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Star Lore: Big Dipper (Ursa Major)
Bear And The Three Hunters
Meskwaki Legend
The Mesquakie tribe are members of the Sac and Fox Nation. The tribe members today refer to themselves as Meskwaki, which means The People of Red Earth. They are of the Algonquian language-speaking group. About 7,000 years ago they settled in the area which is now Ontario, in Central Canada. When a devastating drought took place they migrated south to just east of Michigan and resettled along the Saint Lawrence River. Wars and exposure to new diseases forced them west to an area around Saginaw Bay in Michigan. From there they migrated on to Wisconsin, where they gained control of the Fox River system, which was a vital route for the fur trade.
By the end of the Second Fox War of 1728, their numbers had dwindled from about 10,000 when in Ontario, to 500. Finding shelter with the Sac people, the Meskwaki grew in numbers again and spread through southern Wisconsin and along the Iowa-Illinois border. More struggles, trials, wars and government intervention forced the Sac and Fox (Meskwaki) to Oklahoma.
Through all these struggles, the Meskwaki, like other first peoples of this nation, held on to their culture, traditions, legends, and live with the same courage and strengths that their Ancestors had. One of their Star Lore legends is about Bear, the constellation known as the Big Dipper, or Ursa Major.
If you study the bowl of the constellation, the stars form the shape of the Great Bear. The three stars of the handle are the hunters who pursued Bear. The small star near the elbow of the handle is a small dog belonging to "River that joins Another". The bear suffered wounds from the arrows of the hunters and in the autumn of the year the leaves on trees receive the blood of Bear, which turns them red and brown.
This version of the legend comes from William Jones' 1907 collection of Mesquakie stories:
It is said that once on a time long ago in the winter, at the beginning of the season of snow after the first fall of snow, three men went on a hunt for game early on a morning. Upon a hillside into a place where the bush was thick a bear they trailed. One of the men went in following the trail of the bear. And then he started it up running. "Towards the place whence comes the cold is he speeding away!" he said to his companions.
He then headed off on the side which lay towards the source of the cold, "In the direction of the place of the noonday sky is he running!" he said.
Back and forth amongst themselves they kept the bear fleeing. They say that after a while he that was coming up behind chanced to look down at the ground. Behold, green was the surface of the earth lying face up! Now of a truth up into the sky were they conveyed by the bear! When round about the bush they were chasing it then truly was the time that up into the sky they went. And then he that came up behind cried out to him that was next ahead: "O River-that-joins-Another, let us go back! We are being carried up into the sky!" Thus said he to River-that-joins-Another. But by him was he not heeded.
Now River-that-joins-Another was he who ran in between the two, and a little puppy Hold-Tight he had for a pet.
In the autumn they overtook the bear, then they slew it. After they had slain it, then boughs of the oak they cut, likewise boughs of the sumac, then laying the bear on top of the leaves they flayed and cut up the bear; after they had flayed and cut it up, then they began slinging and scattering the meat in every direction. Towards the place of the coming of the morning they flung the head; in the winter-time when the morning is about to appear some stars usually rise; it is said that they came from the head of the bear. And also his backbone, towards the place of the morning they flung it too. They too are commonly seen in the winter-time; they are stars that lie huddled close together; it is said that they came from the backbone.
And they say that these four stars in the lead were the bear, and the three stars at the rear were they who were chasing after the bear. In between two of them is a tiny little star, it hangs near by another; they say that it was the puppy, the pet Hold-Tight of River-that-joins-Another.
Every autumn the oaks and sumacs redden in the leaf because it is then that the hunters lay the bear on top of the leaves and flay and cut it up; then red with blood become the leaves. Such is the reason why every autumn red become the leaves of the oaks and sumacs.
That is the end of the story.
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