ETHNOASTRONOMY OF THE LAKOTA
Dr. Mark Hollabaugh
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Normandale Community College
Bloomington, Minnesota 55431




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The Lakota, like other Native American peoples, had names for the lunar months and the stars and constellations.  Lakota Month Names summarizes the various names used for the lunar months.  Some of these sources are difficult to access.  Lakota Star Names summarizes both contemporary star names (given by Goodman) and traditional star names compiled by Buechel.

 

Milky Way And Fallen Star from:  James LaPointe, Legends of the Lakota , Indian Historian Press, San Francisco, 1976, ISBN 0-913436-26-7.

"The Sun-Dance of the Sioux ," Frederick Schwatka, Century Magazine , New York, 1889-1890 Volume 39, pp. 753-759.  
     In June of 1875, a great Sun Dance was held near the present airport for city of Chadron, Nebraska.  Fortunately, Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka, an Army officer, observed this dance.  His flowery language, very politically incorrect today, was typical of that era.  The Oglala at the Agency near Fort Robinson, 20 miles to the southwest, joined forces with the Brulé from the Spotted Tail Agency, about 20 miles to the northeast on Beaver Creek. The Full Moon was on 18 June 1875, three days before the solstice.  An hour before sunrise , Venus, the Morning Star and brightest celestial object that morning, was a mere 8° above the east-northeast horizon.  Saturn, brighter than any nearby star, was 32° above the southern horizon.  Mars, hovering on the southwest horizon, was probably too low to be seen. Schwatka reports a sun watching practice that is similar to native American groups in the southwest.  In the works of Edward Curtis, there is a photo of a Lakota man that he titles "Invocation".  We might surmise this is similar to what Schwatka observed.  Schwatka participated in the Battle of the Rosebud and he is mentioned in the diaries of John Bourke.


The Sun-Dance of the Sioux , George W. Hill, 1875.  Hill was an officer with the 22nd United States Infantry at Fort Sully, Dakota Territory.  Fort Sully was located near Pierre, the present capitol of South Dakota.  Hill probably observed this Sun Dance in 1866 around May 29 when the moon was full. (Darcy Paige, "George W. Hill's Account of the Sioux Sun Dance of 1866." Plains Anthropologist , 24, 1979, pp. 99-112.)  This is my transcription of a copy in the archives of the North Dakota Historical Society.