Mahooty, Steeves, Sixkiller-Clark: Star People, Sky Beings, and Indigenous Cosmology

Summary

This podcast explores the significance of 'Star People' in Indigenous traditions of North America, highlighting how these beliefs are intertwined with cosmology and ancestral knowledge. The discussion features insights from Native elder Clifford Mahooty, Indigenous scholar Paulette Steeves, and researcher Ardy Sixkiller Clarke as they investigate encoded knowledge within these stories. They bridge the gap between oral histories and academic research on ancient migrations and celestial connections.

Key takeaways

• 1Clifford Mahooty: Zuni Pueblo elder and civil engineer discussing Zuni oral history and connections to star people.
• 2Ardy Sixkiller Clarke: Professor Emeritus at Montana State University known for her work on Native accounts of Star People.
• 3Paulette Steeves: Cree-Métis archaeologist who argues for an earlier Indigenous presence in the Americas than mainstream archaeology acknowledges.
• 4The kachina: Spiritual beings in Zuni culture tied to cosmological beliefs and rituals.
• 5Oral histories: Essential in preserving Indigenous knowledge around celestial migrations and relations.

Glossary terms

Source

Transcript excerpt

We've been talking so much about the ruins of Guatemala and Yucatan, Mexico and Central Mexico and places like that that we've been visiting on tour, and I've had a great sense of it myself, working with archaeologists and working on my own theories of the age of the great various people of meso America, to the point where I've kind of missed my friends. You know, We've lost so many people. We lost Clifford MAHOODI, Carlos Barreros, they both were they both succumbed to COVID and it was terrible. We had people that were very, very outspoken about Native traditions and teachers that passed away. And so I'm kind of feeling right now and we haven't you know, we used to have Clifford Mahody, my Zuni friend, on quite regularly and he would come and do the tours, and he would also do conferences here in California or different parts of the United States. So he is presenting this information and handing it down. So I felt the need to put together a program with some of the better known and insightful indigenous people. We're going to have Clifford Mahoody on today as well as doctor Paulette Steves who's the anthropologist from Canada. And I even have some pre recordings from RD six Killer Clark, who wrote very very detailed books on sky people and star people and their influence. Now, one of the things that came up a few years ago that I thought was quite interesting is the belief and the sacred geometry around alignments, complete city alignments that the indigenous people felt were necessary and they built this these alignments into their architecture as well as their layout. ...

Excerpt from Earth Ancients, Mar 14, 2026. Rights remain with the original creators. Hear the full episode at the source.