The Pleiades and Native Americans

Pleiades! Oh beautiful seven maidens, hear my song. Shine your light and presence upon me. Take me on a trip to you and your seven stars. Let me astral project beyond my earthly form, and into the universe. May the star messenger be my guide, so that I may return, and channel your healing energy to all. Its time for a change and blessings for all my relations. -thunderhands

From "Wikipedia"
The Lakota Tribe of North America had a legend that linked the origin of the Pleiades to Devils Tower. According to the Seris (of northwestern Mexico), these stars are seven women who are giving birth. The constellation is known as Cmaamc, which is apparently an archaic plural of the noun cmaam "woman".

It was common among the indigenous peoples of the Americas to measure keenness of vision by the number of stars the viewer could see in the Pleiades, a practice which was also used in historical Europe, especially in Greece.

The Native American tribe, the Kiowa, had a myth similar to the Lakota that explained the creation of the Pleiades. According to the Kiowa there were seven young maidens that went out to play and were spotted by several giant bears. The bears saw the young women and began to chase them. In an effort to escape the bears the women climbed on top of a rock and prayed to the spirit of the rock to save them. Hearing their prayers the rock began to rise from the ground towards the Heavens so that the bears couldn't reach the maidens. The seven women reached the sky and were then turned into the star constellation we know today. The bears in an effort to climb the rock left deep claw marks in the sides which had become too steep to climb. The rock later became known as Devil's Tower which is located in the state of Wyoming.

In the ancient Andes, the Pleiades were associated with abundance, because they return to the Southern Hemisphere sky each year at harvest-time. In Quechua they are called collca', or storehouse.

Paul Goble, Native American storyteller, tells a Blackfoot legend that he says is told by other tribes as well. In the story, the Pleiades are orphans that were not cared for by the people, so they became stars. Sun Man is angered by the mistreatment of the children and punishes the people with a drought, until the dogs, the only friends of the orphans, intercede on behalf of the people.

The American Hopi Indians built their underground Kivas for multiple utilitarian uses. The most important of which was their ceremonial meeting place. The access was a ladder through a small hole in the roof of the round hole in the ground. During certain ceremonies, the night passage of the Pleiades over the center of the opening of the entrance hole was a direct signal to begin a certain ceremony. Most of the cultures used the angle of the Pleiades in the night sky as a time telling device.