Like other peoples of the world, North American Indian groups have developed organized explanations for celestial appearances — the sun, moon, and stars and their cyclical movements across the dome of the sky. They have created a rich, evolving celestial lore and constructed elaborate calendars to organize and guide their activities. Both literally and figuratively, the sky has given direction to their lives and influenced earthly behavior. For example, the Apaches, Navajos, and Plains Indians participate in the rhythms of their celestial environment by systematically entering their lodgings while walking in the sun-wise, or clockwise, direction. In contrast, Euro-Americans tend to move counterclockwise.
———Only recently have scholars attempted a systematic study of the astronomical knowledge and worldview of the North American Indian. Individuals from a wide assortment of disciplines have used a variety of evidence — archaeological research, interviews, oral histories, folklore, mythology, and studies of ceremony and ritual behavior — to support their efforts. Scholars designate the study of the astronomy of historic cultures ethnoastronomy; they term the study of the astronomy of prehistoric cultures archaeoastronomy. In the Americas, because remnants of pre-Columbian culture practices have survived into historic times, the study of archaeoastronomy is enormously enhanced by the ability to question historic descendants of pre-Columbian peoples about their own astronomical interests and customs.
———Although the variety and complexity of Native American tribes prevents detailed generalizations about their approach to the earth and sky, Native American tribes share a belief in the essential oneness of the cosmos. All things, including plants and trees, rocks and streams, animals, insects, sea creatures, people — even the sun, moon, and stars — are related to one another. They further share a belief that the elements of the cosmos are not static, but is constant motion or transformation. Not only do things move within the realms of the earth and sky; they move between the two realms. Some are capable of transformation. Occasionally, supernatural sky creatures come to earth and those of the earth travel to the sky. For the Pawnees, the Bella Coolas, and many other groups, the sky is the source of life itself. In contrast, the Kiowas, Navajos, and Pueblo peoples tell of their emergence from the underworld yet also look to the sky for worldly guidance.
———For the most part, traditional Native American thinkers regard the sky as a source of stability and regular motion and the source of principles by which to live. They determine the four primary directions — east, south, west, and north — by observing the sun, moon, and stars. In contrast to the orderly sky, events on the earth are capable of breaking into chaos at the slightest provocation. As Native American myths illustrate, Coyote and other tricksters have an enormous capacity for irregular behavior that upsets an orderly progression of earthly events. Sometimes they introduce a measure of irregularity even into the sky. In one version of the Navajo myth of creation, Coyote scatters the stars that Black God has been carefully placing in the dark sky. In a Hopi myth which Coyote begs to carry the sun disk, he strays off the path and causes chaos on earth. To guard against such deviations from order, many American Indian groups have developed ceremonies to assist the continuation of stable, predictable movements, lest the sky beings fail to take their usual paths. In other words, the rituals mediate between earth and sky. For example, part of the Hopi winter solstice ceremony includes a mock battle between a participant representing the sun and a group of singers who constrain the indecisive sun to remain on his proper yearly track. In this they are responding to an observable phenomenon: that the sun changes position along the horizon from day to day throughout the year.
———The stories and myths that explain celestial phenomena also set a moral tone for life on earth. For instance, one Lakota Sioux myth illustrates proper behavior by describing a chief's selfish actions and their consequences. The constellations known to the Lakotas as the Hand, composed of most of the stars of the European constellation Orion, represents the hand of the chief lost when the "Thunder Beings" of the sky tore off his arm and serves as a nightly reminder both of the story and of the consequences of selfish behavior.
———Each tribe places a different emphasis on observations of the celestial sphere for the yearly calendar. Tribes with a dominant agricultural tradition, such as the Pueblo tribes, closely monitor the yearly path of the sun along the horizon to learn the right periods during which to plant and harvest and also, more importantly, to determine the proper days of holding ceremonies. Their Anasazi ancestors of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries apparently also carefully followed the sun's motions, incorporating architectural features into their buildings that would remove the guesswork from setting the yearly calendar. The Cahokians of the same era, who lived along the Mississippi, organized their mounds and their city along the cardinal directions and also developed a sophisticated solar calendar.
———Some groups, such as the Chumashes, Navajos, and Pawnees, tend to emphasize stellar observations. The Navajos have used the seasonal position of the constellation Revolving Male (the Big Dipper) to determine planting times. In the spring, the Skiri Pawnees watched for the first appearance of the constellation Swimming Ducks, which signaled the appropriate time to begin the spring thunder ritual. The Mescalero Apaches time the nightly phases of the girls' puberty ceremony by carefully following the position and orientation of certain bright stars.
———The changing form of the moon, occurring in a cycle that approximates a woman's menstrual cycle, makes it a prime subject for myth and for devising a convenient monthly calendar. However, the fact that the moon's cycle is incommensurate with the yearly cycle of the sun causes difficulties in achieving harmony with the solar calendar and has induced some Native American groups to correct for the discrepancy of adding a month every three years.
———The planets wander along the ecliptic (the apparent yearly path of the sun), appearing in different parts of the sky during the year. Venus and Mercury stay relatively near the sun, whereas Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn can appear anywhere along the ecliptic. Although the planets' relatively erratic motions (compared with those of the stars) have been observed, only the Skiri Pawnees and a few California groups are known to have studied these motions. Solar and lunar eclipses, fireballs, meteors, and comets were and still are seen as irregular sky phenomena that portend ominous happenings on earth.
———One of the most important recent developments in ethnoastronomy is the realization that gatherers and hunters, as well as agricultural peoples, depended on a celestial calendar for following the seasonal round and for predicting the proper times for ceremonies. For example, the Cahuillas, Chumashes, Gabrielinos, and other California tribes made extensive use of solar, lunar, and stellar observations but practiced little agriculture. They used their astronomical knowledge to predict the ripening of certain foods and the arrival of fish and game at favorite fishing and hunting grounds.
———When carefully read, myths and traditional stories provide considerable insight into tribal views of the sky. The Alabama Indian myth about a celestial skiff seems to encode a keen knowledge of the night sky, particularly the motions of the Big Dipper as it rotates about the morning during the summer months. The Alabamas linked this celestial appearance to their ball game, their summer ceremonial dances, and the green corn ceremony, in which they celebrated the spring with the nightly rotation of Revolving Male (the Big Dipper), Revolving Female (Cassiopeia), and North Fire (the North Star). In summary, Native American groups not only used the sky for calendrical and directional applications but also incorporated aspects of the sky into their daily lives.

RAY A. WILLIAMSON
Office of Technology Assessment
U.S. Congress