Earth Ancients

Across many Indigenous traditions of North America, stories of “Star People” are not fringe mythology but part of living cosmology. Nations such as the Zuni and Hopi describe ancestral relationships with celestial beings and migrations guided by star knowledge. These traditions appear repeatedly in oral histories collected by scholars and Indigenous knowledge keepers. This program brings together Native elder Clifford Mahooty, Indigenous scholar Paulette Steeves, and researcher Ardy Sixkiller Clarke to explore whether these traditions preserve encoded knowledge about ancient migrations, cosmology, or contact narratives. The conversation bridges Indigenous oral memory with academic archaeology and anthropology.Clifford Mahooty — Zuni Pueblo elder, retired civil/environmental engineer, and wisdom keeper active in Zuni religious orders including the Kachina and Galaxy Medicine Society. On Earth Ancients he discusses Zuni oral history, ritual life, kachinas, and connections to star people.Dr. Ardy Sixkiller Clark