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Table of Contents

Martha Bedeaux                                                   99-01-01
Astronomical Patterns in Novels of Frank Waters, N. Scott Momaday, and Leslie Marmon Silko

Sean Callan                                                           99-01-02
Navajo Astronomy
An Understanding of the Cosmos
From Time of Creation to the High School Classroom

James Dudley                                                        99-01-03
Archaeoastronomy: Curriculum Unit on Trigonometry

Bill Glover                                                              99-01-04
Cultural Astronomy Curriculum Unit in the Highland High School Physics Curriculum

Blake Learmonth                                                  99-01-05
Naked Eye Astronomy for Middle School Students

Mary Ann Lee                                                     99-01-06
Cultural Archaeoastronomy:
A Study of Historical and Cultural Astronomy in the Southwest

Jennifer Murphy                                                   99-01-07
Research, Myth, and Memory

Roxanne Pacheco                                                99-01-08
Myths of Mesoamerican Cultures Reflect a Knowledge and Practice of Astronomy

Robert Squires                                                    99-01-09
Zuni, Acoma and Isleta: Three Pueblo cultures of New Mexico which are deeply rooted in naked eye observations of astronomical phenomena that provide the pivotal dates around which their lives are structured

Albuquerque Teachers' Institute Seminar, 1999                                                                                                                                                         

Archaeoastronomy, or Cultural Astronomy in the U. S. Southwest

Michael Zeilik
UNM Physics & Astronomy
800 Yale Blvd. NE, 87131
Phone: 505-277-4442 Fax: 505-277-1520

Seminar Description

Astronomy flourishes in New Mexico today, from the computer simulations at Los Alamos National Laboratory to the solar telescopes at Sunspot. Astronomy also has deep roots, revealed in the traditions of the Pueblo people. They perceive a cosmos in which nature functions with the active cooperation of humankind, who must perform the proper ceremony at the proper time to assure the continuity of the cosmos. The proper times were guided by astronomical observations that were the responsibility of religious officials, who kept the Pueblo sky watch for calendric purposes. We can use these practices as lenses on the past to, reconstruct the use of astronomy the prehistoric Pueblo wold. This seminar will focus on the astronomy of the historic and ancient Pueblos to learn how the flow of ceremonies connects to the cycles of the sky. These practices involve a ritual sequence that unites myriad aspects of Pueblo life and touches diverse points of Pueblo culture

Content Sequence

Session 1: Why? What? How? Crossing Cultures
Session 2: Naked-Eye Astronomy: Sun
Session 3: Naked-Eye Astronomy: Moon
Session 4: Naked-Eye Astronomy: Planets
Session 5: Naked-Eye Astronomy: Stars
Session 6: Southwestern Ethnoastronomy
Session 7: Southwestern Cosmovision
Session 8: Southwestern Prehistory
Session 9: Practical Aspects of Fieldwork
Session 10: Intersecting Disciplines
Session 11: Beyond the Southwest
Session 12: Speculations

Field Trips

We will at least go to Coronado State Monument and Petroglyph Park National Monument. Other sites (Chaco, for instance) subject to discussion.

Observations
Every Fellow will be expected to complete one observational project during the Institute. These activities may be carried out individually or in small teams. A project may embody fieldwork at a prehistoric site.

Readings
You will be given a diverse set of articles that will form the core of the seminar content.

Bibliography

                    Farrer, Claire R. Living Life's Circle. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1991

                    Williamson, Ray A. Archaeoastronomy in the Americas. Ballena Press, 1981                                                                                        

Martha D. Bedeaux

How an individual relates to the cosmos is a compelling theme in Native American literature. Native American cosmologies often refer to the interaction of various parts of nature in order to create the world. The animals, the plants, and the dome of the sky all are intertwined in traditional native stories. An individual who does not walk in harmony with all these forces must find a way to restore the balance. The traditional practices of sun, moon, and star watching are external evidence of the search for this internal harmony with the universe. Three modern novels, The Man Who Killed the Deer, House Made of Dawn, and Ceremony, all show an alienated hero trying to regain his sense of place in the cosmos. An awareness of traditional astronomy and its role in Native cultures can help students to see the pattern of reintegration as well as the links between heaven and earth in these novels. Besides enriching the students’ reading, this unit links literature and science to show that all learning is connected.

Traditional Astronomy of the Southwest: Sun, Moon, Stars

There is ample historical evidence that the pueblo people watched the sun, the moon, and the stars and that these practices continue today. The agricultural peoples watched the sky to determine the times of planting, of harvest, and to predict the coming of rainfall. In winter, the night sky provided evidence of the people’s history written in the stars. Ceremonies to ensure the proper balance of life were timed according to the appearance of the sun and/or the moon and/or the stars. Thus, the purpose of this watching was/is both practical and religious--to predict planting times and to participate in the order of the universe. Separating these two purposes may be an artificial distinction that accommodates the Western way of examining behaviors.

The ethnographic evidence suggests that the very act of living is both a religious and practical act--or should be. One example of how close traditional peoples live to the cosmos is the kiva. The kiva is a sacred building in pueblo architecture. Emulating the dome of the sky, kivas are typically round, sunken into the earth, with significant markers for the four directions inside. The center of a kiva often contains an emergence place or sipapu as a reminder that the native people emerged from the world below. Some kivas may have a window in the side or roof situated so that the sun shines through on a particular day, such as the solstice, and marks a specific place on the wall. Some literature indicates that the stars are observed through the opening at the top of a kiva. In essence, the kiva is a kind of microcosm: the sunken room represents the womb of Mother Earth with the dome of the ceiling representing the dome of Father Sky. Emerging from the kiva is akin to being reborn.

Sun Watching

As the sun moves through the year, its rising and setting points move along the horizon, towards the northeast approaching the summer solstice and returning to the southeast for the winter solstice, moving relatively quickly through much of the year and slowing as the solstices approach. The observation of the sun’s rising and setting points can provide a good indication of these two turning points of the year.

At the summer solstice the sun rises at its far northern boundary. From our earthbound perspective the sun’s rising and setting swing along the eastern horizon like a huge pendulum from south to north and back again. For a few days at the end of each "swing" the sun appears to stop its movement, staying still on the northeastern horizon or southeastern horizons before returning. The winter and summer solstices mark the turning points of the year. At the spring and autumn equinoxes the sun is halfway through its northerly or southerly movement when it rises and sets on the celestial equator--that is, due east and west.

The observations common to multiple pueblo peoples share some fundamental

methodologies (Zeilik, "Anticipation in Ceremony" ): a sun priest is responsible for watching the sun, observations take place most often at sunrise in a place in or near the pueblo, horizon markers are commonly employed, the solstices are significant times of the year, the priest announces the impending date in advance to allow time for preparation, and both anticipatory observations and confirmations are done in the same way. It is important to understand that all members of the community would likely greet the dawn with offerings to Father Sun. The agricultural basis of the community ties everyone to the cycle of the sun.

The timing of ceremonies has been influenced by the overlaying of Catholic holidays onto traditional Native culture. Hence, Christmas celebrations also include winter solstice ceremonies and dances. In modern times, the elders may also move the celebration to a time convenient for tribal members who work outside the tribe or who must travel. For example, summer solstice ceremonies may take place on a weekend near the date, or even on July 4.

Moon Watching                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Most pueblos used the phases of the moon to determine ceremonies. Both the Hopi and the Zuni have records of lunar calendar sticks which were likely used to anticipate the proper phase of the moon. Ceremonies based on the solar calendar were often adjusted to coincide with a certain phase of the moon. Planting may have occurred during a full moon, to gain the power of both sun and moon for the growth of new life.

Like the sun, the moon goes through a regular cycle, though the moon’s movement is faster and apparently more erratic than the sun’s. Not only does the appearance of the moon change, the moon’s pendulum-like swing is not as regular as the sun’s ecliptic. In a month the moon travels the same distance on the horizon as the sun does in a year, and its path moves above and below the sun’s ecliptic.

While from our perspective, both the stars and the moon move westward through the sky, the moon moves eastward in relation to the stars. The moon’s movement from full (rising at sunset) to full takes about 29.5 days. It is the cycle of the moon through its illuminated phases that accounts for our monthly divisions of the year. The moon goes through a full cycle twelve times during the solar year--with about eleven days left over. So, if a ceremonial needs to fall at a particular time of the year, the people may also wait for a particular phase of the moon in order to maintain the balance of the two celestial bodies.

Each moon of the year has a particular name--often one identifying the ceremony or activity that occurs during that time. For example, for the Havasupai, the February moon is called "Midiig ymaya" or "bean dance." The Hopi also have a Bean Dance in February. November’s moon, to the Eskimo, is the "time of drumming," and for the Potawatomi November is the "month of the turkey and feast" (Native Moons, online). Some moons are named for events tied to the seasons: for the Navajo February’s moon is named for the "birth of baby eagles," while the Lakota call it the "moon of popping trees." Some native peoples have a "no name" moon (Zuni’s November), possibly to allow flexibility in integrating the lunar and solar cycles (Native Moons, online). The Zuni appear to make an effort to have the winter solstice coincide with a full moon (weak sun, strong moon) and the summer solstice close to a crescent moon (strong sun, weak moon) (Tedlock, qtd. in Zeilik 1986). This adjustment reflects the duality inherent in the Pueblo belief system.

The moon, like the sun, reaches a time of "staying still." These lunar standstills occur when the moon rises and sets at approximately the same position on the horizon for about five days. The standstill cycle takes 18.61 years. The sun moves along the horizon and back within a 60 degree range over the course of a year. The moon’s monthly pendulum-like movement in its rising and setting gradually increases from a minimum swing of 45 degrees (inside the sun’s ecliptic) to a maximum swing of 72 degrees (outside the sun’s ecliptic). During the time that the moon’s rising and setting falls within the 45 degree range the moon appears to rise and set in the same place for several days--a minor standstill. About 9.3 years later the rise and set at 72 degrees results in a major lunar standstill. Perhaps not many peoples kept track of this long period of time in a formal way, but there is potential evidence at Chimney Rock Pueblo in Colorado that some peoples did.

Star Watching                                                                                                                                                                                                        

The stars also provide a calendar. Certain constellations appear to rise at different times throughout the year. For example, the Pleiades rise just before dawn in June and are high in the sky on October nights. Orion is clear in the night sky during the winter months. Some groups may use the rising and setting of particular stars or constellations to time ceremonies, but primarily the stars are a pattern that records the history of the people. While the sun and the moon regulate the seasons and the ceremonies, the constellations provide the stories that help us on our way. In the constellations of native peoples we can see the impact of geography, what is needed for survival, what is common to the region, and hence the formative elements of the culture.

Petroglyphs made by prehistoric peoples seem to correspond to star patterns in the area. Navajo star lore is particularly rich. Canyon de Chelly in Arizona is reputed to have many Navajo star paintings. Navajo stories and ceremonies make reference to stars, and there are star patterns on some ceremonial items. The creation story of the Navajo further illustrates the importance of the stars to the culture. In this story, Black God was placing the stars in arrangements to represent each animal on earth, but Coyote comes along and spills the contents of Black God’s bag. The Milky Way appears in other stories from other cultures, often as the "starry path" or as the "starry river." Other star patterns that frequently appear in a variety of Native cultures are those of Orion (Long Sash or First Slender One), the Pleaides (the Deer), and the Big Dipper (Revolving Male, Bear). Morning Star and Evening Star, the twin sons of the sun, likely correspond to Venus and/or to Mars. In Tewa stories, Grandmother Spider, who makes the world, lives in the sky beyond the Milky Way. Clearly, the history and beliefs of the Native peoples are illustrated in the sky, one more example of how the dome of the sky and the earth are linked.

Three Novels: Waters, Momaday, Silko

The Man Who Killed the Deer--Frank Waters

Biographical Information

Frank Waters was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1902 and died in 1995. He studied engineering at Colorado College for three years but left without taking a degree. His Book of the Hopi is a respected work of ethnology, while Woman at Otowi Crossing takes on the making of the atomic bomb. Waters felt a close bond with the Natives he lived so near and was somewhat of a mystic in his view of nature. Out of respect for the peoples portrayed in his book, Waters submitted the manuscript of The Man Who Killed the Deer for review by tribal elders before publication. See the following web site for more information about Frank Waters: http://www.unm.edu/~wrtgsw/.

Summary

Martiniano returns to his pueblo after being sent to "away school" by the government. He kills a deer out of season and without the proper sacrifice, thus breaking the code of two cultures. His estrangement and disharmony with the universe influences his own peace of mind, his relationship with his wife, his relationship with his tribe and the tribe’s relationship with the United States government. As Martiniano struggles to find his place, the tribe struggles to regain their rights to the sacred Dawn Lake. Martiniano is haunted by the deer he killed, having visions of it on several occasions. Gradually, Martiniano accepts his role in the pueblo, but not before having his individual pride and desire for success suppressed by several failures. In contrast to Martiniano’s individualism, his friend Palemon provides an example of a life in harmony with the tribe and the world. After about a year and a half of struggle, Martiniano’s reintegration to the tribe is signaled by four events: his own agreement to participate in the dances, the birth of his son, the emergence of Palemon’s son from kiva training, and the pueblo’s victory in regaining the use of Dawn Lake for their most sacred ceremonies.

Reflections of the Cosmos in The Man Who Killed the Deer(See chart of Sun/Moon/Star references)                                                                

Frank Waters’s The Man Who Killed the Deer follows Martiniano through the course of almost two years, from October through two winter solstices to the next August. He begins the story as an outsider, caught between two worlds. Gradually, in accordance with the yearly cycle, Martiniano is reintegrated psychically and culturally.

Significant events occur at the changing of each season. During the first winter Martiniano’s literal and figurative alienation is shown by the fact that he does not come inside the pueblo for the "time of staying still." During the following spring, Martiniano has followed and left the "peyote road" in his search for a faith. He watches the Spring Corn Dances, but as a spectator alongside the white trader Byers.

A major transition in Martiniano’s position occurs around the summer solstice. By June, Martiniano begins to accept his duties within the pueblo, claiming his blanket and receiving a whipping, but also discovering that his wife is pregnant. When the autumn equinox comes, Martiniano’s damaging pride is finally defeated when he fails to climb the ceremonial pole. At the winter solstice, when the ceremonial dances are held, Martiniano’s wife takes the role of the Deer Mother in the Deer Dance. Following the dances, Martiniano’s growing inner harmony is affirmed when he finds Palemon’s wounded son, Napaita, in the snow and delivers the boy to the kiva.

Martiniano’s rebirth is revealed by the multiple new beginnings in the spring. In March, the month of the spring equinox, Martiniano’s son is born. Napaita also emerges from his kiva training. In May Martiniano participates in the dawn races and by June, the month of the summer solstice when the sun’s power is at its peak, Dawn Lake has been restored to the tribe. The book ends with Martiniano listening to the great August ceremonials taking place at Dawn Lake. Martiniano’s return to his place and his people follows the solar and ceremonial year.

House Made of Dawn--N. Scott Momaday

Biographical Information

N. Scott Momaday was born in 1934 in Oklahoma. He is a Kiowa who nevertheless spent much of his boyhood in Jemez Pueblo, where House Made of Dawn is set. His parents were both well educated and integrated into Anglo-American life. Momaday’s writing reflects a deeply bicultural heritage. He attended the University of New Mexico and received his doctorate from Stanford University in 1963. Momaday has written poetry as well as prose, and he also paints. He currently teaches at the University of Arizona in Tucson. House Made of Dawn won the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. His most recent book is The Man Made Of Words: Essays, Stories, Passages (St. Martin's Press, 1997). See the following web sites for more information about Momaday: http://www.angstgrrl.com/intelligensia/authors/momaday/momaday.html
http://www.ipl.org/cgi/ref/native/browse.pl/A50                                                                                                                                                        

Summary

A prologue describes a young man running into the dawn. The story proper begins when Abel returns to his pueblo, Walatowa (Jemez) at the end of his wartime service. He tries to fit back into the pueblo way of life, but is unable to make a smooth transition, partly because he was not at peace with himself when he left. Abel’s mother died when he was small as did his brother Vidal. He was raised by his grandfather, Francisco, the son of a priest who served at the pueblo in the 1870s. Abel meets a pregnant woman, Angela St. John, and has a brief alliance with her. Several days after the Feast of Santiago, where an albino man wins the "rooster pull" and flails Abel with the dead rooster, apparently as part of the game, Abel kills "the white man" outside a bar where they both had been drinking.

The next section of the novel takes place in Los Angeles in 1952 on the night that Abel receives a horrible beating. As Abel drifts in and out of consciousness we learn about the past six years of his life, his time in prison, his relocation to California, his affair with a social worker named Milly, and his friendship with Benally, a Navajo. Superimposed on Abel’s delirious state is the sermon and peyote ceremony led by J.B.B. Tosamah, Priest of the Sun.

The third segment of the book takes place a month later and is told by Benally who provides even more information about Abel’s uneasy relocation to Los Angeles. While Abel was in the hospital, Angela came to visit him. Benally says that he and Abel had plans to go back home together.

Abel goes home to Walatowa in February and watches over the death bed of his grandfather. Each morning for six mornings the old man wakes and speaks. On the seventh morning he dies. Abel performs the appropriate ceremony for his grandfather and then goes out to participate in the traditional dawn race with the sun, demonstrating that he has found his place at last.

House Made of Dawn is a complex novel that embraces and interlaces multiple views of the cosmos to reveal Abel's psychological, physical, and spiritual disintegration and reintegration. Momaday overlays Kiowa, Jemez, and Navajo traditions in the telling of Abel’s story in House Made of Dawn. The solar calendar so important to the agricultural life of the pueblo mixes with the fierce sun of the plains and the story-telling power of the Navajo herdsmen’s night sky. During his childhood, Abel is raised in the traditions of his pueblo; he is in tune with life and death just as he knows the "motion of the sun and the seasons" (11). (There are indications that Abel is not in complete harmony with his world even before he goes to war). In his dark night of the soul, when he lies beaten near death on the beach in Los Angeles, Abel remembers the story of the Kiowa Sun Dance --how it was destroyed by the government but the people found a way to survive. Finally, the title of the story refers to the Navajo name for the cosmos, and the healing Night Chant performed by Benally is also Navajo in origin.

More so than The Man Who Killed the Deer or Ceremony, House Made of Dawn includes references to the lunar cycle to point to the ongoing cycle of death and rebirth. The moon images are concentrated in the portion of the book where Abel lies beaten, drifting in and out of the present. At one point Abel realizes that the moon controls both sea and land (joining the struggling fishes on the beach with the beautiful flying geese he saw with Vidal). The cycle of the moon gives a kind of permanence to the world as we see in Tosamah’s description of the cricket framed by the moon where "its small definition [is] whole and eternal." Such visions and memories not only reflect how Abel pulls himself up, they seem actually help him to accomplish the rebirth. Indeed, a major theme in this novel is the creative power of the word.

Two star stories are also deeply embedded in the structure of Momaday’s book. Several critics have noted that Abel and his brother Vidal are like the Stricken Twins of the Navajo. The twins also appear in Pueblo culture as Masawe and Oyuyuwe, the Morning and Evening Star that follows the moon so closely. Their separation from one another reflects Abel’s imbalance and disharmony in the world. Gradually, Abel is reintegrated, helped by Benally’s Night Chant and the sense of relatedness he feels with Benally.

The second star story important to the novel is the Kiowa story of how Devil’s Tower was created when six sisters climbed to the top of a tree that grew to the sky to escape their brother who had become a bear. They became the stars of the Big Dipper. Abel’s recollection of Tosamah’s story serves as a reminder that he has "kinsmen in the night sky." The bear image appears in the story that Angela tells when she visits Abel in the hospital. Benally also tells a bear story. On his death bed, Francisco, Abel’s grandfather, remembers the good bear hunt of his youth. The killing accomplished with the appropriate ceremonies shows the harmony and unity of heaven and earth, humans and animals, in the "house made of dawn."

When considering the book through an astronomical lens, it seems significant that the story begins in July when the sun has already turned toward its winter place and ends in February when the winter solstice is past and the sun is moving again towards spring. In the Prologue the dawn runner seems to be in stasis; one might even argue that he has reached a time of solstice: "Against the winter sky and the long, light landscape of the valley at dawn, he seemed almost to be standing still, very little and alone" (2). Abel’s run at the end is marked by motion, as though, like the sun, he has begun his journey back towards life: "All of his being was concentrated in the sheer motion of running on" (212). By the end of the book, Abel is ready to perform the appropriate ceremony for his grandfather’s death and to pick up the unbroken beat of the drums by running into the dawn, to draw power from the sun and to lend his power to the sun for the continuation of the eternal race.                                                                                                                                                                                                            
                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Ceremony--Leslie Marmon Silko

Biographical Information

Leslie Marmon Silko is of mixed ancestry: Laguna, Mexican and white. She studied at the University of New Mexico and taught there for a time. She received a MacArthur Foundation grant to pursue her writing. He writing incorporates prose and poetry, folklore and modern issues. Her most recent work is Gardens in the Dunes (Simon & Schuster, 1999). See the following web site for excellent links to more information about Silko: http://omni.cc.purdue.edu/~njpete/Silko.

Summary

Tayo, a mixed-blood character who was raised in his aunt’s house, returns to his pueblo from World War II mentally and physically ill. His cousin, Rocky, was killed in the war and Josiah, his uncle died while he was away. Tayo feels responsible for both deaths. He spends a lot of time drinking with his buddies and telling war stories. One war buddy, Emo, is particularly twisted, and he and Tayo had a run-in soon after they returned. An old medicine man, Ko’oosh treats Tayo, but suspects that there is more wrong than he can cure. Tayo offers to begin helping out his Uncle Robert with the ranch work and they plan to get back the spotted cattle that were stolen from Josiah during the war.

Robert takes him to Gallup where he meets Betonie, a mixed-blood medicine man. Betonie makes a sand painting and tells Tayo he must find a woman, a mountain, the cattle, and the pattern of stars in the painting to complete the ceremony. When Tayo goes up the mountain to round up the stolen cattle, he sees the star pattern in the sky. He discovers that a woman has corralled the cattle for him. Later on, when Tayo returns to the ranch, he finds the woman has already set up camp there. They spend the summer together, she collecting plants, he tending the cattle. Finally, Robert arrives and tells Tayo that Emo has started rumors about him, that it is time to go back home.

On the way home, Tayo is met on the road by his friends Leroy and Harley. Thinking that the "witchery" must not extend to friends, he goes with them, getting so drunk he passes out. When he wakes, he realizes he is in danger, and he begins to run with the sun. He rests at an abandoned uranium mine and recognizes that everything is connected: the uranium from this mine went into the bomb that killed the Japanese that killed Rocky. Fearful of discovery, Tayo hides in a culvert. His friends arrive and Emo proceeds to torture Harley gruesomely. Tayo uses all his newfound understanding to resist the impulse to participate in the hatred by killing Emo. He heads for home, crossing the river at sunrise on the day of the autumn equinox.

Tayo tells his story to the men in the kiva. Harley and Leroy are found dead in the wrecked truck. Pinkie is killed by Emo, who is banished. Grandma comments that she thinks she’s heard these stories before. The witchery is "dead for now," and the sun rises, greeted by a prayer.

Reflections of the Cosmos (See chart of Sun/Moon/Star references)

As Momaday does in House Made of Dawn, Silko weaves together the Pueblo solar calendar with the star lore of the Navajo in Ceremony. Like Abel, Tayo comes home from the war alienated, suffering from "war sickness." Also like Abel, the completion of a ceremony indicates his reintegration to his society. Like House Made of Dawn, Ceremony begins and ends with a sunrise and emphasizes the creative power of the word. Silko, however, suggests that the ceremonies must change in order for the people to survive. The culture must not become stagnant.

Tayo’s connection with the solar calendar is absolutely clear in the context of the story. Tayo returns home in "late February" and the story begins in "late May" as the pueblo is experiencing a drought (11). The books ends at the next year’s autumn equinox when "a transition was about to be completed: the sun was crossing the zenith to a winter place in the sky" (247). The traditional story of how the animal people work together to break the bad magic and bring the rains back to the land mirrors Tayo’s own story of breaking the power of the bad magic over himself. Tayo’s meeting with Old Betonie, a mixed-blood medicine man, sets him on a quest to find the spotted cattle, a woman, a particular pattern of stars, and a mountain. The star pattern appears later on an old shield Tayo discovers in the woman’s cabin and the cabin is on the mountain where he finds the missing cattle. The star pattern Betonie draws includes the Pleiades. According to Peggy Beck in The Sacred, "The Pleiades star group occurs on some Navajo rattles used in various curing of-the-ill ceremonies" (87).

Embedded in Tayo’s story is the traditional story of The Gambler who has captured Orion and the Pleiades and is keeping them in a bag. Spider Woman gives her son, Sun Man, the secret for setting the stars free. These are the stars Tayo sees in late September, the stars that provide "the pattern of the ceremony" and "the constellation [that] formed a map of the mountains in the directions he had gone for the ceremony" (247). To complete the ceremony, Tayo goes to the kiva and tells the story of his return. In this sense, Tayo’s return follows the archetypal pattern of the hero who not only travels to the underworld, but who shares his knowledge for the good of his people when he returns. This reinforces Silko’s point about the need for ceremonies to be able to change in order not to lose their power. The circle of Tayo’s healing journey is closed with a sunrise song.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Teaching the Unit

Essential Question (Students will be expected to answer this question at the end of the unit.)
How does our relationship with the physical world reflect or impact the structures of our lives?
Target group
This unit is designed to be part of an American literature course at the junior level in high school. Students will be members of an Advanced Placement English class, but the unit could be adapted to fit any ability level, possibly by reducing the number of readings or changing the pace.
Time Frame
This unit will take approximately three weeks of classroom time to complete. Students will need at least three weeks to read outside of class. They will receive their assigned text at least two weeks before instruction begins. Astronomy lessons will take one week. One week will be devoted to collaborative in-depth study of the novel and preparation to present information and insights to the whole class. The last week will be used to share and synthesize the reading experiences.

Objectives

• Students will read traditional stories of Native Americans.
• Students will consider the role of astronomy in the cultures discussed.
• Students will demonstrate an understanding of the cycles and movement of the sun, moon, and stars.
• Students will be able to identify the following constellations on a star chart and provide evidence of having observed them in the night sky: Orion, the Pleiades, the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper.
• Students will read a novel focused on pueblo life through the lens of cultural awareness, including references to the sun, moon, and stars.
• Students will examine ways in which the structures of these novels reflect the Native world view.

Procedure
Unit Overview

Students will choose one of three books to read: The Man Who Killed the Deer, House Made of Dawn, Ceremony. They will read their chosen text independently, keeping a dialectical journal as they read. They will be instructed to look for astronomical references in the text and to comment on their possible significance and potential connection to the cultures we are exploring in class.

In class, we will read stories of various peoples that reflect their concern with the sun, moon, and stars. We will document what we know about the movement of the sun, moon, and stars. Students will receive instruction regarding the sun-watching practices of the Anasazi. The astronomy lessons will be discussed in terms of the stories and poems from the oral tradition.

Upon completion of the reading, students will meet with the others who read the book, have an in-depth discussion of the structural elements they perceived, and determine what they wish to share with the rest of the class about their text. Students will receive guidelines for their presentations.

Students will prepare a multimedia presentation about their findings. Each group will have one class period in which to share with and instruct the rest of the students. Time will be saved at the end of each of these periods to make connections with the other novels and their patterns, structures and links to astronomy.

The following day(s) will be used to debrief the presentations, to synthesize information and to prepare for a writing assignment which springs from the evidence and information the students present.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
Materials Required

• Student copies of House Made of Dawn, Ceremony, The Man Who Killed the Deer.
• Star chart(s)
• markers and newsprint or other large paper for recording group responses
• Selected stories for illustrating astronomical aspects of native cultures (see student resources in bibliography).

Lesson Plans

Two to three weeks in advance:

Hand out copies of the selected texts. Student may choose or be assigned one of the three books. Ideally, there will be no more than eight students reading a particular book.

Assign eight dialectical journal entries (see sample at end)--six of these entries should relate to a passage that seems to have astronomical significance. The reading and the journal entries should be done before beginning the unit. Students may need some additional guidance with their reading, especially with Ceremony and House Made of Dawn since the treatment of time in these texts is nonlinear and can be confusing.

Beginning the Unit
Day 1: Introduction and Sun Watching                                                                                                                                                                

Ask students to do a timed writing (five minutes) in their journals commenting on the possible significance of astronomical elements in the novel they read. Encourage them to write down questions they may have about the references they encountered.

Follow up with a brief discussion of students’ observations and comments. Use this discussion as a springboard to introduce the concept of horizon calendars and the solstices.

Students should be able to approximate the position of the sun on an imaginary horizon through the course of a solar year (Refer to Zeilik’s Interactive Lesson Guide for Astronomy, "Sunrise Points" 27-28).

Closure: Read "Dawn House Song" in The Earth Under Sky Bear’s Feet and one of these others: "How the People Came to the Middle Place" in American Indian Mythology, "How the Sun Came," or "First Tale" from Spider Woman Stories.

Homework: Watch the sunset and be able to describe the current appearance of the moon (noting the location of the moon in the sky and the time you made your observation) when you come to class tomorrow.

Day 2: Moon Watching

Allow students to compare their observations of the sunset and moon. Use this discussion to introduce the motion and cycle of the moon. In pairs, students should be able to physically demonstrate the movement of the moon around the earth and its position in relation to the sun at each phase of its cycle.

Closure: Read "The Emergence" of the Tewa of Arizona in Tewa Tales (Parsons) or "Moon and His Sister" in Star Tales (Mayo).

Homework: Look up at the stars tonight. Stand facing the north and see if you can find the Big Dipper. Find a parent or someone else to help you if you don’t have a clue where or what this constellation is.

Day 3: Stars

Using a star chart (three to four poster sized charts would be nice), have students work in teams to find the following constellations and transfer the patterns to their journals (they should try to keep the relative positions intact when they transfer the patterns): The Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, the Pleiades, Orion’s belt, the Milky Way.

Closure: Read the "gambler poem" from Ceremony (pp. 170-176).

Homework: Explain that in The Man Who Killed the Deer the constellation referred to as the Deer includes the Pleiades. Ask students to see if they can first find the Pleiades and then add to their journal diagram (in another color) the stars they observe that might complete the constellation. For extra credit they can transfer this sketch to a separate page show the stars clearly and create an artistic rendering of the Deer showing where the stars they’ve plotted appear on the Deer’s body.

Day 4-5: Sky Stories and the Oral Tradition                                                                                                                                                

In groups of four or five, students will read a "sky story," a tale from a native culture that includes references to the sun, moon or stars. In this first group, they will need to learn the story well enough to be able to tell the basic events from memory to a new group the next day. The selection of stories listed in the student resources section should be readily available at your public library. The next day, students will be regrouped so that a member from all the other groups is in the new group (expert jigsaw). Students will take turns telling their tales to the new group members.

Closure: As time permits, have students comment on similarities and differences among the stories.

Homework: Think about how all the things we’ve done this week may or may not apply to your novel. Come prepared to discuss the importance of the astronomical elements in your novel.

Day 6-9: Expert Groups

Students will meet with others who read the same novel as they. They will receive a worksheet of questions to guide their discussion (see attached). Students should complete two items on the worksheet each day. By Day 9 students should be able to synthesize their conversation to complete the statements at the end of the worksheet.

Day 10-11 Planning the Presentation to the Class

Still meeting with their now expert group, students will decide what they think the rest of the class ought to know about this novel. They must present as much of the information they have accumulated as possible in a creative and fun way. Each group will have one class period to present. The presentation should include a focus activity, the presentation of information (the 400 word summary of the novel is required), a class-involvement activity, and a review of key points. Depth of knowledge, efficiency and interest of presentation, and creativity will be considered in evaluation. Students may create handouts, posters, visual aids, demonstrations. It will help the students if the teacher prepares a simple checklist or matrix rubric of required elements of the presentations so that students can prepare well.

Students will also prepare for a Protagonist Panel where the main characters from each of the novels will meet to share their experiences. The groups will submit four questions for the other protagonists on index cards by the end of the period on Day 10.

Day 12: Protagonist Panel                                                                                                                                                                                        

The students chosen to impersonate their main character will be seated on a panel, but they may receive help from their groupmates when the discussion begins. The teacher or another student will present the questions (twelve in all), rotating which protagonist answers first. (Tayo will answer question 1 first, Martiniano will answer question 2 first, and so on). A time keeper will limit responses to one minute for each question. Debrief at end of period as time allows.

Day 13-15: Assessment

Group presentations: Students in the audience may be given a copy of the teacher-made evaluation rubric to complete at the end of each period for the group who presented. Students will be asked to comment on the performance of other students in their group.

Final Assessment: Students will write an essay on their novel using one of the following prompts. The essay may be assigned as an in-class essay on Day 16 or as a homework assignment due the following week.

Essay prompts: (These will be evaluated using a version of the Advanced Placement nine point scoring guide).

1. Consider how the essential question applies to the main character of the novel your read: How does his relationship with the physical world reflect or impact the structures of his life?
2. A common theme in literature is the reintegration of an alienated hero. Discuss how this theme appears in the novel you read. Provide beautiful sentences and persuasive specific evidence.
3. Some critics argue that a book is a work of art that should be able to stand on its own. Others say that context is everything. How important is it to have some understanding of the culture(s) that produced this novel? What might you have missed? What needed no cultural context to have an impact on you?
4. How is this novel like or unlike other works you have read? Choose a book you know well and consider the kinds of similarities or differences between that book and this one (structure, character, plot, setting, and so forth).

Other Activities

1. Have students begin a horizon calendar well in advance of the unit Use these calendars for the opening discussion on the solar cycle.
2. Name that constellation (students will find their own pattern in the stars, name the constellation and write a brief story/myth to account for how/why that pattern is in the sky). These writing could be examined in terms of revealing what the writer values, where he/she lives, the essentials of survival, and so forth.
3. Create a pictograph for each significant event in the text or in the student’s own life.
4. Students might be asked to write a comparative paper drawing on the myths and poetry to compare themes and elements to the text they have read in depth.
5. Students may be given a formal reading quiz and/or final test over their particular text.

Sun/ Moon/Star References in the Novels
Sun/Solar Year References in The Man Who Killed the Deer                                                                                                                                   

Moon References in The Man Who Killed the Deer

Star References in The Man Who Killed the Deer                                                                                                                                                    

Sun/Solar Year References in House Made of Dawn                                                                                                                                            

Moon References in House Made of Dawn                                                                                                                                                                 

Star References in House Made of Dawn                                                                                                                                                          

Sun/Solar Year References in Ceremony                                                                                                                                               

Moon References in Ceremony                                                                                                                                                                      

Star References in Ceremony

Sample Dialectic                                                                                                                                                                                            

Directions: Choose a passage that you find interesting, beautiful, or challenging. Copy the passage (no more than two or three sentences) onto the left side of your paper. Then record your thoughts on the right side. Try to give evidence of at least three of the five habits of good readers: questioning, clarifying, connecting, predicting, evaluating.

Guided Discussion Worksheet for (title)___________________________                                                                                                    

Group Members: ______________________________________________

As you meet with each other this week, work through the items on this page, keeping an accurate record of your discussion. These items should NOT be parceled out and done by a single individual--every member must be able to adequately justify the group’s choices. We are all one in this effort.

1. Write a 400 word summary of the novel. Be as concise and compact in your final product as you can be.
2. Select four or six significant passages from your novel (use your dialectics) that contain references to the sun, the moon, or the stars. Briefly explain why they are significant.
3. Does it appear that the author was aware of the traditional astronomy of his/her people?
4. Find four examples of things that are said or done in groups of four.
5. Discuss the character of your protagonist. What are his problems, hopes, desires, dreams? How does he go about solving his problems? What is his worst/best moment? How does he fit into the community? Choose one of your group to impersonate your main character in a panel discussion. You may use notes.
6. Examine the patterns and movement in the novel. Is there repetition? Is the movement linear or cyclical? Give examples.
7. Choose one of the patterns below (or make your own) that best applies to your novel. (See Page 27) Label the parts in a way that makes sense to you and that you can explain readily to someone who has not read the book.
8. Complete (and justify your manner of completion) the following sentences:

1. This novel is about ____________________________________.
2. The author wants us to understand __(what about what)__________________.
3. The four most significant events in the novel are _____________. (Be prepared to justify).
4. This novel reflects Native American culture in these ways: (name at least two)____________________. You will use these materials to prepare a presentation for the class.
                                                                                                                                                                                                

Bibliography and Resources

Student Resources

Archaeoastronomy                                                                                                                                                                                  

N. Scott Momaday                                                                                                                                                                               

Leslie Silko                                                                                                                                                                                            

Frank Waters

                                                                                                       Navajo Astronomy                                                                                                          

An Understanding of the Cosmos

The purpose of this research is to explore Navajo Astronomy, and then a unit plan / lesson plan will be developed. This curriculum will then be made available to the Albuquerque Public Schools (APS) Indian Education Unit (IEU). It will add to the developing Native American Studies (NAS) curriculum guide. The NAS curriculum is designed to address esteem, literacy, and math components of the District Core Curriculum Scope and Sequence (DCCSS).

My purpose is for students to relate to the constellations and the cosmos from an intimate or personal experience through the teachings many of the Native American students may have been exposed to from extended family members or elders. Intergenerational learning is a typical Native American method of traditional teaching. By validating traditional teaching we are validating the Native American student. Meaningful learning is often more effective if the student can relate to it from an identifiable cultural context.

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