The Children Who Danced Into the Sky

This is a story told by the elders of the Onondaga Nation of upstate New York. The story is about the Pleiades cluster of stars in Taurus the bull.

The Onondaga had just reached one of their favorite hunting areas and had decided to build their lodges by the lake and gather fish and game for the coming winter. By the time that Autumn came, most of the work was done and a group of children decided to celebrate by dancing along the side of the lake.

The children enjoyed dancing so much that it turned into an every day occasion for them. One day as they were dancing a strange old white-haired man adorned with white feathers appeared among them. He warned the children that they should not be dancing every day. The children laughed at the old man, refusing to take his warning seriously. In fact, they decided that the next day they should have a picnic as well when they danced.

The next day the children asked their parents for food so that they might enjoy themselves further at their dance. Their parents did not approve of this behavior however, and refused to allow the children any food.

So much did the children love their dancing that they decided to go anyway, even if they had no food and were hungry. They returned to their spot by the lake and began dancing. Soon the children felt strange and light-headed. They felt so light that they started to rise up into the air. One of the children warned the others that they must not look back at the ground lest something bad happen.

Suddenly, a woman spotted the children rising into the air. She called them to come back but they continued to rise. The woman ran back to the camp and told the others what was happening. The children's parents gathered food and came running, calling their children to come back. The children started to cry, but could not come back to the ground.

One of the children was so upset that he looked back down towards his parents. Immediately he was turned into a meteor, or "falling star." The other children rose until they found a place in the sky and were turned into the stars we know as the seven Pleiades. One child sang all the way up into the sky and his singing made him more and more faint. By the time he reached his new home in the sky he could scarcely be seen.