Found: YA Sci/Fi 80s - Girl and cute aliens

Girl in an alien planet colony (archeologists?) befriends local "primitive" aliens, they turn out to have a buried spaceship that she helps wake up? Aliens are Teddy Bear like, I believe, may sleep in trees.
Book Club reading in elementary school, late 80s

I mean, I've only seen bits of the movies, but the plot sure sounds like one of the Ewok Adventures, maybe "Battle for Endor"? It looks like they made a children's book tie-in and the movie came out in 1985, so the time period would fit?

Ewoks: The Battle for Endor

Can't find link to actual book on LT, but there was a 24-page readalong book/record with photos from the movie:

https://youtini.com/book/ewoks-the-battle-for-endor

The same story was also adapted in an illustrated 32-page children's book called The Ring, the Witch, and the Crystal: An Ewok Adventure by Cathy East Dubowski.

This may be The Lost Star by H.M. Hoover.

Lost Star seems much more likely than battle for Endor. I'm a massive SW nerd, so I know that book/movie. This was a novel/novelette.

Also, This Time of Darkness was a favorite of mine, so that helps too. Looking for further info before calling it solved.

The lost star https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/h-m-hoover-4/the-lost-star/

Absolutely The Lost Star. solved, thank you! re-reading it now. Interesting how much was remembered and forgotten.

Touchstone: The Lost Star