• God in North America that had the body of a dragon, mane of a lion, head of an angry man with sharp teeth, tiger's beard and deer antlers, 12ft tail. Also shown with spined wings, scales, 4 bird legs, and eagle talons.
• Lived near the Mississippi River.
• Did not bother with humans until it tried dead human flesh, after which it actively pursued the area's inhabitants for dinner.
• Known as the Bird that Devours Men
• Painted on a bluff outside Alton, Illinois
• Relative of the Horned Serpent

• Painted in yellow, green, black and red
• The Illini Indians said it would fly down and carry people away
• Originals have been lost to construction, but reproductions are in Alton, IL
• Thunderbird

"It's reign of terror ended when an Indian Chief named Quatonga and twenty of his warriors managed to trick it out of its cave and kill it with poison arrows." Source: Survive 2012.

Marquette and Joliet, explorers and missionaries, came across cave paintings on the east cliff above the turbulent middle Mississippi River water.

The Illini tribe lured a piasa so that the warrior Massatoga and others could ambush it and tear its wings, killing it.

• Welker: Description of cliff carvings
• PiasaNet: version of the tale
• Ravenloft: Version of the tale
• Brighton Scouts, Pack 3039: Version of the tale