“I have just gone over my comet computations again, and it is humiliating to perceive how very little more I know than I did seven years ago when I first did this kind of work.”
~ Maria Mitchell, 19th century American Astronomer
Sun and Moon Size -- A Coincidence?
To the Maya of the modern Lake Amatitlán communities, the lake has a longstanding tradition as a sacred place. During Pre-Columbian times, according to legend (see Borhegyi 1959:237-38, Suzanne de Borhegyi 1961), a carved stone figure known as Jefe Dios occupied a hilltop on the north shore of the lake. One night in the 17th century, during a violent hailstorm and earthquake, the figure disappeared. In the morning, the small, painted wooden statue of the Santo Niño, the Christ Child, stood at the water's edge at the base of the cliff.
Wild rice is not a true rice, but rather a cereal grass -- Zizania aquatica -- which grows in shallow lakes and streams. It ripens in late summer, usually from the middle of August to early September. Native people in the Great Lakes boiled rice and ate it with corn, beans, or squash. Meat, a small amount of grease, or maple sugar was often added for seasoning. As a treat, it was occasionally parched like popcorn.
Oral traditions of the Potawatomi, Ojibwe, and Ottawa assert that at one time all three tribes were one people who lived at the Straits of Mackinac. From there, they split off into three separate groups, and the Potawatomi were "Keepers of the Sacred Fire." As such, they were the leading tribe of the alliance the three Indian nations formed after separating from one another.
“The Harvest Moon glows round and bold, in pumpkin shades outlined in gold.”
~ Richelle Goodrich, American Author
Harvest Moon Effect
Imagine there was a full moon every night. A starry night sky would not be as spectacular, unfortunately, but there would be less need for streetlights. We’d probably have more songs and poems about the moon.
Aztalan was first discovered by Europeans in the fall of 1835 by early Wisconsin Territory settler Timothy Johnson of Watertown. Upon hearing stories of the site, Judge Nathaniel Hyer, a Milwaukee settler, visited. His description, the first at-length published account of Aztalan, appeared in the Milwaukee Advertiser, Volume One, Number 29 on Saturday, February 25th, 1837. In this account, Judge Hyer also produced the first rudimentary map of the site.
“That once a year, by hand or apparatus
Although the Plains Indians had no written language in which to record their history, they did have a long tradition of preserving oral histories pictorially. For centuries, Plains Indian men kept historical records of their tribes, first with petroglyphs and pictographs on rock walls, and then painted on buffalo hides.
“Do not look at stars as bright spots only.