What Role Does Coyote Play In Native American Culture

In Native American culture, myths were very important in teaching lessons. These lessons were taught through characters, one of them being “coyote”, who was very influential. Coyote plays a key role in many myths, 3 of those myths are, “Coyote & the Buffalo”, “Fox, Coyote & whale”, and “Coyote finishes his work”. In these myths he is used as a tool to give reason to natural phenomena and send valuable messages to the audience.

In the first mentioned myth, coyote & the Buffalo , the lessons that are being portrayed are; the effects of immature actions and not to be greedy. Coyote begins the story acting very childish and immature by disrespecting the bones of an old foe. These actions almost cause coyote to lose his life, but he is given

Coyote, & Whale” teaches a whole different lesson. In this myth Fox’s wife leaves him for the whale, so Coyote assists his brother, the fox, in helping him win her back. Although Coyote isn’t the main character, he plays a vital role in conveying the lesson in this love story. Not only does the Coyote help display morals, his character changes from an immature trickster to a matured sidekick that displays family values. Towards the beginning of the story, Coyote warns fox that his wife may love someone else. Fox doesn’t believe Coyote until one day they come back from hunting and they find her near the river making love to the Whale/man. “This monster-man made love to the wife of fox”.(Fox, Coyote, & Whale). The whale is described as being a monster because of his actions symbolically and his physical abilities. The emotional fall caused by this event motivated Fox to fight to win his wife back, starting with the confronting of the two water maidens. The two brothers threatened information out of the water maidens, and later used the maiden’s outfits after they snapped their necks, on the journey to rescue Fox’s wife. When they arrive they wait until the night to make their move, “ Fox slipped up to the whale and cut the monster’s head with a flint knife. At the same time Coyote picked up the stolen wife and ran for the Broken canoe.”(Fox, Coyote, & Whale) . Without the Coyote the Fox would not have been able to steal back his wife. Overall these

This overview of Coyote shows his trickster trait as he helped develop the earth and shape the way it is today( according to legend ). Coyote not only had special abilities, but he used them to create the Native Americans and teach the different tribes their different languages. He shows the Natives their ways and teaches them how to live, “He taught the people how to eat and hunt the buffalo and catch eagles”(Coyote finishes his work). This excerpt from the myth shows how sacred and significant Coyotes figure is to culture, being that he is their creator. Coyote’s character is shown in this part because it show his knowledge and power, but he is not always that way. There were some downsides to coyote’s character, which were the tricks he liked to play. These acts of immaturity went as far as getting himself or others killed. His brother the fox eventually got tired of resurrecting him from death. After a long while on earth, The Chief of the Earth seen that the Coyote had done all that could’ve been done so he went to take Coyote away. “Coyote has done almost everything he is capable of doing”(Coyote Finishes his work). Once the creator speaks to himself he confronts the coyote in the form of an old man. As he confronts Coyote, Coyote does not believe that the old man is the creator, so he challenges him and the old man proves who he is. The