Reading the Night Sky
For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples across North America have watched the night sky closely. Knowledge about the stars, the Moon and the seasons has been passed down through generations in stories, songs and teachings shared by Elders and Knowledge Keepers.
Different Nations have their own names and stories for the same groups of stars. A star pattern that some people call the Big Dipper may be seen as a different figure in another Nation's teachings.
Many communities have used the sky as a calendar. The changing shape of the Moon and the rising of certain stars could signal when it was time to fish, hunt, gather plants or move to a new camp. Some Indigenous calendars name each Moon cycle after what is happening in nature at that time of year.
Today, some scientists and Indigenous Knowledge Keepers work together, sharing different ways of knowing about the sky.