Are American Indian Legends of “Sky People” Really About UFOs?

Are Native American legends about “Sky People” really about ancient alien visitations? That is the speculation made by one of the latest installments of the popular Netflix docuseries Top Secret UFO Projects.

The episode, the sixth and final in the series, examines American Indian legends that tell stories of extraterrestrial visits from “star people” or “sky gods.”

“My tribe is the Zuni tribe. We believe that we were connected to the extraterrestrials from the beginning of what we call the beginning of the fourth world,” retired environmental engineer Clifford Mahooty explains in the episode. “The extraterrestrials are the ones that are related to us, not only in where they came from, but we also are aware that they gave us a connection to the different systems, like the star systems, and they actually are our teachers.”

Other American Indian tribes with legends of extraterrestrials include the Hopi, the Cree, and the Lakota, the docuseries says.

In his book Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of the Lakota, Wallace Black Elk tells the story of seeing a UFO come down from the sky. According to the docuseries, Black Elk describes communicating with the extraterrestrials who came from through craft through telepathy.

“They’re actually our ancestors because we took their DNA, and when they upgraded us, American Indians believe that we all are connected with the star people as our distant relatives. Although we were on the planet, we took their teachings, and they upgraded us through their efforts,” Mahooty says. “So in the long run, we’re part alien.” 

Another Lakota story of extraterrestrial intervention is the legend of the geological formation called the Devils Tower National Monument in Crook County, Wyoming. According to a story told by Craig Howe, the director of the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies, on South Dakota Public Broadcasting, in the Lakota language, the rock formation is called Mato Tipila, or Lodge of the Bears.

According to his story, the formation of Devils Tower began long ago when a female being fell to Earth from the “star world” and died with her newborn baby beside her. As Howe tells it, a group of young Lakota boys were out playing when they found the woman lying dead. They brought her baby back to their tribe, where he was raised by an older Lakota woman and named Wicahpi Hinhpaya, which means “fallen star.”

A Superhero From the Stars

“He was peculiar from the get-go. He aged way faster than his Lakota relatives did. In one year of our time, he would maybe be four years old or so. Just within four years, he was already a teenager,” Howe explains in the broadcast. “He did remarkable things for the Lakota people. He was like a superhero. He could really protect the people and had really good powers. At some point when he was a teenager, he said, ‘I want to return to my father’s people, the Star People. You’re my relatives, and I won’t forget you, and I’ll watch over you.’”

Years after Wicahpi Hinhpaya left the tribe, Howe says, a group of young girls were out playing when they suddenly found themselves surrounded by hungry bears.

“Those bears started to rush in, and out of the blue, this voice told those girls, ‘Stand on this little mound of earth.’ Those girls obeyed,” Howe says. “That voice was Wicahpi Hinhpaya, so he was remembering his relatives.”

Howe’s story continues that Wicahpi Hinhpaya makes the mound of Earth rise up high into the sky, protecting the girls from the bears who continued clawing at the mound until they were killed by falling rocks. According to the Lakota legend, the bears’ claw marks are the reason for the unique texture on the sides of the Devils Tower that can still be seen today. 

As almost every UFO fan knows, the Devils Tower featured prominently in the Steven Spielberg classic, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

Top Secret UFO Projects: Declassified is now streaming on Netflix.

What do you think? Are ancient legends like these among American Indians and other indigenous peoples really descriptions of encounters with aliens?