John Stocke

Native American Skies

Join Dr. John Stocke at 7:00pm Wednesday evening September 14th for an “Arts and Culture Week” presentation of “Native American Skies”, the view of the sky as seen by the people of three Western US tribes.

Dr. Stocke, a CU-Boulder professor of Astrophysical & Planetary Sciences, will use the multi-media capabilities of the Fiske Planetarium, and its vintage Zeiss star projector, to examine traditional star knowledge of the Lakota, Pueblo and Navajo peoples. The Lakota and Pueblo traditions chronicle the beautiful and ingenious methods used by ancestral members of
those tribes to keep an accurate calendar and time their religious ceremonies.

Constellation myths, including the Navajo story for the creation of the stars, will also be presented. Much of the Navajo presentation comes from a research project conducted several years ago by Dr. Stocke and two Navajo hatalii (“singers” or medicine men) under the auspices of the Navajo Cultural Center located at Dine’ College, Tsaile AZ on the Navajo
Reservation. An introduction to the traditional lives and art of the Navajo people will also be presented, including examples of their exquisite weavings and their ceremonial dry (or sand) paintings.

Wednesday September 14th at 7:00 PM at Fiske Planetarium, Regent Drive, On the University of Colorado at Boulder campus. Admission is FREE.

For more information about Fiske Planetarium and other shows and programs it offers, call (303) 492-5002 or visit the Web site at http://fiske.colorado.edu