A Pawnee brave named Petalesharow in classic headdress. He was painted by Charles B. King.
Click on image for full size
Corel Photography

The Skidi Band of the Pawnee Tribe

The sky and the stars mattered a lot to the Skidi Band of the Pawnee tribe. They thought the stars were gods who acted in the lives of humans. The gods had a certain ranking:
  • 1st - The Red Morning Star Warrior (probably Mars) and the Evening Star (probably Venus)
  • 2nd - The four gods who supported the heavens - they were at NW, NE, SW, SE
  • 3rd - The Sun, the Moon, and then the gods of the four cardinal directions (N, E, S, W)

The Skidi Band decided when to hold certain events by looking at where the stars were in the sky. In fact, the Pawnee drew star charts a long time ago.

The Pawnee people watched the sky and the stars a lot because their mythology and their social and religious practices depended on it.

Last modified September 9, 2000 by Jennifer Bergman.

You might also be interested in:

Cool It! Game

Check out our online store - minerals, fossils, books, activities, jewelry, and household items!...more

Native American Astronomy

People have been living in North America for a long, long time. The first people to live there were the Native Americans. They didn't have clocks or calendars so they watched tides, the Sun, the Moon,...more

Archeoastronomy

Man has always observed the sky. By watching the Sun and Moon, early man could tell what season was coming next. They had to know this to be able to farm and hunt. Archeoastronomy started in the 1960's...more

The Stones of Carnac

The stones of Carnac, France, are very famous because there are a lot of them and because they are so old! The oldest stones found in Carnac are from about 4,500 B.C. That's older than the stones at Stonehenge!...more

The Cairns of Clava

You may have heard of the lake called Loch Ness, where people think they've seen the Loch Ness monster. Near Loch Ness there are three giant stone tombs you may not have heard of...they are called the...more

Cuzco

Cuzco is a city in Peru. It was the capital of the ancient Inca Empire. In ancient times, Cuzco was the center of the Inca road network which was made up of about 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) of roads...more

The Stones of Fossa

The stone rings and tombs of England and France are very famous. But, there are also stone structures in Italy. There are some neat stones in Fossa, Italy. They are standing stones. These stones form circles...more

Kepler's 2nd Law: The Speeds of Planets

Kepler realized that the line connecting the planet and the Sun sweeps out equal area in equal time. Look at the diagram to the left. What Kepler found is that it takes the same amount of time for the...more

Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA