The Hotcâk pantheon has a number of stellar and quasi-stellar spirits which we may term "Celestial Spirits," that play important roles in the divine order of the cosmos. Some are individual stars, while others are whole constellations. Some of the planets, which are thought of as stars, play even more important roles. Rounding out the Celestial Spirits is Wodjidjega who is the embodiment of the spiritual power of comets and shooting stars.

There is a race of spirits known as "Sky Men" who inhabit the heavens. One such being once fell from the sky. He looked like a human being save that his face and hands where pure white and shined. He was taken in by the father of the two sisters who found him. There on earth he awaited the right moment. Then, during a great thunder storm, he was struck by lightning and ascended through the bolt into the heavens whence he had come. [1] A spirit who lived in the sky used to spend the nights sowing the stars in the firmament out of a bundle in which he stored them. He strictly forbade his mortal wife to touch this bundle, but she could not resist looking inside, and when she opened it, a host of stars escaped. This is why there aren't more stars in the heavens today. [2] Despite the sky man's work, once all the stars of the nocturnal vault fell to earth, and had to be reset in the firmament. [3]

Still other stars, belonging to constellations, were cast into the sky to make eternal important relationships that began on earth. When Polaris was about to catch up to the seven virgins and make a meal of them, he was struck down by Earthmaker. Polaris was made into the Pole Star; the seven maidens became the Big Dipper; and the warriors who were supposed to have guarded the maidens were made into the constellation of the Little Dipper so that they would always be between Polaris and the objects of his appetite. [4] Another waikâ says that Polaris married a woman that he found when he was with the Thunderbirds. After killing Polaris' wicked step-father, the young man and his wife lived as hummingbirds. Eventually, they memorialized their relationship by becoming the Pole Star and the Little Dipper respectively. [5] Some constellations commemorate famous events. Once a tribe of witches molested their human neighbors, who called on Turtle to deliver them. Turtle contested the witches in many forms of competition and won every time, so the witches sued for peace. They had to agree not to bother their neighbors again. To commemorate this victory, the council at which the peace was made was set in the heavens, with Turtle as the central star, and the witches forming the surrounding stars. [6]

The Hotcâgara, like the ancients, classified planets as stars. These stars were often deities bound up with other natural phenomena. They often had kinship ties to various kinds of Animal Spirits. "The two little spirits of the sun," the Twins, are stellar brothers of the Chief of the Horses, Big Eater. Five of the other brothers were wolves. [7] It is said that of the ten offspring of the sun and moon, the tenth is the star near the sun that can be seen in daylight (Evening Star?), and the ninth is the star closest to the moon (the Morning Star?). One of the brothers was a Thunderbird, four were Nightspirits, and others were wolves. [8] We are told elsewhere that the ninth offspring of the Sun was Red Star, the tenth was Morning Star. The remaining eight brothers were each a different kind of animal. [9] Another source tells us that Red Star is none other than Bluehorn, the famous headless uncle of the Twins. [10] In the soteriological myth of Bladder and his brothers, the youngest brother is Morning Star, said to be the founder of the Thunderbird Clan; the seventh brother is the founder of the Wolf Clan. [11] He who has Human Heads for Earbobs (Îtcorúcika) or Redhorn, is probably the central star of the belt of Orion (Alnilam (epsilon Orionis)). [12] Redhorn is also Herok'a, a diminutive spirit of the hunt that expresses the spiritual powers of the arrow. He is more closely associated with Thunderbirds and is opposed to Waterspirits. Two of his brothers were stars, the rest were foxes.

The spirit of meteors and comets is Wodjidjega. His associations are with raccoons, since his comet tail recalls the tail of that animal. In human form he dressed with a raccoon robe and rescued people from starvation. Even as a little boy he was so holy that he could defeat formidable evil spirits. [13]

Links: Polaris, Morning Star, Meteor Spirit, Bluehorn, Redhorn, Black Hawks, Hummingbirds, Spirits, Beavers, Swans, Martens, The Cave of Herok'a, Gottschall.

Stories: about stars and other celestial bodies: The Dipper, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers, The Seven Maidens, Morning Star and His Friend, The Human Head, Turtle and the Witches, Sky Man, Wodjidjé, The Raccoon Coat, Sun and the Big Eater, The Big Eater, Grandfather's Two Families, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Twins Retrieve Red Star's Head, The Children of the Sun, The Origins of the Milky Way, The Fall of the Stars; featuring Morning Star as a character: Morning Star and His Friend, The Human Head, Bladder and His Brothers, Grandfather's Two Families, The Origins of the Milky Way; about Polaris (Pole Star, North Star): The Dipper, The Seven Maidens; about the Little Dipper: The Dipper, The Seven Maidens; featuring Wodjidjéga (The Meteor Spirit) as a character: The Roaster, Wodjidjé, The Raccoon Coat, The Green Man; with Bluehorn as a character: Bluehorn's Nephews, Brave Man, Children of the Sun, Grandfather's Two Families; mentioning Redhorn: The Redhorn Cycle, The Mission of the Five Sons of Earthmaker, Redhorn's Father, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty, The Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, Morning Star and His Friend, The Spirit of Gambling, The Green Man, The Hotcâgara Contest the Giants, cp. The Cosmic Ages of the Hotcâgara.

Themes: someone is, or becomes, a star: The Seven Maidens, The Dipper, Turtle and the Witches, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers, Grandfather's Two Families; stars lose their place in the sky: Sky Man, The Fall of the Stars.

Notes: 

[1] Printed in the March 1998 newsletter of the Ancient Earthworks Society of Madison. Credit there is given to Pioneer and Indian History and Legends, University of Wisconsin Arboretum, 1934. Presumably the story was recorded by the Browns.

[2] Charles E. Brown, Moccasin Tales (Madison, Wisc.: State Historical Museum, 1935) 1.

[3] Paul Radin, "Short Tales," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks, Winnebago IV, No. 7i (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society Library) #21, "The Falling Stars."

[4] David Lee Smith, "The Origin of the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper," in David Lee Smith, Folklore of the Winnebago Tribe (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1997) 28-30.

[5] Paul Radin, "The Dipper," Notebook Winnebago IV, #8 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society Library) Story 8r, pp. 1-29 = Paul Radin, "The Dipper," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society Library) #49-50, pp. 1-267.

[6] Charles Edward Brown, Indian Star Lore (Madison, Wisc.: State Historical Museum, 1930) 8. Informant: Oliver LaMère, Bear Clan.

[7] Paul Radin, XI. Untitled, [unpublished] Winnebago Notes, Winnebago III, #11b, Freeman number 3892 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1909, recopied and corrected, 1945) pp. 61-63. Told by Frank Ewing.

[8] Paul Radin, "The Sun," [unpublished] Transcripts in English of Winnebago Tales, Winnebago IV, #7L, Freeman Number 3860 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society) 1-9 (= 78-86 = 978-996).

[9] Paul Radin, "Morning Star (Wiragocge Xetera)," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society Library) #8, pp. 1-93.

[10] Paul Radin, The Evolution of an American Indian Prose Epic. A Study in Comparative Literature, Part I (Basil: Ethnographical Museum, Basil Switzerland, 1954) 80-84.

[11] "The Morning Star, A Winnebago Legend," collected by Louis L. Meeker (National Anthropological Archives, 1405 Winnebago, A.D.S., Nov. 22, 1896)

[12] Paul Radin, "Intcohorúcika," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #14, pp. 1-67.

[13] Paul Radin, "Coon Skin Fur Coat," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #59, pp. 1-122. Paul Radin, "Wodjidjé," [unpublished] Winnebago Notebooks (American Philosophical Society Library) #62, 1-50.