A Nightly Game of Celestial Proportions: The Winter Solstice and the Chumash

My research paper for my Ancient Astronomies class was all about the Astronomy of the Chumash Indians of southern California.  I had originally planned on sharing each section of the paper in order here on the blog, but since today is the winter solstice, I thought I would skip ahead a few posts and share a bit about the Chumash in regards to the solstice a little early.  Don't worry, we will come back and revisit it later once we talk more about the Chumash, but for now, here is the excerpt from my paper, slightly edited to make it easier to understand with our current level of knowledge.

One thing that was very important for the Chumash was a nightly game played by several of the celestial beings that were very important to them. The game was called peon, and when played by the two celestial teams, it was a high-stakes game indeed, as the game was thought to affect the “future of the entire biotic world.” One team consisted of Sun and Slo’w (Golden Eagle, Venus as the Evening Star), while the other team consisted of Sky Coyote and Morning Star (Venus when it rises before the Sun), and Moon was the scorekeeper. The teams played each night, and on the night of the Winter Solstice, the scores were tallied to see who won the most. If Sky Coyote and Morning Star won, then the following year the earth would be bathed in rain by the Two Thunders (associated with Venus as the Morning Star), and there would be an abundance of food. However, if Sun and Slo’w won, then the “spoils would be human lives.”

The Winter Solstice was not a fun day for the Chumash. This was the time of year that they believed “Sun was especially angry at them.” Although it does not explicitly say in the text, it seems as if humans would have reason to fear regardless of whether Sun won or lost the peon game. If Sun won, then human lives were forfeit; if Sun lost, then he would probably be fairly unhappy, and might take out his anger upon humans. 

The Winter Solstice was also thought to be a time when the supernatural powers inherent within humans was needed “to aid in the cosmic rebirth of the universe.” The shaman-priests of the Chumash would do their best to make sure that “order and balance” was restored to the universe, and life “for all things” was maintained. Requests and pleas from both commoners and the elite, as well as public and private rituals, were employed to “'pull’ the sun back again on a northward course."

My paper was several pages longer than the maximum requirement, and I had already made the print really small, so I didn't get a chance to go into a little more detail regarding the last line above, where the Chumash would "pull the sun back again on a northward course."  My astronomy professor, John Stocke, described how the Chumash would point ceremonial poles that were perfectly straight right at the sun, so that the shadow left on the ground was a perfect circle, as small as it could be.  Then, the individuals holding the poles would "pull" as hard as they could, trying to pull the sun back up in the sky.  

Happy Winter Solstice everybody, and let us hope that the Sun does not win!

Works Cited

Altair and Fomalhaut: Cold’s Cottonwood and Big Woman

Recently for my Ancient Astronomy class, I did a brief paper on Native American legends surrounding the stars Altair and Fomalhaut, which are two of the brightest stars in the southern sky of the United States. It is of no surprise that numerous Native American legends have been created surrounding these two stars, and the stars in their direct vicinity.  In the post, I used screenshots from the Stellarium.

One of these constellations is what the Greeks referred to as Aquila or the Eagle.  Within Aquila is a line of three stars that is often referred to as the head of the eagle or the head of Aquila, consisting of Altair and the two stars on either side: Alshain and Tarazed. These three stars are in a line that is fairly straight, and has led to many interesting myths.

One myth comes from the Maricopans, a tribe native primarily to southern Arizona. For the Maricopans, the head of Aquila was called “Cold’s Cottonwood,” a constellation that would appear in the sky at dawn in January, “when the yellow blossoms appear on the cottonwoods.” The flowering part of the cotton plant, known as a catkin, does resemble the stars in the head of Aquila.

Another myth is the Coeur d’Alene story of a trio of people running in a race, which is represented by “three stars in a row.” A good candidate for this constellation is the head of Aquila, as Orion’s Belt (a much brighter trio of stars in a row) is thought to have been a bark canoe.

While Altair was an important star for some tribes, for the Klamath of southern Oregon, the star Fomalhaut is more prevalent in their stories. “Kai,” or “Rabbit,” was said to be a star that would appear in the southeastern sky before the sun rose in May and June, and was supposed to be able to “freeze the lake by looking at it.” Fomalhaut, which not only can be seen in the southeast just before dawn in May and June, is also the brightest star in that particular area of the sky, making it a very likely candidate for Kai. Numerous other tribes had stories surrounding Fomalhaut as well, such as the Luiseño, who called Fomalhaut “Nawiwit Chawachwish” and believed that this star was a great chief who “went to the sky” after he died; and the Northern Paiute, whose star “Big Woman,” or “Paba’i-yü-mogo’tni,” also fits the description of Fomalhaut.

Sources:

Miller, Dorcas S. Stars of the First People: Native American Star Myths and Constellations. Westwinds Press, 1997. (accessed December 7, 2013).