CUYA Cuyamungue Institute Sedona: A New Chapter
Subtitle: The role of silence and listening for the wisdom
Author – Paul Robear ©2026
The Thunderbird has been one of the most dominant icons in Native American art and legends. The Thunderbird is one of the few cross-cultural characters in Native American mythology since it is found in legends of Pacific Northwest, Plains, and Northeastern tribes.
The Native Indians of the Pacific Northwest Coast always lived along the shores and never ventured inland to the mountains. Legend has it that the Thunderbird, a mighty God in the form of a giant, supernatural bird lives in the mountains.
The Quileute tribe of Washington state considered a cave on Mount Olympus as the home of the Thunderbird while the Coast Salish believed it is located on the Black Tusk peak in British Columbia. It is thought that the Thunderbird never wants anyone to come near its home. If Native hunters get too close, the Thunderbird will smell them and make a thunder sound by flapping its wings. It would also roll ice out of its cave and down the mountain with chunks breaking up into many smaller pieces.
Some tribes such as the Kwakwaka’wakw believe that their people once made a deal with the Thunderbird for its help during a food crisis and in return, the tribe agreed to honor the Thunderbird for all time by making its image prominent in their Northwest Native American art. This is why West Coast art totem poles are often carved with Thunderbirds with outstretched wings at the top.
The wingspan of the Thunderbird was described to be twice as long as a Native Indian war canoe. Underneath its wings are lightning snakes which the Thunderbird uses as weapons. Lightning is created when the Thunderbird throws these lighting snakes or when he blinks his eyes that glow like fire. Sometimes these lightning snakes are depicted in Native American art as having wolf or dog-like heads with serpent tongues. They are occasionally referred to as the Thunderbird’s dogs. Native American art portrays the Thunderbird with a huge curving beak and prominent ears or horns.
The Thunderbird is large and strong enough to hunt its favorite food which is the killer whale. The lightning snakes of the Thunderbird are used during hunts out at sea for the killer whale. After capture, the Thunderbird carries the killer whale back to the mountain to eat. According to legend, the Thunderbird and killer whale once battled so hard that entire trees were uprooted. This was the explanation why there are treeless prairie regions near the Pacific Northwest Coast mountains. The Thunderbird and killer whale are often depicted together in Northwest Native American art. A large example is at one by reknowned Northwest Native American art carver Richard Hunt at one of the Northwest Native American art exhibits at the Vancouver International Airport.
The Squamish Nation in British Columbia, Canada has a Thunderbird as their symbol. Their Thunderbird is portrayed as one of the special messengers of the Creator. The Squamish Thunderbird is a symbol for strength as well as change with the three tail feathers representing the past, present and future. In the talons of this Thunderbird is a face of a lizard which represents spiritual protection for the people of the Squamish Nation.
For many people, Natives and non-Natives alike, the Thunderbird has become a symbol of power, strength and nobility.
"When we lean into silence, something begins to emerge—a wisdom that is not mine or yours, but ours."
The name “CUYA” carries with it both history and vision. Rooted in our origins as the Cuyamungue Institute, it now also serves as an acronym — C.U.Y.A. — a guiding symbol that unites our mission:
C — Consciousness: The field of shared awareness that arises in Collective Presence, where the “We” awakens beyond the “I” – moving from the “Me to the We.”
U — Unity: Our alignment with the Cycles of Nature and the rhythms of the cosmos, reminding us that we are woven into a greater fabric of reality. This sense of unity reminds us that our awareness is the shared consciousness that connects all living beings.
Y — Your Awakening: The inner journey of Embodiment and Wisdom, where through direct experience the body remembers. At the CUYA Institute, this awakening is nurtured through Ritual Body Postures and ecstatic trance, where the body itself becomes the doorway to wisdom, presence, and transformation.
A — Ancestral Wisdom: Roots. Our connection to Sacred Lineage, honoring those who walked before us and rooting us in belonging and continuity. Our founder, anthropologist Felicitas D. Goodman looked to some of the oldest, most authentic ancestral records we have — the world’s collection of early and indigenous art — and decoded selected artifacts as embodied “ritual instructions.”
Together, the Four Pathways of C.U.Y.A. — Consciousness, Unity, Your Awakening, and Ancestral Wisdom — form a single tapestry of practice. They remind us that awakening is not an abstract idea but something we live: through the body in Your Awakening, through nature’s cycles in Unity, through community in shared Consciousness, and through the guidance of Ancestral Wisdom.
- …. CONTINUE
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