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Thunderbirds' insignia

The 157th Infantry regiment (part of the 45th division) has been formed during the World War I. Its original sleeve insignia, approved in August of 1924, was a red square with yellow swastika, a symbil widely used by Native Americans, who were largely represented in the Southwestern US region. Later, when that symbol was adopted by the Nazi party in Germany, the 45th division stopped using it. 

The new insignia with the Thunderbird was approved in 1939. The Thunderbird, a supernatural creature in the North American indigenous peoples’ culture, a giant bird that protects humans from the evil spirits – those who live in the ‘underworld’ or from the Great Horned Serpent. 

It is believed to control the ‘upperworld’ and produce lightning from beak (or eyes) and thunder with the wings clapping. It was also believed to punish those who break moral rules. In some legends the Thunderbirds are the great ancestors of the human race and some of the universe creators. In the others, a man getting a vision of the Thunderbird would become a war chief.