The North Star is one of the most important stars in the northern sky to almost all peoples, Indigenous and non-Indigenous. In so-called Canada and the United States, many Indigenous peoples told stories about the North Star and their relationship with that star. One such story comes from the Paiute peoples of the so-called western…
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Astronomy through two lenses: Thinking about Eurocentric and Indigenous methodologies
Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island and elsewhere have lived on the land long before the scientific revolution and the so-called enlightenment. As part of this land, the peoples developed intimate knowledge of the environment and natural world, including knowledges of the sky above. That understanding was arguably built by centuries of detailed observations that have…
Thoughts about how we name things in the sky
Humans watch the sky all of the time and look for the reassuring planets and stars that we identify with. In the north, those stars might include Polaris the North Star, or Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion. We learn about these stars and the constellations in the sky as children in school even if…
Tales of the North Star
The North Star intrigues us and guides us. It is a beacon in the night sky for peoples and cultures around the world. Even though the North Star, also called Polaris, is but one star in a sky of millions and billions of other stars Polaris is special. Polaris is a guide star for cosmology,…