If Gallup took a poll to find the best-known star pattern in the night sky, the odds are the winner would be the Big Dipper. Perhaps surprisingly, though, the dipper isn’t a constellation. Instead, it’s an asterism — a star picture that may be a part of a constellation, or that may not be related to any constellation at all. The stars of the dipper, for example, are part of Ursa Major, the great bear — they represent the bear’s body and tail. But the bear incorporates many other stars besides the dipper — and a dipper has little to do with a bear. But in some cultures, there’s a link between bears and the seven stars of the Big Dipper. A Kiowa story, for example, says that eight children — seven sisters and a brother — were playing at the edge of the Black Hills one day. The boy was suddenly struck by powerful magic. He was transformed into a bear and began to chase his frightened sisters. A tree called to them, and when they climbed into its branches it grew to an enormous size. The a
