More Ursa Major Mythology
According to some Native American legends, the bowl of the Big Dipper is a giant bear and the stars of the handle are three warriors chasing it. The constellation is low in the sky in autumn evening sky, so it was said that the hunters had injured the bear and its blood caused the trees to change color to red.
Ursa Minor is a cub of the mother bear, oddly it is the same story in Asia, could it be that the stories are similar because of common ancestry or contact between the two races?
In other cultures it was identified as a wagon or cart, a plow, a bull's thigh, and (to the Chinese) the government.
The Big Dipper was also a very important part of the Underground Railroad, which helped slaves escape from the South before the Civil War. There were songs spread among the slave population, which included references to the "Drinking Gourd." The songs said to follow it to get to a better life. This veiled message for the slaves to flee northward was passed along in the form of songs since a large fraction of the slave population was illiterate.