For many years astronomers and people alike have constantly heard about the
observations and records of the Chinese and Europeans. No other culture can
provide as much information as that gathered by the Chinese and Europeans, but
there are many other cultures that observed and recorded the night sky, one of
those being the Native Americans. During the last fifteen to twenty years
archaeoastronomers have uncovered much concerning the beliefs and records of
Native Americans. Unfortunately, the methods of keeping records of astronomical
events were not as straight forward as the Chinese and Europeans.
The Native Americans had to use what they could to record what they observed.
Their records were found on rock and cave drawings, stick notching, beadwork,
pictures on animal skins and story telling. One of the few dateable events among
the various records of Native Americans was the 1833 appearance of the Leonid
meteor shower. The most obvious accounts of the Leonid storm appear among the
various bands of the Sioux of the North American plains.
The Sioux kept records called “winter counts,” which were a chronological
pictographic account of each year painted on animal skin. In 1984 Von Del
Chamberlain listed the astronomical references for 50 Sioux, forty five out of
fifty referred to an intense meteor shower during 1833/1834. He also listed
nineteen winter counts kept by other plains Indian tribes, fourteen of which
referred to the Leonid storm. The Leonids also appear among the Maricopa, who
used calendar sticks with notches to represent the passage of a year, with the
owner of the stick remembering the events.
The owner of one stick claimed records had been kept that way “since the
stars fell.” The first notch on the stick represented 1833. A member of the
Papago, named Kutox, was born around 1847 or 1848. He claimed that 14 years
prior to his birth “the stars rained all over the sky.” A less obvious Leonid
reference was found in a journal kept by Alexander M. Stephen, which detailed
his visit with the Hopi Indians and mentions a talk he had With Old Djasjini on
December 11, 1892. That Hopi Indian said, “How old am I? Fifty, maybe a hundred
years, I cannot tell.
When I was a young boy eight or ten years there was a great comet in the sky
and at night all the above was full of shooting stars. (Stephen 37). During the
lifetime of Old Djasini there was never a great comet and a sky full of meteors
in the same year, but he might be referring to the comet in 1843 and the Leonid
storm in 1833. The Pawnee have a story about a person named Pahokatawa, who was
killed by an enemy and eaten by animals, and then brought back to life by the
Gods.
The legend goes that he fell to earth as a meteor and told the people that
when meteors were seen falling in great numbers it was not a sign that the world
would end. When the pawnee tribe witnessed the time the stars fell upon the
earth, which was in 1833, there was a panic, but the leader said, “remember the
words of Pahokatawa” and the people were no longer afraid. This shows how
powerful a role astronomy played in the Native American culture. Although the
Pawnee learned not to be afraid there were Native Americans who feared meteors.
The Blackfeet of Montana believed a meteor was a sign that sickness would come
to the tribe in the winter the Kawaiisu thought a meteor started high and fell
to the horizon was an omen of death.
The Cahuilla thought a meteor was the spirit of their first shaman, takwich,
who was disliked his people. Takwich wandered the sky at night looking for
people far from their tribe. If he found a lost person he steal their spirit and
the person home and eat them. The Shawnee believed meteors were beings fleeing
from the wrath of some adversary, or from some anticipated danger.(Howard 178)
Many Native Americans saw the stars as heavenly and mystical.
The Wintu explained meteors as the spirits of shamans traveling to the after
life. The Chumash referred to meteors as a shooting star. They believed a meteor
was a person’s soul on their way to the afterlife. The Eastern Pomo believed
meteors were fire dropping from the sky. The most widely accepted belief was
that meteors were the feces of stars. (Hudson 40) The Ojibwa of the upper Great
Lakes had a story about Genondahwayanung, which meant, “Long tailed heavenly
climbing star.” An Ojibwa says that Genondahwayanung was a star with a long wide
tail which would return and destroy the world someday.
The shaman said it came down one thousand years ago. He said it was just like
sun, radiation, burning heat in its tail. The comet was said to have scorched
earth except for Native Americans, who were warned by a Holy Spirit, Chimantou.
The animals were killed off it was so hot stones were said to have melted. It is
said the comet came down and spread for miles. Another form of record keeping
were rock petroglyphs, or pictures carved into rock. The western part of the
United States is filled with these pictures, but any dating is virtually
impossible.
