Native American Astronomy Essays (1211 words) - Meteor Showers

Local American Astronomy For a long time cosmologists and individuals the same have continually found out about the perceptions and records of the Chinese and Europeans. No other culture can give as much data as that accumulated by the Chinese and Europeans, however there are numerous different societies that watched and recorded the night sky, one of those being the Native Americans. During the last fifteen to twenty years archaeoastronomers have revealed much concerning the convictions and records of Native Americans. Tragically, the techniques for tracking galactic occasions were not as straight forward as the Chinese and Europeans. The Native Americans needed to utilize what they could to record what they watched. Their records were found on rock and cavern drawings, stick indenting, beadwork, pictures on creature skins and narrating. One of only a handful not many dateable occasions among the different records of Native Americans was the 1833 appearance of the Leonid meteor shower. The most clear record s of the Leonid storm show up among the different groups of the Sioux of the North American fields. The Sioux kept records called winter tallies, which were an ordered pictographic record of every year painted on creature skin. In 1984 Von Del Chamberlain recorded the cosmic references for 50 Sioux, forty five out of fifty alluded to an exceptional meteor shower during 1833/1834. He additionally recorded nineteen winter tallies kept by different fields Indian clans, fourteen of which alluded to the Leonid storm. The Leonids additionally show up among the Maricopa, who utilized schedule sticks with indents to speak to the section of a year, with the proprietor of the stick recalling the occasions. The proprietor of one stick guaranteed records had been kept that path since the stars fell. The primary indent on the stick spoke to 1833. An individual from the Papago, named Kutox, was conceived around 1847 or 1848. He asserted that 14 years before his introduction to the world the stars came down everywhere throughout the sky. A more subtle Leonid reference was found in a diary kept by Alexander M. Stephen, which point by point his encounter with the Hopi Indians and notices a discussion he had With Old Djasjini on December 11, 1892. That Hopi Indian stated, How old am I? Fifty, perhaps a hundred years, I can't tell. At the point when I was a little fellow eight or ten years there was an incredible comet in the sky and around evening time all the above was loaded with meteorites. (Stephen 37). During the lifetime of Old Djasini there was never an incredible comet and a sky brimming with meteors around the same time, yet he may be alluding to the comet in 1843 and the Leonid storm in 1833. The Pawnee have a tale about an individual named Pahokatawa, who was murdered by an adversary and eaten by creatures, and afterward breathed life into back by the Gods. The legend goes that he tumbled to earth as a meteor and told the individuals that when meteors were seen falli ng in incredible numbers it was anything but a sign that the world would end. At the point when the pawnee clan saw the time the stars fell upon the earth, which was in 1833, there was a frenzy, yet the pioneer stated, recollect the expressions of Pahokatawa and the individuals were not, at this point apprehensive. This shows how incredible a job space science played in the Native American culture. In spite of the fact that the Pawnee learned not to be apprehensive there were Native Americans who dreaded meteors. The Blackfeet of Montana accepted a meteor was an indication that ailment would go to the clan in the winter the Kawaiisu thought a meteor began high and tumbled to the skyline was a sign of death. The Cahuilla thought a meteor was the soul of their first shaman, takwich, who was despised his kin. Takwich meandered the sky around evening time searching for individuals a long way from their clan. In the event that he found a lost individual he take their soul and the individ ual home and eat them. The Shawnee accepted meteors were creatures escaping from the rage of some enemy, or from some foreseen danger.(Howard 178) Many Native Americans considered the to be as sublime and magical. The Wintu clarified meteors as the spirits of shamans making a trip to eternity. The Chumash alluded to meteors