What does the Panther signify? explain the symbolism

I would have put this in my own words, but I think this is all valuable information and it shouldn't be shortened to get the point across.. So this is what I found:

This photo is of a sculpture made about 500 years ago of an Underwater Panther. It was found in modern-day Arkansas.

"The prominent colored swirls and eye motifs mark this animal as an Underwater Panther, one of the primary beings in the ancient Mississippian belief system and that of their descendants. The swirling pattern on its sides signifies water, while the eye markings allude to the animal's unusually keen vision. Red and white were symbolically significant colors that represented fundamental oppositions such as peace and war, light and dark and the on-going struggle between the celestial and subterranean realms. Underwater Panthers belonged to the subterranean and possessed great supernatural power. Their significance led Mississippian and subsequent artists to depict them frequently in many forms and media, including three-dimensional sculptures like this vessel." -Catymology.blogspot.com

"Tribes from the Great Lakes southward feared the Underwater Panther, a composite monster with the body and tail of a mountain lion, ardens of a deer, scales of a snake, feathers of birds of prey, and parts from other animals as well. It lived beneath bodies of water. Water monsters appear in various guises the world over, but in North America the Native images tended to merge the traits of the mountain lion, or in some cases the lynx, with those of snakes. Mountain lions can swim but rarely choose to, and it's curious that they came to be so intimately- associated with water. A friend who is part Potawatomi, (a people indigenous to the Great Lakes region) suggested that the mystery of the animal's hidden life became associated with the unknown underwater world. Potawatomis wove the image of the Underwater Panther, master of underworld forces, into one side of the fiber bags that held medicine objects, and the Thunderbird, master of the powers above, into the other. At least as late as the 1950s, the Prairie Band of Potawatomi Indians performed their traditional ceremony to placate the Underworld Panther and maintain balance with the Thunderbird.

The Underwater Panther was often a malevolent creature the punished human transgressions by calling up fierce storms to swamp canoes and flood towns, but it could be beneficent as well, leaving meggers of shining copper on the shoreline to reward good behavior. East of the Great Lakes. Algonquian peoples believed the Underwater Panther had the power to heal. Its tail was covered by copper scales, and copper was used in curing rituals. When the first Europeans offered smelted cooper alloys in trade for furs. Iroquoian tribes worked them into spirals and hoops that invoked the panther's long curving tail. Skillfully fashioned and beautiful in their simplicity, these ornaments are among the earliest object made by Natives from European materials. Never was there greater need for help in battling illness than when European arrived, bringing devastating new diseases....

As far as lion symbolism goes, the Hopis achieved a classic statement of reverence for nature. "The mountain lion," said Leigh Jenkins, the Hopi cultural preservation officer, "is very sacred to the Hopi. He is a deity, a guardian of the tribe, to whom Hopis look for guidance during certain ceremonies. He is regarded as the strongest and most fearless animal and the greatest of hunters. His name, oha, also refers to the black clays used to decorate particular kinds of prayer sticks. Black represents strength in delivering the prayer sock's message to the homes of the rain gods."" -Chris Bolgiano, Washington Post

http://catymology.blogspot.com/2006/09/legendary-felines-underwater-panther_02.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/mountain.htm
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/2620/1694/1600/Underwater%20Panther.jpg

Did the Adena people build the panther?

No, I think it was the Ojibwa.

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0009894