Coyote

I do not understand why coyotes have such a bad image. In fact the only well known coyote is While E. Coyote from the Road Runner cartoons. And he seems to be pretty clever.

The most impressing thing about him is that he gets mail order delivered to the desert, without living in a house or street or even village. How could the postman find him? Maybe While gave him his coordinates ...

Coyote has always been a trickster figure, so it is no wonder he has been chosen to be the famous Wile E. Coyote. Cartoons are the home of the trickster-myth par excellance.

Only half-awake and thinking it was early morning, Coyote jumped at the sound of Mole´s voice and ran to the lodge of the Spirit Chief. None of the other Chip-chap-tiqulk were there. Coyote laughed. Blinking his sleepy eyes, he walked into the lodge.
»I am going to be Kee-lau-naw,« he announced in a strong voice. »That shall be my name.«
»The name Grizzly Bear was taken at dawn,« the Spirit Chief answered.
»Then I shall be Milka-noups,« said Coyote, and his voice was not so loud.
»Eagle flew away at sunup,« the other replied.
»Well, I shall be called En-tee-tee-ueh,« Coyote said in a voice that was not loud at all.
»The name Salmon also has been taken,« explained the Spirit Chief. »All the names except your own have been taken. No one wished to steal your name.«
Poor Coyote´s knees grew weak. He sank down beside the fire that blazed in the great tepee, and the heart of Hah-ah´Eel-mé-whem was touched.
»Sin-ka-lip´,« said that Person, "you must keep your name. It is a good name for you. You slept long because I wanted you to be the last one here. I have important work for you, much for you to do before the New People come. You are to be chief of all the tribes.
"Many bad creatures inhabit the earth. They bother and kill people, and the tribes cannot increase as I wish. These En-alt-na Skil-ten-People – Devouring Monsters – cannot keep on like that. They must be stopped. It is for you to conquer them. For doing that, for all the good things you do, you will be honored and praised by the people that are here now and that come afterward. But, for the foolish and mean things you do, you will be laughed at and despised. That you cannot help. It is your way.

the sound a coyote makes is not the same as the stereotype yelping howl in cowboy movies. I was camping in California and heard coyotes howling in the moonlight. They sounded like ghosts crying loudly. It was both eerie and beautifully natural.

Coyote went as a man to the village where three sisters dwelt and met with the eldest there who had been young and beautiful but now was old, and who said, 'Fool, I know you, Coyote, and I will not fall for your tricks. Leave or I shall call my husband.'

Coyote left her and went to the house of the middle sister who had been young and beautiful but now showed the signs of age, and who said, 'Fool, my sister has warned me of you, and I know your tricks. Begone, Coyote, or I shall call my husband.'

Coyote left her, and came at last to the house of the youngest sister, who said, 'My sisters have warned me of you, and told me to call my husband if you came, but tell me this, Coyote: since I am young, and beautiful, and have a husband, why should I want to be with Old Coyote?' Coyote replied, 'Because you are still young, and beautiful, as your sisters once were, and like your sisters you have a husband. But your sisters are old, and I am Coyote, and neither has had me.'

That night Coyote lay with the youngest sister while her husband was away hunting, and while she lived she looked always young and beautiful.

the coyote trickster stories are some of the most entertaining of the native american myths. there are other trickster animals, but coyote is probably the most important and widespread.