These rock paintings or petroglyphs were found at the Agawa site on the north shore of Lake Superior. These paintings were reproduced on bark in the first half of the nineteenth century by an Ojibwa named Chingwauk. According to Chingwauk's explanation of the drawings, the mythical horned creature is Misshipeshu, the Great Panther or Lynx, who was the Great King of the Fishes; the serpents are representations of Mishikenahbik the Snake manitou; and to the left is the tip of a canoe containing five men. The drawings are part of a story involving a shaman called Myeengun (Wolf) who undertook a hazardous voyage, very likely in response to a vision.
The remnant of black paint on the Great Panther is all that is left of a fisherman's daughter's initials, which she painted over the figure in 1937.
Courtesy: National Museum of Man, National Museums of Canada
