The Iroquois

Iroquois

The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

 god

God

God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....

Sosondowah was a great hunter known for stalking a supernatural elk

Elk

The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...

, who was captured by Dawn, a goddess who needed him as a watchman. Sosondowah fell in love with Gendenwitha

Gendenwitha

Gendenwitha is a mythological character represented by the Morning Star in Iroquois mythology. Her name means "It Brings the Day." Gendenwitha was originally a beautiful maiden who was loved by Sosondowah, a great hunter held captive as a guard by Dawn...

 ("she who brings the day"; alt: Gendewitha), a human woman. He tried to woo her by singing to her in spring as a bluebird

Bluebird

The bluebirds are a group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus Sialia of the thrush family . Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. They have blue, or blue and red, plumage...

, in summer as a blackbird

New World blackbird

The New World blackbirds consist of 26 species of icterid birds that share the name blackbird but do not correspond with a formal taxon...

 and in autumn as a hawk

Hawk

The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...

, who then tried to take Gendenwitha with him to the sky. Dawn tied him to her doorpost and then changed Gendenwitha into the Morning Star, so he could watch her all night but never be with her.