Thunderbird Star
Rita L. Corbiere
Ojibwa, Wikwemikong, Ontario, Canada
1991
Cotton/polyester with polyester filling
63" x 72”
MSUM 7251.1
Photo by Mark Eifert, all rights reseved by the Michigan State University Museum

The Underwater Panther and the Thunderbird are important figures in Woodland Indian cosmology. For this quilt, Ojibwa quilter Rita Corbiere of Wikwemikong, Canada, incorporated a thunderbird in the star as well as is the four corners of the quilting pattern. Corbiere also used the traditional Native colors of red, yellow, black, and white, representing the four races of man and the directions of north, south, east, and west.

From To Honor and Comfort Native Quilting Traditions