[Aztlan] Conference on North American Native astronomy

[E.P. Grondine]

The National Center for Great Lakes Native American Culture will sponsor an academic conference on Native American Astronomy to be held at The John Jay Center for Learning, in Portland, Indiana on April 18, 2009. Six educators will present their research on current and ancient Native American Astronomy. Pre-registration before April 11 is $30, $20 for students with student photo identification. Late registration is $35. Lunch is included in the cost. For more information contact the Conference Chair: Professor Donald Cochran, Director, Archaeological Resources Management Service, Ball State University, Muncie IN 47306, telephone 765-285-5328, fax 765-285-2163, email dcochran at bsu.edu. Or Contact Robin McBride Scott at robin.scott at ncglnac.com, telephone 765-766-5185. 

This event is hosted by the John Jay Center for Learning and is sponsored in part by the Jay Visitor and Tourism Bureau and Paper Clips. 

9:00 a.m. – Professor Ray Hively, Earlham College
Astronomy and Geometry Associated with the Newark Earthworks
rayh at earlham.edu
10:00 a.m. – Staffan Peterson, Doctoral candidate, Indiana University
Cosmic Events and Mississippian Placemaking – 
Observations from the Ohio River Valley
stapeter at indiana.edu
11:00 a.m. – Matthew Coon, Indiana Department of Transportation
Investigating Astronomical Alignments at Pretty Prairie Mounds, 
a Middle Woodland Mound Group in Northwestern Indiana
11:45 to 12:45 LUNCH ON SITE
12:45 p.m. – Dr. William Romain, Ohio State University
LIDAR Assessment of the Ohio Hopewell Earthworks
2:00 p.m. – Dr. James Brown, Northwestern University
Heavenly Bodies in Eastern Woodland Cosmologies
jabrown at northwestern.edu
3:00 p.m. – Wade Allen, Curator Emeritus, Dayton Museum of Natural History
Archaeoastronomy of Sun Watch Indian Village in Ohio
astronomy_ambassador at yahoo.com

NOTES:
Last year this conference's chair, Donald Cochran, spoke on nearby paired rings (astronomical celebration structures) and rectangles (ball courts) and led tours to some of those remaining in the Portland area at the headwaters of the rivers tibutary to the Wabash River.

On a personal note, for a telling of the very important Shawnee Principal Narrative, which was delivered to the assembled people at the fall harvest festival, and which concerned the cycles of the Moon (Grandomother, the Creator, in her astronomical aspect, equivalent to Mayan "Chel", in particular as the weaver of creation), and the two boys (Grandson Venus and Mars), along with some constellations (halaqua) and comets (manetuli/ missi piasse), see the version in Gaschet's notes:
http://shawnee-bluejacket.com/stories_from_Gatschet/Volume%203%20Part%201.htm
with glosses here:
http://shawnee-bluejacket.com/stories_from_Gatschet/Volume%201%20Part%204.htm

E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas