How the Stars Fell into the Sky: A Navajo Legend Book

This is a retelling of a Navajo legend told by the medicine man Hosteen Klah at the turn of the 20th century. I could tell by looking at the cover that I wasn't crazy about the illustrations.

First Woman told First Man that people needed to know the laws and they had to write them for everyone to see. That was interesting.

He told her to write them in the sand but she said the wind would blow them away. He then told her to write them in the water but she said they would disappear. He saw the stars and told her to use her jewels and write them in the sky. She put the stars in the sky in certain patterns everyone could read.

Coyote watched her and asked to help, but there were so many more stars left that he complained at it was slow work. She asked what was as important as writing laws. She patiently explained that the people will see them before they go in their hogans at night. The mom would sing of them to her child. And the warrior would warm himself by them when he was in unknown territory.

Coyote was impatient and it done so he picked up her blanket and threw the rest into the sky, undoing her patterns. She cried at his foolishness.

It ended with people living and not knowing about Coyote jumbling the stars and not knowing the reason for the confusion that would always be with them. I flipped the page looking for something positive but no, the book ended on that negative, and confusing, note. Does it mean Navajo don't have laws?? I don't think that's what the story meant to say. Or that we look at the stars and don't know what they mean so we're confused? I didn't like the ending at all because it wasn't explained and I don't know what the message is.

It's cool that the author saw a reference of this legend in a National Geographic magazine and was inspired.

I couldn't wait to find out what the laws were and I thought the constellations would come into play. But this is just a story to explain why we can't explain what the stars are for. It's a neat idea to try to have an explanation for why they're there and what happened, to think that there could have been a purpose but they were messed up and that's why there's no patterns. That's one of the many things I love about Native American culture. Their legends are so charming the way they attempt to explain things in nature. I found it odd that the constellations didn't come up because there are designs in the sky.