4.2.2: Coyote (Native American)

Whereas Loki represents the disruptive aspect of tricksters, the North American Native Coyote represents both the creative power of the universe, and in that sense, a very parental role, as well as a trickster character. Often, there are multiple coyotes, as with the Chumash myths (a tribal community from central-southern California and the Channel Islands). In this fashion, they operate as cosmic opposites, creating at once tension in addition to balance.

Unlike Loki, who seems to possess a cat-like ability to land on his feet, Coyote is just as often the butt of the jokes he commits on others in the animistic Native pantheon. In a Chumash tale, Coyote’s envy of the red-headed woodpecker makes him easy prey for the sarcastic bird, who suggests Coyote could get a red crest by simply sticking a hot coal upon his head. Coyote foolishly complies, resulting in his self-inflicted wound and the mocking laughter of the woodpecker (Blackburn 231).

In several tribal traditions, however, Coyote serves as a benefactor to people, by bringing them fire from the mountain. In the Navajo tradition, Coyote orchestrates the theft of fire, using the abilities of the Bird People, including Hawk (who burns his tail with the embers, etiologically explaining his name: Red Tailed hawk). When the birds’ efforts all fall short, Coyote succeeds by tying a fagot of wood to his white tail, which burns as he runs down the mountain. Though he has sacrificed his beautiful white tail which would be forever black-tipped, he has served the people, saving them from a deadly cold winter (Newcomb 138-50). In these traditions, the actions of Coyote remind the audience that like their spiritual ancestors, humans are a complex network of noble and animalistic actions.