In Hotcâk, Polaris (the North Star) is known as Wiragócge Hâke Diráni, "the Star that does not Move" (compare Crow, Ihaxadjíse, "the Star that does not Move"). [1] This is because the Pole Star is the northern point of the axis around which the celestial sphere of stars rotates.

Once Polaris lived as a human being. He was the son of a chief, but during a war, his whole village was rubbed out. The enemy warleader adopted this sole survivor, and the two lived in the empty village alone. The child did not know the identity of the old man until one day the boy's elder brother, in spirit form, told him that his grandfather was the one who wiped out his family. The grandfather sent the boy on a number of Bellerophonic missions, but the boy succeeded in every case. He won the name "Black Hawk Looking at Us as He Stands" because he could transform himself into a black hawk. He then went out to court (Nightspirit?) women. He fell in with some Thunderbirds, but they stayed behind as he went into the village. Soon he returned with a number of women following him. He married the youngest of these. Then his grandfather said that a dream commanded him to shoot at Polaris, and that the boy was to be held in place by two of the women. However, the women were sympathetic to Polaris, and helped him dodge the massive arrows that the old man fired at him. Later Polaris learned that if the old man ate a beaver, then he would surely die; so he told the grandfather that he had a dream in which the spirits instructed him to make a feast and that if the old man did not eat it all, the spirits commanded the boy to strike him with a warclub. Thus the old man had to eat every bit of the beaver meat. As a consequence his stomach split and he died. Afterwards the young man brought his older brother back to life with a revitalizing sweat bath. The young man and his wife lived for a time as hummingbirds, then they became stars. She is what they call "the Little Dipper," and he is the bright star at the end of the handle. [2]

In another story, Polaris is an evil spirit that chases after the seven maidens who make up the Big Dipper. Even though the girls are guarded by the warriors that comprise the stars of the Little Dipper, Polaris almost catches them. However, Earthmaker intervenes and drops Polaris on the spot. All the figures in the story are then made into stars. [3]

Polaris can become a black hawk or hummingbird because he exemplifies the perfection of flying technique expressed in the aerobatics of these birds. He is most particularly a hummingbird because, like all birds of that sort, the fixed Pole Star can hover motionlessly in the same spot. As a creature of light with affinity for darkness, Polaris has a kinship to Thunderbirds, although ironically he is struck down by a thunderbolt, albeit one wielded pardoxically by Earthmaker rather than one of the Thunders.

Links: Celestial Spirits, Earthmaker, Thunderbirds, Nightspirits, Black Hawks, Hummingbirds, Beavers, Swans, Martens.

Stories: about Polaris (Pole Star, North Star): The Dipper, The Seven Maidens; 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 Fall of the Stars; about the Little Dipper: The Dipper, The Seven Maidens; mentioning Thunderbirds: The Thunderbird, Warughápara, How the Thunders Met the Nights, Ocean Duck, Traveler and the Thunderbird War, Thunderbird and White Horse, The Daughter-in-Law's Jealousy, The Quail Hunter, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, Redhorn's Sons, The Dipper, Brave Man, The Stone that Became a Frog, The Race for the Chief's Daughter, Redhorn Contests the Giants, Adventures of Redhorn's Sons, The Sons of Redhorn Find Their Father, The Warbundle of the Eight Generations, Medicine Rite Foundation Myth, The Green Waterspirit of the Wisconsin Dells, Baldheaded Warclub Origin Myth, Bluehorn's Nephews, The Big Stone, Origin of the Hotcâk Chief, How the Hills and Valleys were Formed (v. 1 and v. 2), The Spirit of Gambling, The Thunderbird Clan Origin Myth, The Wonághire Wâkcik Clan Origin Myth, Eagle Clan Origin Myth, Pigeon Clan Origins, The Twins Join Redhorn's Warparty, Wolf Clan Origin Myth, The Man who was a Reincarnated Thunderbird, Aratcgéga's Blessings, The Twins Disobey Their Father, Kunu's Warpath, Turtle's Warparty, The Orphan who was Blessed with a Horse, The Thunder Charm, The Boulders of Devil's Lake, Bird Clan Origin Myth, The Nightspirits Bless Tciwoit'éhiga; mentioning black hawks: The Dipper, The Thunderbird, Partridge's Older Brother, The Woman who Loved her Half-Brother, Warughápara, The Boy who was Captured by the Bad Thunderbirds, Spear Shaft and Lacrosse, Morning Star and His Friend, The Race for the Chief's Daughter; mentioning hummingbirds: The Dipper, The Thunderbird, The Race for the Chief's Daughter; mentioning beavers: Hare Retrieves a Stolen Scalp, White Wolf, Old Man and White Feathers, The Dipper, The Chief of the Herok'a. 

Themes: someone is, or becomes, a star: The Seven Maidens, The Dipper, Turtle and the Witches, Îtcorúcika and His Brothers, Grandfather's Two Families.

Notes: 

[1] Mary Carolyn Marino, A Dictionary of Winnebago: An Analysis and Reference Grammar of the Radin Lexical File (Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, December 14, 1968 [69-14,947]) 421, sv. wi.

[2] 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.

[3] 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.