The Milky Way Galaxy.

Milky Way Galaxy and Indigenous Skylore

The Milky Way is our galaxy and home to over 100 billion stars. The star at the centre of our solar system is the sun. A main sequence star that will exist for another five billion years. The oldest star in the Milky Way is HD 140283 or the Methuselah star and it is at least 13.5 billion years old. At the centre of the galaxy is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A and it has the mass of 4.3 million suns. The most recent supernova in the Milky Way occurred 140 years ago and it is only visible in x-ray and radio light. The Milky Way galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy are moving towards each other. Today, the two galaxies are 2.2 million light years apart and will merge in four billion years.


Makoyoohsokoyi

http://www.glenbow.org/blackfoot/EN/html/traditional_stories.htm

In Blackfoot tradition, the Milky Way is the path that Makoyiwa, the wolves, came down to the earth. Wolves were some of the first earth beings to help us. One winter, when our people were starving, a young man and his family camped by themselves as they searched for food. The wolves found the family and appeared to them as young men, bringing fresh meat to the lodge. The wolves took this family with them, showing the man how to cooperate with other people when he hunted buffalo and other animals. The wolves introduced the people to the other animals in their world. The humans learned that animals with hooves and horns were all right to eat, but that animals with paws and claws should be left alone.