Image Credit: Tyrell Descheney

Constellations In The Night Sky

After days of gathering sacred stones, First Woman and First Man laid out an unharmed deer hide. Scattering the stones all over the hide, they planned out each constellation. Inviting other Holy People to make a constellation in the night sky, they excluded Coyote because they feared he would mess up their perfectly planned ideas.

For four days they laid it all out on the deer skin and told the purpose and story to each constellation. Within those days and nights, Coyote tried figuring out what they were doing. He snuck close enough one night and saw what they were doing. He jumped in and said "you guys are taking forever with this. 4 days and 4 nights is almost up! I'll show you a quicker way!"

He grabbed two corners of the buckskin legs and shook it into the air. The remaining stars flew up and scattered everywhere into the night sky. Everyone there scolded Coyote for what he had done but coyote walked away and said instead they should thank him because he saved them time when they could have done other things as well.

Each constellation has a purpose and story in the sky. Once they were placed, they were told to guide and guard the Navajo people. At one point in time, Navajo's used the stars as Star Gazing. Even down to the shooting stars, it's a bad sign. I was told to never count shooting stars.

Right before World War 1 & 2, Navajo's had seen so many shooting stars fly across the night sky. They knew a war was coming. This was the time when Navajo weavers were advised to weave the Whirling Logs into their rugs for protection