Even as an adult I learned that the company who made these never meant for kids to get a free sucker if you turn this in.
Yet when I was a kid our local convince store did honor this. If you got the Native American with the star I could turn it in for a free one.
Just bit of an edit. I have 65 pack of these an so far if the star not there neither is the Native American on the wrapper. Which just goes back to for what reason the two are connected.
I didn’t learn that it was something the store were doing until saw it on Reddit in my late 30’s. It true even then no one had an explanation for that.