Native American Storytime – The Great Bear

Vocabulary Words

• Iroquois – A Native American people from the northeastern part of North America.  They refer to themselves as the Haudenosaunee, “People of the Longhouse.”
• Big Dipper – – a group of seven bright stars that form the outline of a bowl with a handle (dipper).

Fun Facts

• The Big Dipper includes the bear (four stars making up the dipper) and the three hunters who are following (three starts making up the handle of the dipper).
• The Great Bear Story describes how Native Americans explained the colors in the Fall and why the Big Dipper is not visible during the Winter months.
• Hammonasset – a Native American word meaning “the place where we dig holes.”  The Hammonassets were “the people who dig holes”.  They dug holes for farming in the fertile soil around the river.