American Indian Trickster Tales: The Coyote Hero

Author: Traditional Shasta

Time Period: 1001 CE–1500 CE; 1901 CE–1950 CE; 1951 CE–2000 CE

Country or Culture: North America

Genre: Folktale

Overview

Coyote is among the most popular figures in American Indian folklore and mythology, particularly in a story type known as trickster tales. These tales showcase protagonists who often use deception to carry out transformations, gain an advantage over others, or simply embark on adventures. The American Indian trickster often appears as an animal, such as a raven, spider, blue jay, mink, rabbit, or coyote, the latter the most popular trickster incarnation. Among the Shastas of the Pacific Northwest, Coyote appears in numerous tales and is especially intriguing in “The Death of the Grizzly Bears.”

In this story, Coyote lives with his wife, Louse, and ten grizzly bears, one of whom mocks a neighboring orphan boy. As an act of revenge, the boy cuts off the chief bear’s foot while the animal sleeps, leading the bears to suspect the boy as the culprit. Coyote wishes to befriend and protect the boy, so he insists on the boy’s innocence, even though in reality he witnessed the crime. He repeatedly tells the bears that the chief’s foot fell into the fire and offers to visit the boy to discover the truth. Coyote instructs the boy that when the chief bear questions him, he should consent to being swallowed by the bear. The boy does so, and once inside the bear’s body, he cuts out the animal’s heart, causing its death. Coyote then tells the other bears not to bury the animal in the ground, thus allowing the boy to escape from inside its body. Coyote pretends to visit the boy’s grandmother but actually goes to help the boy transport the bear meat. The youngest surviving bear dreams of Coyote’s betrayal, and one of the bears sets out to discover the truth. He chases Coyote and the boy, who escape to the boy’s house, the door of which the boy magically transforms into stone. As the bear tries to enter, the boy heats rocks and then allows the bear to enter, hind feet first. Trapping the bear in the door, he kills it with the hot rocks. In this way, all the bears are destroyed except for the youngest, who survives to become the ancestor of all future bears.

As complex as he is popular, Coyote is known to play many and often contradictory roles in American Indian stories. This Shasta tale is no exception, as Coyote deceives his friends to help the boy and possesses supernatural powers yet is clearly neither omniscient nor omnipotent. A symbolic analysis of this and several other Shasta tales addresses the mystery of Coyote’s significance, which is notoriously difficult in folklore studies. Is he a semidivine rebel hero, living on the margins of society and challenging its norms, a comic and cosmic supernatural force of creativity, or a warning of the dangers of social chaos? Although there is no universal meaning of Coyote, a symbolic interpretation unearths several common features across a sample of Shasta tales and reveals Coyote’s profound significance as a reflection of human nature, culture, and survival.

Summary

“The Death of the Grizzly Bears” begins by introducing Coyote’s household, which includes his wife, Louse, and ten grizzly bears. An orphan boy lives nearby with his grandmother and often visits the animals. One day, the boy arrives, and one of the bears greets him, declaring that he had known the boy’s parents, who were good hunters and gatherers. The bear adds, “But now you are alone and poor” (Farrand 214). This comment brings the boy to tears, and when he returns home, his grandmother scolds him for visiting the bears: “The Grizzlies are mean, and always scoff at you. It was they who killed your people” (214). That evening, the boy sharpens his knife and returns to the house of Coyote and the bears, hiding in the shrubbery until all are asleep, at which point he cuts off the chief bear’s foot and dashes home. The bear later awakens in pain, lamenting that someone has cut off his foot. Coyote then shouts harshly at the other grizzlies to wake up because their chief has been injured.

“After a while one of the Grizzly Brothers recollected that on the previous day they had mocked the orphan boy, and expressed his belief that it was the boy who cut off the chief’s foot. Thereupon Coyote said, ‘I’ll go to the boy and ask him.’ The others agreed, and Coyote started out. He found the boy eating bear-meat. He warned him to keep quiet, and not to say anything when questioned about the happenings of last night.”

In fact, Coyote witnessed the boy cutting off the foot and has thrown the bear’s discarded foot bones and moccasin into the fire because he wants to befriend and protect the boy. Coyote tells the chief bear that his foot was burned in the fire after it slipped off of a footrest. The chief believes this, but his brothers are dubious, and Louse states, “I thought I saw someone go out last night” (215). Coyote claims that he was awake the whole night and that no one went out, repeatedly refuting his wife’s words. Recalling the mockery of the orphan boy, one of the grizzly bears suggests that the boy cut off the chief’s foot, so Coyote offers to visit the boy to get to the bottom of things. Coyote finds the boy eating bear meat and instructs him to “keep quiet” about the previous night’s events. Coyote returns to the bears and declares, “The poor boy is crying. He is not feeling well. I am sure he did not cut off your leg” (215). When the bear insists that the boy is the culprit, Coyote is sent to bring the boy to be questioned by the chief. This time, Coyote tells the boy that if the chief asks if he should crush the boy with his hands, the boy should say no, but if he asks, “Shall I swallow you,” the boy should consent to this.

Confronted by the grizzly chief, the boy confesses to the deed, and when the bear asks if the boy cut off his foot because the bear had mocked him, the boy concedes this as well. When the bear asks if he should “pulverize” the boy, the child refuses but agrees to be swallowed by the bear. Inside the bear’s body, the boy uses his knife to cut out the animal’s heart, killing him. The other grizzlies plan to bury the chief in the ground, but Coyote tells them not to do this to prevent others from stealing the carcass for food. Instead, he tells them to build a fence to surround the bear and to cover the body with brush. The grizzlies follow these instructions, which allow the boy to come out of the chief’s body when the other bears have gone.

Next, Coyote once again deceives the bears, telling them that he wishes to visit the grandmother to see “how she is getting on” (216). Finding the boy at home, Coyote explains everything he has done and then returns home to tell the bears that he plans to stay with the grandmother for a while. In fact, he wishes to help the boy transport the bear meat. That night, however, the youngest grizzly dreams that Coyote is “help[ing] the boy to carry the meat of his dead brother” and asks another bear the next morning to go out to verify the dream. One of the bears sees Coyote transporting the last piece of meat, so he chases the boy and Coyote, who arrive safely at the boy’s home. The boy changes the door into stone simply by wishing that it happen. The grizzly then circles the house, demanding, “Boy, how can I get inside?” Meanwhile, the boy heats rocks and tells the grizzly that he must enter the house with his hind feet first. He opens the door to allow half of the bear’s body in and then “wishe[s] the door to close tight” (216). When the door traps the bear, the boy kills him with the hot rocks. He kills the other bears in the same way except for the youngest, who becomes the ancestor of all grizzlies.

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