Coyote stories

This is the transcript for the We’re All Stories podcast special snow day episode! Check it out at: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1685008/episodes/8258672-coyote-stories

This was originally part of a larger episode but the timing was too perfect and I had to take advantage of it. This episode was going to look at the trickster archetype all over the world. You know who I'm talking about, everyone has one. Anansi, Loki, Danny Ocean, Robin Hood, Maui, Pan, Puck, Deadpool, just to name a few! Those smooth conmen and jokers, breaking the norms of societal behavior to get what they want. They can be a force for good or bad, but usually for themselves (though not always) but the one thing they always are is entertaining.

The trickster we’re going to be looking at today is Coyote of Native American tradition. He is extremely popular among many tribes, he is sometimes portrayed as a Promethean character, stealing from the spirits to benefit mankind, a common theme with tricksters, but more often his stories are morality tales, masked with humor and fun as Coyote’s Cunning and greed often lands him in hot water. Coyote stories are traditionally told in the winter months while the family is holed up together in their homes to instruct and entertain the restless youngsters. That is why today is perfect for this, here in Ohio it is snowing, so I thought I'd warm up the atmosphere a bit with some stories, so snuggle up under a blanket, with a hot beverage, maybe some kids if you've got them and travel back to an america unsettled, wild and free.

Some tribes replace Coyote with Crow or Raven or Iktomi the spider, or a combination of these but Coyote is most widespread. Tales of Cunning Coyote can be heard from east to west, north to south. The Aztecs even told tales of Huehuecoyotl. (HWay-hway -coy-oat-l) old,old coyote. In fact, the word coyote is a Spanish bastardization of the Aztec word Coyotl. Coyote is a trickster through and through. He is always tricking the other animals and sometimes people to have them meet his own needs, especially when it comes to food, whether that means bringing him lunch or becoming his lunch. In this respect he is very much like one Mr. Wile E.

One day Coyote is walking around. He had a voracious appetite and was usually hungry, this time is no different. His meandering takes him to a hill where he sees a strange sight. On the hill there was a group of plump, young turkeys taking turns climbing into a bag and rolling down the hill for fun. Coyote has a plan. He runs up the hill and says to the turkeys, ‘hey, that looks like fun. Can I have a turn?’ The turkeys say ‘sure’ so he climbs into the sack and the turkeys give him a push so he can roll down the hill. He takes a few turns then says ‘hey turkeys, I have an idea, why don’t you all climb in and ride down together. I’ll give you a push.’ The turkeys think this sounds fun so they agree and climb in. No sooner had they climbed in then Coyote closes the bag up tight and ties it shut. He takes the bag of turkeys home to his family, drooling at the thought of the feast they would have. He gets home and tells his sons to build a huge fire to cook all the turkeys over, only problem is, he’s out of wood. So he goes out into the woods to collect more, leaving the sack behind. He tells the kids not to touch the bag , don’t even think about it until he gets back. So he runs off, hurriedly collecting firewood. Meanwhile, little baby Coyote is curious. All those turkeys are all sitting there, hanging out in this bag but what were they doing in there? Baby coyote decides he absolutely has to find out so he unties the rope and opens it just enough to peek in. Seeing their opportunity to escape, the turkeys all jump out and fly away.

Another day, still craving turkey he is walking around and he spots the biggest turkey he has ever seen in his life. Unfortunately the turkey sees him too and flies up into a tree, out of reach. So Coyote yelol s up to him saying that if the turkey stays up in that tree, Coyote will climb up there and eat him. But if the turkey were to fly out over the plain, there was just no way Coyote would be able to get him. So don’t do that, just come down here where he can be dinner. Laughing at how big of a fool Coyote was to give away his big secret, turkey takes off flying over the plain. Now Turkey was a big boy and he quickly became tired flying lower and lower until he was barely clearing the ground. Worn out, Turkey lands to catch his breath whereupon Coyote jumps up and eats him. As he is feasting, he looks over his shoulder and sees a tall man out of the corner of his eye standing not far away. Afraid the man was coming to attack him, he takes off running. He runs all day long yet every time he looks over his shoulder, he sees the man behind him, not even winded. Coyote tries everything he can think of making crazy turns, zig zagging, losing him in the woods, hiding but nothing works. As the sun is setting Coyote Can take it no more. He collapses from sheer exhaustion, knowing for sure that the man was going to take the opportunity to kill him, just like he had done to Turkey. He closes his eyes and falls to the ground. When he hits the ground, he hears a crack coming from his mouth. He thinks he must have hit the ground harder than he thought and cracked a tooth. He wonders where around here he is going to find a dentist in this area that would be open at this hour. He further wonders what he will do while he waits for dentistry to make it to the continent. It is going to take a lot highlights magazines to fill that much time. Not that he really has much time with this menacing guy coming to kill him. He tries to feel the broken tooth with his tongue but can’t quite seem to find it. So he reaches up to feel for it with his hand (Coyote is anthropomorphic, sometimes showing up as a talking coyote, sometimes as a person, or a combination of both.) As he is running his finger along his teeth to find the broken one he feels something out of place. It doesn’t feel like a broken tooth, it feels more like something stuck in his teeth. He grasps it and pulls it out and sees that it is one of Turkeys large tail feathers and that the feathery end had been sticking out and up in the corner of his periphery. Coyote sits there a second thinking how odd that was before it dawns on him that the man that was chasing him was actually the feather all along. Sheepish Coyote then turns and walks home. This is why coyotes often seem wild eyed and are always looking over their shoulders as if they are being followed.

This story accentuates that intrinsic flaw in the trickster’s character. While the trickster is cunning, cleverness does not always equal smart. While the trickster is often the cleverest person in the room, he is not always the smartest. Tricksters constantly find themselves in sticky situations when they get lost in their own cleverness. Kids just remember the phrase "too clever for your own good." There, I gave a moral to the story, happy?

Often, a trickster’s tricks and cleverness can land them in hot water when they find themselves up against a greater mind than their own.

Coyote was out and about, or as tribes north of the border would say, oot and aboot. He was hungry, like always, so he was looking to scam a free meal. He hears tell of this girl who lives alone yet always has all her needs met, including food, though no one knows how. Coyote decides to check this out. As he gets closer, he smells roast buffalo. Drooling at this point, he follows his nose to a hut in the middle of nowhere where a girl has a big ol' buffalo roast on to cook. He asks the woman if he can help her with the chores in exchange for some food. She agrees and they eat together.

Coyote ends up staying with her a while, taking care of the chores and is always treated to nice, hot buffalo every night. One day, the buffalo has run out so the girl tells Coyote that it is time to replenish supplies. Coyote looks around. All he can see is a bag hanging on the wall, along with seven tiny little toy bows and some grass arrows. Just toys and/or decorations, definitely not anything to hunt with. This girl is just a tiny little thing all alone, away from any village, miles and a millenia or so away from the nearest Walmart. So Coyote wonders just how exactly is this little girl going to hunt a massive buffalo, especially with no hunting gear, I mean, she doesn't even own any camo for crying out loud.

As the day is drawing to an end the girl tells Coyote it is time to replenish supplies. She hands him a buffalo hide and orders him to go off into the woods a ways and to put the buffalo hide over his head so he can't see. Coyote was already curious as to how she was getting their food but with all this secrecy, now he was just DYING to know. So he runs over to the very edge of the woods to hide and watch what she does. He sees her take the bag off the wall and she pulls the windpipe of a buffalo out of it. It is wide at one end and narrow at the other. She passes the narrow end over the fire and seven strong men, her brothers appear out of the windpipe like a genie from a bottle. Next she takes the tiny, toy bows and arrows off the wall and passes them over the fire where they become full size weapons which she hands out to her brothers. She calls out an animal cry that surprises Coyote, coming from such a small girl. Just then he hears a rumbling as a herd of massive buffalo comes running in. The brothers proceed to shoot as many Buffalo as the girl needs before going back into the windpipe.

After her brothers had left the girl calls Coyote back where he pretends to marvel at the buffalo carcasses. He asks her slyly, ‘oh hey, random thought, I couldn’t help but notice that bag that’s always on the wall. What’s in it? ‘ So she tells him about the windpipe and how out of the small end appears her seven brothers to hunt for her. ‘And the bigger end?’ He queries. ‘An army comes out of that end to defend me from my enemies’ she replies. That night, when she goes to bed, Coyote sneaks over, takes the windpipe out of the bag and runs. He goes off into the woods, finds a nice spot and goes to sleep. Now the girl knew what he was up to but she wasn’t worried. She let him think he got away with it but when he fell asleep, she called for her brothers to bring him back. The next morning, Coyote wakes up back in the tent with the girl looking at him, the windpipe still clutched in his paw. Coyote tells her that enemies attacked in the night and he took it for safe keeping. She smiles knowingly and they go about their day.

That night, Coyote tries again. This time he goes further out but she is still able to call her brothers to bring Coyote and the windpipe back home. Coyote wakes up to find himself transported again and he gives the same excuse. Again she doesn’t say anything and they go about their day. The third night he tries again with the same result of the past two nights. He tries one final time, running through the night until he reaches a far away village. With all that running Coyote had worked up a mighty appetite. He thinks to himself that he will make the villagers feed him and give him a place to rest. He yells for food to be brought to him or he would have his war party lay waste to the village. All the men run out. When they see coyote standing there all alone, instead of giving him food they start throwing rocks and kicking him. As this is going on he takes out the windpipe and waves the big end to summon the war party to defend him. Much to his surprise out flies a massive swarm of bees stinging him all over. Yowling he drops the windpipe and takes off running into the woods pursued by the angry villagers and the swarm of bees. After they had chased him quite a ways, the villagers turn back home and the bees find a nice hollow tree to live in. Coyote kept running and didn’t dare look back. And the magic windpipe? The brothers brought it back to the girl where she continued to live, much as she had before Coyote arrived.

Here is another example of Coyote being caught up in his own cleverness only to be outsmarted. One day, Coyote is wandering around, looking for his next meal when he spies Rabbit. He tries to catch Rabbit but Rabbit turns and runs, easily out running Coyote before diving into his burrow. Coyote isn’t going to let this stop him though. He yells for Rabbit to come out or he is going to smoke him out by gathering up green milkweed in the entrance to the burrow and setting it alight. Rabbit says ‘sure, go right ahead. I’ll just eat the milkweed. I could use a good salad after outrunning you.’ So Coyote says he’ll just use sunflowers instead. Rabbit laughs. ‘I love sunflowers he says, and I can entertain myself by spitting the seeds at you.’ So Coyote says ‘ok, well I’ll gather pinecones and use them to smoke you out!’ Rabbit goes ‘oh no! Not pinecones! That’s my kryptonite! They’re too hard to eat, if you use those, I’ll surely die!’ Coyote laughs and gathers up all the pine cones he can find, shoving them into the hole. He lights them on fire. He bends down low, his head in the mouth of the burrow to blow the embers into a blaze. Rabbit waits for the pine cones to start burning then begins kicking the hard, burning pinecones into Coyote’s face. With a yelp Coyote runs away Leaving a coyote shaped cloud of dust behind him.

Here's a story that features both Raven and Coyote. Coyote was hungry. But Coyote was also feeling quite lazy. He finds a thorn and sticks it in his paw. He then goes off to find his buddy Raven. He says 'hey, Raven, i am STARVING but i have this thorn stuck in my paw so i can't possibly run after anything to hunt for food. If you don't help me I will surely starve to death!' Raven is suspicious. He knows Coyote's reputation. But Coyote just holds up his paw with the thorn sticking out of it, looking pitiful and Raven concedes. He takes out his bow and fires an arrow straight up into the air. Now as we all know, what comes up must come down and sure enough this arrow comes whizzing back to earth. Raven stretches his wing out and the arrow hits home. But Raven does not seem injured in the least. In fact, when he draws the arrow out of his wing, instead of fresh raven meat, spitted on the arrow is a big ol' hunk of buffalo roast. Raven cooks it up and the two sit down to share a meal. Coyote thinks this is a great trick and he wants to try this out for himself. When Raven isn't looking Coyote steals his bow and arrows and sneaks off. Once he is clear, Coyote fires an arrow straight up into the air, just like Raven did. The arrow comes back down and Coyote yowls as it hits him in the thigh. He starts hopping around yelling and trying to pull the arrow out. At least he'll get a big juicy buffalo roast out of it but man is this ever not worth it! Coyote gets a good grip on the arrow, squeezing his eyes shut tight, he gives it a good, hard pull. Finally the arrow tears free, but instead of a tasty piece of buffalo all he got for his trouble was a stringy chunk of coyote meat.

There are countless stories of Coyote and his antics. I hope this brief selection helped warm up this unseasonably cold day for you just a bit! If you need any dinner ideas, check out patreon where I have included a recipe for Navajo tacos. I loved eating these as I traveled through the New Mexico and Arizona tribal lands. I hope you enjoy them just as much!