This is Marquette's Monster, a.k.a. Lennipinja or Man-Cat of the Peorias and Illinois, a.k.a. Micibisi of the Northern tribes.  The Chippewa name is Michibichi, the spirit panther "god of the waters" or "the manito of the waters and the fishes."  The Shawnese clan name is "Manetuwi Msi-pessi," a "'celestial tiger,' i.e. a meteor or shooting star.  The manetuwi msi-pessi lives in water only, and is visible not as an animal, but as a shooting star.  But the activities of this manito are not confined to the water.  He corresponds to the 'Fire Dragon' of other mythologies; and when they see a meteor, the old Miamis say that it is Lennipinja going from one sea to another" (Indiana and the Indianans by Jacon Piatt Dunn, 1919).