On the sacred pole of the sun lodge of the Blood Indian is a bundle of small brushwood taken from the birch tree, which is placed in the form of a cross. This was an ancient symbol evidently referring to the four winds.
Fig. 317.
FIGURES OF CROSSES AND CIRCLES REPRESENTING STAR SYMBOLS.
Oakley Springs, Ariz. Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, fig. 1129.
Sun and star symbols.—Great speculation has been made, both in Europe and America, over the relation between the Swastika and the sun, because the two signs have been associated by primitive peoples. Colonel Mallery gives the Indian signs for the sun, stars, and light.[287] These have been segregated, and it will be seen that the cross and circle are used indiscriminately for one and the other, and the fact of the two being found associated is no evidence of relationship in religious ideas ([figs. 315-319]).
Fig. 318.
STAR SYMBOL.
Circle and rays
without cross.
Oakley Springs,
Ariz. Tenth
Annual Report
of the Bureau
of Ethnology,
fig. 1129.