What Winter Solstice Rituals Tell Us About Indigenous People.

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The Blackfeet always faced their tipis toward the rising sun, including on winter solstice.
Credit: Beinecke Library via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY
▼  On the day of winter solstice, many Native American communities will hold religious ceremonies or community events.
The winter solstice is the day of the year when the Northern Hemisphere has the fewest hours of sunlight and the Southern Hemisphere has the most. For indigenous peoples, it has been a time to honor their ancient sun deity. They passed their knowledge down to successive generations through complex storiesand ritual practices.
As a scholarof the environmental and Native American religion, I believe, there is much to learn from ancient religious practices.
Ancient architecture
For decades, scholars have studiedthe astronomical observations that ancient indigenous people made and sought to understand their meaning.
One such place was at Cahokia, near the Mississippi River in what is now Illinois across from St. Louis.

In Cahokia, indigenous people built numerous temple pyramids or mounds, similar to the structures built by the Aztecs in Mexico, over a thousand years ago. Among their constructions, what most stands out is an intriguing structure made up of wooden posts arranged in a circle, known today as "Woodhenge."
To understand the purpose of Woodhenge, scientists watched the sun rise from this structure on winter solstice. What they found was telling: The sun aligned with both Woodhenge and the top of a temple mound – a temple built on top of a pyramid with a flat top – in the distance. They also found that the sun aligns with a different temple mound on summer solstice.
Archaeological evidencesuggests that the people of Cahokia venerated the sun as a deity. Scholars believe that ancient indigenous societies observed the solar system carefully and wove that knowledge into their architecture.
Clip from 'Cahokia's Celestial Calendar (Woodhenge)' episode of PBS' 'Native America.'
Scientists have speculated that the Cahokia held rituals to honor the sun as a giver of life and for the new agricultural year.
Complex understandings (▪ ▪ ▪)

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