Interpreting the Night Sky
Not everyone looks at the night sky in the same way. Science Moab talks with Autumn Gillard, the Cultural Resource Manager for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, who shares her passion for the night sky influenced by her grandmother’s teachings. We discuss the importance of the night sky in Southern Paiute culture, including its influence on traditional stories, dances, agricultural methods, and ecological knowledge. The conversation touches on the cultural differences in interpreting celestial bodies among various tribes and Western astronomy and the significance of winter storytelling. Autumn emphasizes preserving and passing down this knowledge through storytelling, mentorship programs, and community outreach events, and advocates for recognizing the scientific contributions of Indigenous people.
Meet the Scientist: Autumn Gillard
Autumn is a maternal descendant of the Cedar Band of Paiutes, which is a part of the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah. She is the daughter of the late Delphina Edmo member of the Cedar Band of Paiutes, she is the granddaughter of Nola Zuniga member of the Cedar Band of Paiutes and is the great granddaughter of Nober Zuniga also a member of the Cedar Band of Paiutes. She also shares a Ute and Shoshone Bannock heritage. Autumn graduated from Southern Utah University magnum cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology minor in Psychology. She is currently working on a master’s degree from New Mexico Highlands University in Cultural Resource Management. She is the Cultural Resource Manager for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah.
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Interview Excerpt - Wintertime Stories
Science Moab talks with Autumn Gillard, the Cultural Resource Manager for the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, who shares her passion for the night sky influenced by her grandmother’s teachings. Autumn emphasizes preserving and passing down this knowledge through storytelling, mentorship programs, and community outreach events, and advocates for recognizing the scientific contributions of Indigenous people.
Science Moab: I’d love to have you describe how you came to develop your love for the night sky.
Gillard: So I first Fell in love with the night sky as a child with cultural teachings that were taught to me by my grandma, particularly about the planet Venus and Venus’s significant connection to the sun dance ceremony.
Science Moab: How does the night sky influence the lives of Paiute in particular?
Gillard: The night sky influences lifestyle in many different facets, but definitely connects us to our traditional stories, some of our traditional songs and dances, as well as traditional agricultural methods. It is our connection to traditional ecological knowledge, which is great nowadays because through the traditional view, we’re able to teach and intertwine westernized science or westernized astronomy into traditional astronomy skills.
The Southern Paiute were some of the first scientists here in the continents that became the Americas. And that it was through their innovation and their intelligence that they were able to live in these environments for so long.
Science Moab: As a Southern Paiute, do you think your interpretation of the sky differs from other tribes, say, in the Southwest on the Colorado Plateau?
Gillard: It’s always important to understand that with tribes, though we’re all Native American, we’re very unique and distinct in our cultural views and in our tribal views.
For me, when I look up at the night sky, I’m going to see it and interpret it in a different way than, let’s say, somebody from, you know, The Hopi Nation would. There are also different cultural constraints within different tribes of who can look at the sky, when is it appropriate to look at the sky, and is it even appropriate sometimes to talk about the celestial objects up there?
Science Moab: You mentioned that sometimes you don’t talk about certain objects in the sky, and I understand that you don’t discuss stories related to constellations outside of wintertime. Why is that?
Gillard: As Southern Paiutes, lots of our stories connect us to animals and plants and mountains and riverways. And during the wintertime, we believe that Mother Earth is resting. She’s in a nice deep sleep. Solitude and it’s a very serene time. And because of that, we are able to recite the stories out loud. I think that it’s also a nod to how communal we are and how our bands originally would take advantage of the winter season by being with one another and snuggling down and telling stories.
Science Moab: What are some key constellations that have very different stories that the Southern Paiute have passed down for generations that you especially gravitate to?
Gillard: My most favorite story that not only relates to winter, but to a constellation, is about Cygnus. For us Southern Paius, instead of Cygnus being a swan, Cygnus is a duck, and he is referred to as Chukach.
And in our stories, uh, that we’re telling about Chukach and how he became the constellation. It’s very unique and it’s pretty special to me. My grandma had taught it to me and she had told me that when humans could talk to animals and when duck was more active, that lots of the other animals were jealous of him [00:11:00] because he had the most beautiful regalia, the most beautiful colors, and he had the best dance moves. So one day the ducks are dancing outside of their house and nosy mischievous coyote comes along and he’s watching them dance and he’s getting a grumbling stomach. As they’re dancing around, he’s batting them on the head and tying them on his belt.
Then comes one last duck that realizes, I’m all by myself, so he tries to run from the coyote, but the coyote ends up getting a hold of him. As coyote shakes him around and throws him up in the air as his food, Creator grabs him and throws him in the sky and turns him into the constellation Cygnus.
So the duck sits at the edge of the Milky Way, guiding Southern Paiutes. But after Coyote does this, it starts to snow and it’s big, huge, fat, fluffy snowflakes that are falling really silently. So in the winter, when we see that type of snow, we’re always reminded of duck and the sacrifice he gave to become the constellation.
Science Moab: You mentioned passing knowledge of the night sky on, and you were fortunate to have your grandmother that passed this knowledge on to you. Is there a specific way that this knowledge is being passed to future generations? Is it just by storytelling or something else?
Gillard: Definitely by storytelling, but something that I’ve really tried to do with our youth is hire tribal interns for me to mentor, to teach the information, but also doing public outreach with our tribal community, whether if that’s a star party or a presentation.
I think that it’s important that the information continues on because for a long time, Southern Paiute information wasn’t talked about much, and a lot of people didn’t realize that Southern Paiute people are some of the first astronomers on the Colorado Plateau.
