribal nation was at war with us, and you killed one of us, we took one of you and made you into one of us, those that would not submit were killed. So there is still Erie blood in the veins of Mohawks and Senecas and all of the other nations of the Confederacy. If you are the Matriarch which clan are you matriarch of? Do you even know how many clans there were with the Erie? Because there is no Matriarch, there are Clan mothers, but in Mohawk we have 3 clans and there can be more than one clan mother. I posted a good comment on the history of the Erie, and I think it stinks that my first comment was ignored for some new age hippie trying to play off as an Erie.
Both of you tribal members did not addresse the central issue:Was the panther physically real, interdimensional or clairvoyantly percieved? I think you well know the answer as do I.
I had local farmers tell of a big black panther seen occasionaly walking the banks of the river in Wisconsin Dells.They were unaware they were sitting a few hundred yards from a PANTHER EFFIGY MOUND and that the panther was associated with water.
The "cat" in the photo is disproportoinate to the surroundings. It appears photoshopped. Sorry, but having been involved in Paranormal research off and on for 30 years i have to call it the way i see it. The overall body of the "creature" seems wrong as well.
Jeff:
It is an illustration.
Haven't you noticed all my stories carry handmade illustrations?
Nowhere was it claimed to be a photo.
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