Field Museum

Look at the slides of the night sky. Choose one image that stands out to you. Use the See, Think, Wonder strategy in the next section to explore the images. 

See, Think, Wonder: Night Sky Images

 Listen to a Live Sky Show introducing the night sky, stars, constellations, and storytelling.

Live Sky Show

Reflect on your own experience with stars and sky using the graphic organizer provided. 

Engage: Look to the Stars 

Examine the images of the night sky in the previous activity. What is going on? What clues can you find that tell you more about the location, details, and purpose of the image? Write what you can see, what you think about the image, and what you wonder about it. What questions do you have about it? What else do you want to know about it?

See, Think, Wonder: Night Sky Worksheet

The Great Bear Met (he/him) is a living Ancestor, beaded by Karen Ann Hoffman and on display at the Field Museum ini the exhibition Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories

Explore: The Great Bear Hunt

Ancestor Acknowledgement

What is a constellation? 

A constellation is a group or cluster of stars that form a shape or design. There are all kinds of constellations!

Investigate Great Bear Mat, and look for a pattern of stars. Does this pattern or constellation look familiar?

Elaborate: Constellations

Use the sky map to circle your own constellation using the annotation tools. Tell or write the story of the constellation you created. 

Evaluate: Create Your Own Constellation (Digitally)!

Learn new terms and words that you will see in this lesson. Practice using these terms and words!

Indigenous Astronomy: Vocabulary

Write down your thoughts about the story you just heard. If you would like to listen to the story again, see the Additional Resources below. 

Story Reflection

Watch the video of Karen Ann Hoffman talking about Sky Woman. 
Look at the constellations map.
Design your own pattern, tell it's story.
What pattern will you make? 
What story does it tell?

Evaluate: Create Your Own Constellation (On Paper)!

This resource kit centers Indigenous knowledges and star stories. With this toolkit, students will learn of the importance of Sky and Stars to the past, present, and future of Native peoples. Through interactive exploration, multimedia, and Indigenous star stories, students will connect to their own experiences, identities, personal wellness, and to the night sky.

Learn more about the Field Museum's Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories exhibit by following this link: https://www.fieldmuseum.org/exhibitions/native-truths-our-voices-our-stories

 The bear in the Great Bear Hunt story is hunted and does end up dying. Approach this topic in a way that supports your classroom and students. 

Identify and manage one’s emotions and behavior

Recognize personal qualities and external supports

Recognize the feelings and perspectives of others

Recognize individual and group similarities and differences

Use communication and social skills to interact effectively with others

Native Truths: Indigenous Astronomy

Earth and Space Science

Science

Reading: Informational Texts

English Language Arts

Watch the video "The Word Indigenous - explained" by CBC Kids News. The word Indigenous has more than one meaning. 

In this lesson, we use the word Indigenous or Indigenous People to mean the original peoples of North America and their descendants. You may also see the term Native American used in the same way. The word Indigenous is a more inclusive word that can include groups of people from all over the world.

Your relatives or relations who came before you, maybe a parent, grandparents, great grandparents. It could also be someone alive or passed, who left a legacy, cultural or historical impression on you or your community. An Ancestor is someone we have learned from, students and teachers can be ancestors too.

Astronomy in the most basic terms is the study of the stars. Astronomy plays an important role in Native American cultures and Native peoples have been studying the stars for thousands of years. 

"The dots in the middle of this pot are points in time in the moon cycle when rain clouds will arrive. On the left side you see the beak or wing of an eagle. The black at the bottom serves as feathers and rain. We use eagle feathers to send messages to the Cloud People through prayer. So I think the artist is trying to be hopeful that during those moon phases, rain will come.

When you’re looking at a Hopi pot like this one, you can’t just look at the designs, you have to look at the whole thing—maybe its shape reflects the full moon. Our people are moon-watchers and pinpoint time this way, so the lighter and darker parts of the pot depict a moon at its halfway point."

- Stewart B. Koyiyumptewa, a member of the Hopi Tribe and the Badger clan. 

A group of stars forming a recognizable pattern. Over time, these patterns were given meaning in the form of cultural stories or symbol.

Image: Constellations map on a rectangle showing stars by magnitude, asterisms, constellation borders, ecliptic plane, globular and open clusters, Milky Way's center, celestial and ecliptic poles.

Small fragments of dust-like material found in space. Most of the elements of our bodies were formed in stars over the course of billions of years and multiple star lifetimes.

Captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in 2011, this image of the North America Nebula shows a cluster of young stars (about one million years old). The nebula gets its name from having a shape similar to the North American continent. © NASA/JPL-Caltech


Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Native Truths: Indigenous Astronomy

Indigenous Astronomy: Vocabulary

Background Knowledge

Indigenous People