Almost everything the Lakota scholars brought together from elders in the Lakota Star Knowledge book is about observations leading to the summer solstice -- where the sunpath will be at its farthest north, the days are longest, and the Sun Dance is held "when the sun is strongest and the power of growing things is greatest" as Black Elk said, around June 20.

But what of winter? At winter solstice, the nights are long, days shortest. Will the sun stop its southerly travels and return north ever? The sacred circle of stars that represents the Black Hills told the people that Yes, it would. Around the end of December, the sacred circle of stars climbs to the very zenith of the skies -- directly above the viewer around midnight on December 20 -21, and for the week of winter solstice, the longest nights, it rises due east, sets due west, and stands directly overhead with its promise of spring, summer's warmth and good living.

I wasn't aware of this, and it may be the elders no longer know it either, for it is not mentioned in the Star Knowledge book at all. Tjhese winters, people are not out hunting, or sitting out on windlss nights in winter camp, learning star lore. On the inside back cover of the Star Knowledge book is a star map -- unfortunately it printed rather smearily -- that shows all or almost all the Lakota named stars and constellations. The unidentified artist chose a conventional star-finder map and shaded the Lakota constellations to help locate them.

As I examined this map to create a copy of it for these pages, I realized it is a map of the winter stars. Looking at my conventional star-finders, I realized that the artist had chosen to copy a star-finder map that showed almost all the stars discussed in the book simultaneously. Checking, I found that this happens only once a year: in late December, winter solstice. The skies of that season will rotate the sacred circle from eastern rise right to the zenith or center of the sky-dome overhead! It will rise due east, set due west; this happens at no other time of year.

There is no mention of winter solstice ceremonies. (Farming peoples usually have them, to persaude the sun not to stay south, but to begin its journey north again. The Christian Christmas holiday is imposed on the date of an older winter solstice celebration, for example.) Perhaps there were none. Yet it seems likely that if there were a calm, relatively warm clear night during the last week of the year, there was likely an observance of the skies, with these sacred stars directly overhead, from some sheltered place. Perhaps storytelling and star-teaching took place then. Winter solstice is the best time of year for all the Lakota constellations to be observed from rise to set, as well as the sacred circle -- the Racetrack/Black Hills -- at the zenith.

A large starmap (96K) shows all the Lakota constellations shaded in red. Stars important in Lakota philosophy are colored bright yellow.. Other stars are pale whitish yellow. Conventional consatellations are connected in blue. Starsizes have been drawn roughly proportional to magnitudes, (for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd) with stars shown down to the 5th magnitude. The conventional constallations' places are labeled with their names, to help you locate yourself in the skies, using purchased star finders.

This starmap follows the usual starmap convention: east is on the screen left and west the right -- the opposite from paper maps of land. The reason is that starmaps are meant to be visualized as if held overhead, with the top -- north -- pointing north as you face north. You look up at a skymap, opposite of a land map. When you do that or mentally visualize it that way (which you have to train yourself to do) the east-marked side of the map will be on your right, west on your left, the opposite of looking down at a paper map of land.

You can download this map (which is 16-color gif, but also prints legibly in black and white, especially at 600 dpi) and print it locally for a winter solstice observation starguide. You can use the big starmap of the ecliptic sunpath page here to help ID the conventional constellations, but a late December starguide from Sky and Telescope or Astronomy is recommended, see Teaching Resources page for sources.

If you are Lakota, Dakota, Nakota and the skies are clear for the several days around December 20-21, try to make a sky observation away from city lights if possible! This year's winter solstice is quite special in another way: the moon is dark for it, it will wane to a narrow crescent just before the solstice, and wax thereafter. An absent moon means the Milky Way will be visible, traversing the sacred circle northerly. Too, you will probably be able to see ia second-magnitude starlike object that -- now -- is in the former empty center of the Racetrack, corresponding to Old Baldy in the Black Hills ceremonial land map. That's the Crab Nebula -- bright, hot expanding clouds of gas left from a supernova star that exploded in 1054 AD (or rather that's when the light of its initial explsion reached us). It was so bright that for 3 weeks in July of 1054, it was visible in daytime. For many years afterwards, it was by far the brightest object in the sky, though it has gradually faded as the hot gases expand, so now it is not very spectacular -- unless you look at it through a telescope (or certain kinds of good binoculars).

Below is a reduction of the big Lakota December starmap, in which the constellations (shaded red) are numbered. You can't really make out the stars or text labels on it, except for the big red numbers, which are a key to the big starmap. Following this smaller map, here, is a table that gives names, and star-locations. Meanings, in Lakota philosophy, are briefly discussed after that, though this has already been covered for the "Racetrack" sacred circle that mirrors the Black Hills ceremonies and Sun Dances.