Henrik beat me to it. I was going to say that post quoted by ToSeek is a "false dichotomy", or whatever you call it when the choices are artificially limited.

At least one other option exists - it was real art that depicts something completely different and only coincidentally resembles the SN 1006. May or may not be from that time period.

All this talk of SN 1006 - I keep reading that as "Serial Number 1006". That's my work bias coming in.

This story is plausible, but not confirmed, and right now there doesn't appear to be any way to solidly confirm it. The mentioned chemical tests would have to be on the art itself, because the rock chemistry would be from the age of the rock, not the age of the artwork on the rock. Maybe it can be dated to a 30 year window - I don't know enough about chemically dating petroglyphs from Native American cultures. ;-) But I don't see a way to confirm it, though a really different date (e.g. 1700's) would certainly disprove it.

It is a shame that so much has been lost of the pre-existing cultures of this world, partly because of our own carelessness and forceful push to enter, grab and change it all. No, I do not know much about this whole thing, but one thought of my own would be to check with the other tribes that were in the area at that time and see if there's any record of the event and the Hohokam reaction at the time. Some memories are kept even today that go back for centuries within the tribes.

The magzine article states that no one thought Native Americans watched the sky. If that's the case why are there medicine wheels in northern Wyoming? And what's up with the solstice and equinox markers in Chaco Canyon? I have to agree, this idea is not entirely well thought out. I'm not a scientist nor do I play one on tv, but I can see the holes in this one.

The recent advances in genetic mapping (y chromosomes in particular)(Nova special)..indicate that the paleo-cultures spread from Africa to the fertile crescent,with branches outward from there...to Europe, Northern Europe, India, Asia, Mongolia, Russia, China, Japan, down to Australia, up across the Bering Strait (ice age) to Alaska...with Inuits, Eskimos, Indians...all the way to Terra Del Fuego. American Indians have closest matches to a Northern Japanese tribe of fishermen. So, it isn't all too ridiculous to see them carrying their oral traditions of the sky as they went.
Sci American gave a similar etymology of words about twenty years ago. It's not really all that much of a reach for similar constellations. Pete.

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A third rate theory forbids
A second rate theory explains after the fact
A first rate theory predicts...A. Lomonosov

The problem with ancient art is that we will probably NEVER know what the symbolism of that art is. A symbol's meaning can change over time, even within ongoing indigenous cultures like American Indians and Australian Aboriginals.
So if the present day ancestors of the artists cannot irrefutably define the symbology of rock art, what are the chances that the Eurocentric definition of a scorpion constellation applies to this art.

As part of my archaeology studies I created the scenario of a future civilization trying to interpret our symbology. The fat man in the red, white and black suite (the colours of fly agaric mushrooms) being pulled into the sky by deer (trance bucks) was interpreted as shamanistic sybolism of drug induced spirit journeys.

It is uncomfortable to accept that we will never really understand the ice age art of Europe, or much of the pre-Columbian art of America.