Various Symbols
and Meanings for Sun

• Giver of life
• Illumination
• Nourishes and sustains life
• Power to destroy and punish if not respected
• Representative of the nature-centered orientation of Native American learning

The two major pieces of this pictograph are the ears on either side and the feathers on top of the head. The ears symbolize the sun's ability to hear, and the feathers the sun's ability to move across the earth.

The sun is the symbol of omnipotence. Native Americans believed the sun had the ability to see and hear all. As in the above, more complex pictograph, this one gives ears to the sun as a way of representing his omnipotence.

Sunrise (top) and Sunset (bottom)

Some of these meanings of the sun can be generalized across all tribes. However, since this is a symbol, its meaning can alter depending upon context. Furthermore, Native American tribes did not treat their spiritual symbols as dogmatically as formalized world religions treat their symbols. Indigenous American cultures recognized that meanings attributed to a symbol will vary by individual and by tribe since those meanings are derived from experience. Myths about the sun reflect this symbolic ambiguity. For example, while the myth of Scar Face says the Sun is the Father of the Moon (and Father of Earth), the myth of The Dream of Onawutaquto makes the Sun the brother of the Moon.

(taken from Emerson, 1965, and Cajete, 1994)