“He-no and the Great Snake”
Kyle Joedicke

Painting
Acrylic on Canvas
48 x 24 in.
2023

This painting is a reimagining of a traditional myth of the Haudenosaunee. A woman flees her village in a canoe in search of a better life away from the family she has, and a marriage she is being forced into. Not far down the river, her canoe comes upon a great waterfall, and plunges over. Seeing the woman in distress, the thunder spirit He-no rises from his cave dwelling nearby and saves her before crashing onto the rocks below.

He-no then takes the woman under his care. While staying with He-no, the spirit explains why her village and family has been overcome with negativity and evil. The cause of her village’s ills is a great coiled snake that lay in hiding beneath their home, feeding from mankind’s spirit and life force. He-no petitions the woman to return to her village, and after doing so she convinces them to move, but the snake follows. It is at this time that He-no fires a bolt of lightning at the snake, killing it. When the serpent dies, it’s body is cast down the river, and being broken into small pieces, then turned into the islands of the Great Lakes.

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