This month�s theme:Coyote stories

ContentsFeature Fun pageFamous People Next monthFrom the Attic Prospector page

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November, 2003

From theProspector

Coyote StoriesWhat do you think of

when someone says“American

Folktales”? Do you imagine agiant lumberjack named PaulBunyon chopping his waythrough the forest with his petblue ox? Or maybe you picturea skinny, shabbily dressed boynamed Johnny Appleseed witha bag full of seeds, plantingfruit trees wherever he goes.From Davy Crocket to JohnHenry, these familiar namesare the characters most of usthink of when we pictureAmerican stories or folktales. But there are other older,less familiar stories that are

important to our cultural heritage.Long before any Europeansvisited North American, therewere people who lived on thiscontinent. These Native Ameri-can people told stories of a timebefore humans walked the Earth.These fascinating stories werepassed down from generation togeneration, for perhaps thousandsof years, and are still told today. There are many tribes ofIndians in North America andeach has unique stories.Strangely though, there is acharacter who keeps popping upall over the continent. FromCanada to Mexico, from thePacific Ocean to the Mississippi

Howdy Prospectors!This month my best friend, mymule, tried to convince me towrite an entire issue on famousmules in Idaho history. Hethought it was a pretty goodidea. “Mules are important,” hesaid, “everyone loves to hear agood mule story.” Well I don’tknow about you guys, but Idon’t know any mule stories andeven if I did, I’m not sure I’dwrite an entire issue about them.But, his idea got me thinking. Isthere another animal that I couldwrite about? Is there somecritter whose stories are impor-tant to Idaho? In the end, Ipicked coyotes. As I’m sureyou’ll agree after reading thismonth’s issue, Coyote storiesare some of the best in the west. Remember to send me yoursubmissions for next month’sissue. I can’t wait to see whatyou come up with! Continued on next page

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Coyote Stories ContinuedRiver, a character named Coyoteis the star of many of these tribalstories. Coyote is especially popularin Idaho. In addition to manyother tribes, Coyote appears in thestories of the Kootenai and Coeurd’Alene to the north, the NezPerce in the central regions, andthe Shoshone to the south. Coy-ote is everywhere. Native American folktalesmight first seem unusual to thoseunfamiliar with them. Althoughmost of the characters in thestories have animal names, theyare not really animals. Coyote isnot like the canine scavenger thatroams the state today on four legs,nor does he look like a typicalIndian. Not quite an animal andnot quite human, Coyote is in-stead, a magicalcreature from thedistant past. Coyote is alsoa trickster. Atrickster is acharacter whocan be good orbad, hero orvillain, wiseman or clown.Coyote isknown for hismany daringadventures,fightingmonsters

and defeating horrible enemies tohelp the other creatures of hisworld, but he is also known forhis poor behavior. Coyote issometimes a liar and a cheater.He is often greedy and tries totake more than he needs. Al-though Coyote is clever, hisfoolish choices sometimes gethim into trouble. Another thing that might seemstrange to those of us who haven’tgrown up in a Native Americancommunity, is that Coyote storieswere not written down until

recently. Oral storytelling is animportant tradition that many ofus are unfamiliar with. Becausemost Native American tribes didnot have a written language, theycould not keep their knowledgeand history in books. Storytellingwas an important way to teachchildren about the world aroundthem. For example, a Coyote storymight teach children how to findthe North star so they would neverget lost, or it might explain thebest time and place to go salmonfishing in the area. Coyote storiesalso could teach a child how toact. Since Coyote’s bad behavioroften got him into trouble, chil-dren listening to the stories couldlearn that being good had morerewards than being bad.

AlthoughCoyote stories wereimportant teachingtools, they hadanother purpose.Before radio andtelevision andcomputers,storytelling was agreat way for thefamily to gettogether and have agood time. Imagineyou and yourfamily snuggled upto a warm campfireon a cold starrynight listening tothe fantasticadventures ofCoyote. Coyotestories are fun.n

Famous People

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Coyote is everywhere. Ifyou were to do a carefulstudy of Native American

folklore, you would find that mostof the tribes of North America tellCoyote stories. Wise or foolish,hero or troublemaker, the tricksterseems to be an important charac-ter in their oral storytelling. Butis Coyote the only trickster inIndian legend? Although coyote is popular,there are other mischief makers inNative American stories. Forexample, Sioux storytellers oftenspeak of Iktomi the spider. LikeCoyote, Iktomi can be veryhelpful to humans. In Sioux mythhe is responsible for creating timeand inventing language. Unfortu-nately he also posses some ofcoyote’s worse qualities, telling

ing them important lessons abouthow to live in their family andtribe.n

lies and playing tricks to get hisway. Masau’u, the Skeleton Man,is the trickster of the Hopi tribe.Masau’u is a shape changer whotakes many disguises. Some-times dressed as a handsomeyoung man, sometimes as afearsome skeleton, Masau’u canbe both a protector and a thief. There are other examples oftricksters from other tribes. TheBlackfoot and Piegan tell of OldMan Napi. The Lakota andCherokee have stories of atroublemaking rabbit. Butprobably the second most popu-lar trickster in Native Americanmythology is Raven. Importantto tribes in the Pacific Northwestlike the Tlingit and the Haida,Raven is a feathered version of

Coyote. Clever and very cunning,Raven can be a great friend tohumans when his mood is right.On the other hand, just like otherNative American tricksters,Raven isn’t always wise andhonest. Sometimes his desire toget something he wants, bring outhis bad side. Even though he is acreator with great power, Ravencan act like childish clown, lyingand cheating to get his way. Trickster characters are animportant part of Native Ameri-can mythology. The humorousstories about these troublemakershave entertained generations ofIndian children, as well as teach-

Raven and Other Tricksters

From the Attic

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The Nez Perce tribe tellsmany wonderful Coyotestories. In some of these

tales, real landmarks are men-tioned to teach the childrengeography and to help themappreciate the landscape. In one

of the most famous Nez Percestories, Coyote creates all of thehuman Indian tribes by cutting outthe heart of a great monster. Nearthe town of Kamiah, on theClearwater River, stands a tall

rocky hill that represents theheart of the great beast. Thisarea is protected as an impor-tant Nez Perce cultural andhistoric site. We have included a writtenversion of this famous NezPerce oral story, so that you canexperience this enjoyable pieceof Idaho folklore. Next timeyou are near Kamiah, stop andvisit “the heart of the monster.”You won’t be disappointed.

One day Coyote noticed itwas very quiet. “I wonderwhere all the animals havegone,” he thought. “I think I’llgo look for them.” Hesearched for his friends every-where, in the mountains, theforest, and near the rivers, butno one was around. Tired andready to give up, Coyote satdown to rest. “Lima, lima, lima,”shrieked a voice from below

him. It was Meadowlark. BecauseCoyote hadn’t been paying atten-tion, he had sat down upon thepoor bird and broken her leg.She was very angry, but Coyotemade her a deal to calm her down.“I will make you a new strong legout of wood if you tell me whereeveryone went.” The Meadowlark agreed.“Everybody has been swallowedup by a ferocious monster,” shesaid and then she gave Coyotedirections to where the beast waslast seen. After fixing the bird’s leg,Coyote packed his fire-makingsupplies and some knives and setout to find the monster. When hearrived where Meadowlark haddirected him, hecouldn’t believehis eyes. Be-fore him was agigantic mon-ster lying on hisbelly. Thecreature was sobig that hisback reached ashigh as the

Heart of the Monster

Continued on next page

nearby mountains. Coyote approached the greatbeast fearlessly, hoping it wouldopen its giant mouth and swallowhim up. But the monster just laythere and looked at him suspi-ciously. Coyote had a reputationas a troublemaker and the monsterdidn’t want to be tricked. Coyote tried a different plan.He walked up to the fearsomecreature with a sad look on hisface. “Help me,” he asked thebeast. “I am lonely. You haveswallowed all the animals andnow I have no one to talk with.Please eat me too, so I can be withmy friends.” Coyote was so

they turned into the humantribes that inhabit the Earthtoday. When Coyote wassatisfied that he was fin-ished, he turned to the otheranimals to show them whathe had done. Everyone wasvery thankful of Coyote’srescue, but Fox noticed aproblem. “Friend Coyote,”he said. “You have done agood job making humans,but you have created allthese people far away fromhere. You forgot to make atribe where we are stand-ing.” Fox was right. Coyotethought hard and then cameup with an idea. He washedthe monster’s blood fromhis hands and let the dropssprinkle on the ground. Thisblood turned into the NezPerce tribe.n

sincere that heconvinced themonster that hewas telling thetruth. The beastopened up hismouth and suckedCoyote down his cavernousthroat. Once inside, Coyote setimmediately to work. He calledfor all the animals who weretrapped inside to help him start afire and then he began to cut awayat the monster’s heart. When thebeast saw the smoke coming fromhis belly and felt the great pain in

his chest, he knew that Coyotehad tricked him, but by then, itwas too late. Coyote finishedslicing out the monster’s heart andall of the animals were free. In celebration of the escape,Coyote carved up the body of thegreat monster. Whenever hesliced off a piece, he would throwit far away in a different direction.Wherever these pieces landed,

Heart of the Monster Continued

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The Fun PageIn some stories, Coyote has trouble with the ferocious Grizzly Bear brothers. Can you

help Coyote avoid them? Guide Coyote through the maze to the berries without runninginto the bears. Good Luck!

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Next Month�s Activities

Well, we’ve toldyou all we knowabout Coyote

stories, but we need yourhelp so that we can learnmore. Pick from one of theactivities below or make upyour own Coyote project andsend it in to our ProspectorHeadquarters. We’ll takesome of your best work andprint it in next month’smagazine. Remember toinclude your name, yourtown, and the name of yourprospector chapter. We can’twait to see what you send in.

Singing About Coyote:Before people had writtenlanguage, all informationwas passed down from gen-eration to generation byspoken word. In thismonth’s issue we learnedabout storytelling, but thereare other ways to orallyexchange information. Twomethods that were verycommon in the past werepoems and songs. Can you

write a short Coyote tale inthe form of a poem or asong? Give it a try and sendin your results.

Calling all Tricksters:Coyote is only one of theNative American tricksters.Other tribes use ravens,skeleton men, spiders, andeven rabbits to tell theirstories. Can you come upwith another trickster? Pickan animal or a creature thatyou think would make agood trickster and draw apicture of him or her for theother prospectors. Don’tforget to tell us why youthink your animal wouldmake a great trickster.

Coyote (A.K.A Canislatrans): We have learned alot about the magical trick-ster, Coyote, but we haven’tlearned anything about realcoyotes. In Idaho, coyotesare one of the most commonpredators. Using your li-brary or the internet, do a

little research and tell ussome facts about real coy-otes. What do they eat?What kind of noises do theymake? How big are they? Ifyou find out the information,we’ll print it here.

Send in your work byDecember 12th to:

Prospector ClubLucky NoahIdaho State HistoricalMuseum610 North Julia Davis DriveBoise, ID 83702

Or email it to us atkzwolfer@ishs.state.id.us.

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Mammoths were heavy, hairy andbig,Their trunks were long and theirtusks could dig.Their giant mouths could eat aton,And their big, huge feet couldsmash the sun.It’s sad to see that they’re gonetoday,But it got so hot that they couldn’tstay

Katie KnickRiverside ChapterBoise

In the morning light,I looked from my window to seean amazing sight.A Mammoth was there!Stripping the trees bare.He looked up at me and snickeredto me.Nice and kindly too.

I ran downstairs to give him somefruit.When I did, he grabbed the food.He happily ate it up.So now he was my friend,But he gets mad now and then.So that’s my mammoth I found.

Michelle WuRiverside ChapterBoise

If I woke up with a mammoth inmy backyard I would be so happy.I would go get dressed and runoutside. I would go and jump onthe mammoth and ride it for thewhole day. Then I would go tosleep and wake up in the morningtelling everybody to come to mybackyard. Everybody would be sohappy. Then when I woke up inthe morning nobody was there noteven the mammoth. Then Iremembered mammoths areextinct.

Brink BolenRiverside ChapterBoise

Eric RobbinsRiverside ChapterBoise

Look at these great submissions on last month’s mammoth theme! Thanks for the help prospectors.

From the Prospectors

Once I saw a mammoth in mybackyard,He was even bigger than my SaintBernard.

He would eat the grass,And stomp on glasshe even scared a little lass.

It would moan and groanWhen he saw my friend gone,And then he stood as still as abone.

As the end of the day drew near,that mammoth would quiver andsneerAnd then he would disappear.

Hannah LovelessRiverside ChapterBoise

Mammoth mammoth in my yard,Mammoth mammoth acting like aguard.Mammoth mammoth is playingMammoth mammoth is playingon barsMammoth mammoth on somecars.

Nathaniel WilderRiverside ChapterBoise

Isabella CohenRiverside ChapterBoise

Robby GonzalesRiverside ChapterBoise

Kevallyn DrakeRiverside ChapterBoise

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Mammoth lived in South Central Idaho over two million years ago. They were gigantic crea-tures having many elephant-like features. Mammoths had long, curved tusks up to thirteen feetlong, and big humps on their backs which made them big and strong. The Columbia mammothswere sixteen feet tall, weighing up to ten tons in all. The wooly mammoth had a thick hairy coatto help it adapt to its cold, Ice Age habitat. They were plant eating herbivores, not meat eatingcarnivores. They are now extinct, disappearing 10,000 years ago scientists think.

Paul SchroederRiverside ChapterBoise

Resources for Teachers

Field Trip Ideas

Nez Perce National Historical Park39063 U.S. Highway 95Spalding, ID 83540-9715(208) 843-2261In east Kamiah, 2 miles upstream from the bridgethat crosses the Clearwater.Visit the rock formation that is the physical andspiritual base for the Nez Perce “Heart of the Mon-ster” creation story.

Books

Although there are many sources for Coyote tales,keep in mind that they all aren’t appropriate forsmall children. Coyote’s adventures can sometimesbe a bit raunchy or violent for the 4th grade. Makesure to preview any reading accordingly.

Boas, F.Folktales of Salishan and Sahaptin TribesGE Stechert and Co. 1917Stories from the Pend d Orielle, Cour d Alene, andNez Perce tribes.

Bright, W.A Coyote ReaderUniversity of California Press. 1993Filled with coyote tales from many Indian cultures,this book is a good overview of the importance ofCoyote in Native American folktales.

Erdoes, R. and Ortiz, A.American Indian Trickster TalesViking. 1998The best collection of Native American tricksterstories around. Features Coyote, Raven, Spider, andmore.

Hines, D.Tales of the Nez PerceYe Gallein Press. 1984A collection of Nez Perce folktales including someof Coyote.

Linderman, F.Kootenai Why StoriesUniversity of Nebraska Press. 1997An overview of Kootenai stories.

Nez Perce National Historical ParkAnd It Is Still That WayNational Park ServiceAn excellent teacher’s guide to Nez Perce oralstorytelling, complete with lesson plans and otherresources. Available through the Nez Perce Na-tional Historical Park.

Slickpoo, A. editorNu Mee Poom Tit Wah Tit (Nez Perce Legends)Nez Perce Tribe. 1972Nez Perce Coyote stories as told directly by thetribe.

Smith, AnneShoshone TalesUniversity of Utah Press. 1993A collection of Shoshone mythological stories.

Strauss, S.Coyote Stories for ChildrenBeyond Words publishing. 1991Four Coyote stories appropriate for children.

Walker, D.E.Indians of IdahoUniversity of Idaho Press. 1978A cultural and historical overview of all of theIdaho tribes.

Walker, D.E.Nez Perce Coyote Tales: The Myth CycleUniversity of Oklahoma Press. 1994Coyote stories in the Nez perce culture.

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Web Resources

The Biology of the Coyotehttp://www.desertusa.com/june96/du_cycot.html

Native American Oral Tales and Songshttp://members.cox.net/academia/naindex.html

A Collection of Short Coyote Stories from Different Tribeshttp://www.indians.org/welker/coyote.htm

Official Website of The Fort Hall Shoshone BannockTribeshttp://www.shoshonebannocktribes.com

Official Website of the Coeur d’Alene Tribehttp://www.cdatribe.org

Official Website of the Nez Perce Tribehttp://www.nezperce.org/main/html

Lesson Plan

Goal of LessonOnce you have learned to communicate in a worldof written language, it is difficult to switch over toan oral culture. Oral storytelling is an art and a skillthat seems deceptively simple until tried for the firsttime. In this lesson, the class will try to pass an oralstory from person to person and conclude with adiscussion on the differences between oral andwritten storytelling.

InventoryCopy of Coyote creation story

ActivityExplain to the students that for a short time you aregoing to pretend that nobody in the class knowshow to read or write. Just like the early Indiantribes of Idaho, all of your storytelling is doneorally. To practice that skill the group is going to tryto pass a Shoshone-Paiute creation story fromperson to person. If the group is careful, the storymight remain intact from beginning to end.

Pick the first student and bring him or her to a placeout of listening range of the rest of the class. Readthe Coyote creation story (written below) to thestudent twice, making surehe or she fully under-stand it. After the student is confident, bring thenext student volunteer up. Still out of earshot of therest of the class, the first student must recite thestory, to the best of his or her memory, to the secondstudent and then sit down. The second student willthen pass the story on to the third and so on untilthere is only one student left. This last student willrecite the tale to the class. Immediately after thestudent is done, read the original written story outloud to the class so that they can compare the twoversions.

Coyote’s ChildrenOnce when Coyote was young, he visited a far off

land. There he married his wife and had manychildren. These children were the Indians. Whenhe decided to go home and leave the foreign land,he put all of his children in a basket with a lid. Hiswife warned him not to open the basket until he gothome to the Rocky Mountains. While he was on hislong journey, he heard singing inside the basket. Hedecided to slip the lid off so that he could betterhear the voices. Immediately, the children ran out inall directions, all over the world. Luckily, he wasable to close the basket before the last two childrencould get out. He carried these two home and theybecame the Shoshone and Paiute people.

DiscussionWas the first story and the last story the same?Chances are, like the classic game of telephone, thestories will be very different. Discuss what ele-ments of the story were the same and what was lost.

Why did the story change? The students willprobably realize that the tale mutated because eachchild remembered it differently. Does this mean theCoyote stories told by Native Americans wouldchange every time they told them? Yes and no.Early Native Americans lived in an oral culture.They had the skills necessary to remember and passa story from person to person. Since this was theway the tribe shared their history from one genera-tion to the next, it was important that they wereaccurate. This isn’t to say the stories were identicalin each telling. Each storyteller might emphasizedifferent parts of the story or add different informa-tion depending on his or her intended audience.Stories were both educational and entertaining, sothe storytellers were allowed a little creative license.

Are there tricks you can use to help you betterremember a story? In some parts of the world,stories and histories were transformed into poemsand stories. Sometimes using catchy rhymes ormusical tunes makes information easier to remem-ber.

Oral Storytelling

As a class, set up a grid on the board and try toidentify some advantages and disadvantages of bothwritten and oral storytelling. Compare and contrastthe two forms of communication. Is one better forgroup use? Is one more accurate? Which helps tobuild family bonds?