American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends)

by Richard Erdoes

  Table of Contents

  PENGUIN BOOKS AMERICAN INDIAN TRICKSTER TALES

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Introduction

  PART ONE - COYOTE CREATES THE WORLD—AND A FEW OTHER THONGS

  THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD - {Yokuts} I

  SUN AND MOON IN A BOX - {Zuni}

  COYOTE STEALS THE SUN - {Miwok}

  ORIGIN OF THE MOON AND THE SUN - {Kalispel}

  HOW PEOPLE WERE MADE - {Miwok}

  COYOTE STEALS THE SUMMER - {Crow}

  COYOTE AND EAGLE VISIT THE LAND OF THE DEAD - {Yakima}

  COYOTE STEALS FIRE - {Klamath}

  COYOTE KILLS TERRIBLE MONSTER - {Salish}

  THE SEVEN DEVILS MOUNTAINS - {Nez Percé}

  PART TWO - UP TO NO GOOD

  COYOTE TAUNTS THE GRIZZLY BEAR - {Kutenai}

  HOW LOCUST TRICKED COYOTE - {Zuni}

  COYOTE-GIVING - {Paiute}

  PUTTING A SADDLE ONCOYOTE’S BACK - {Northern Pueblo}

  A SATISFYING MEAL - {Hopi}

  A STRONG HEART - {Arikara}

  BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME - {Hopi}

  LONG EARS OUTSMARTS COYOTE - {Pueblo}

  OLD MAN COYOTE AND THE BUFFALO - {Crow}

  COYOTE AND BOBCAT HAVE THEIR FACES DONE - {Ute}

  THE ADVENTURES OF A MEATBALL - {Comanche}

  COYOTE GETS STUCK - {Shasta}

  ANYTHING BUT PINON PITCH! - {Navajo}

  FAT, GREASE, AND BERRIES - {Crow}

  DON’T BE TOO CURIOUS - {Lakota}

  PART THREE - COYOTE’S AMOROUS ADVENTURES

  COYOTE’S AMOROUS ADVENTURES - {Shasta}

  TWO RASCALS AND THEIR WIVES - {Pueblo}

  COYOTE SLEEPS WITH HIS OWN DAUGHTERS - {Southern Ute}

  OLD MAN COYOTE MEETS COYOTE WOMAN - {Blackfoot}

  COYOTE AND FOX DRESS UP - {Nez Percé}

  COYOTE AND THE GIRLS - {Karok and Yurok}

  COYOTE KEEPS HIS DEAD WIFE’S GENITALS - {Lipan Apache}

  THE TOOTHED VAGINA - {Yurok}

  SOMETHING FISHY GOING ON - {Athapascan}

  WHERE DO BABIES COME FROM? - {Karuk}

  WINYAN-SHAN UPSIDE DOWN - {Sioux}

  PART FOUR - THE TROUBLE WITH ROSE HIPS

  COYOTE, SKUNK, AND THE BEAVERS - {Wichita}

  MONSTER SKUNK FARTHING EVERYONE TO DEATH - {Cree}

  COYOTE SELLS A BURRO THAT DEFECATES MONEY - {Lipan Apache}

  COYOTE THE CREDULOUS - {Taos}

  THE TROUBLE WITH ROSE HIPS - {Lipan Apache}

  PART FIVE - IKTOMI THE SPIDER-MAN

  SEVEN TOES - {Assiniboine}

  TRICKING THE TRICKSTER - {Sioux}

  IKTOMI AND THE MAM-EATING MONSTER - {Lakota}

  IKTOMI, FLINT BOY, AND THE GRIZZLY - {Lakota}

  IKTOMI AND THE BUFFALO CALF - {Assiniboine}

  IKTO’S GRANDCHILD DEFEATS SIYOKO - {Rosebud Sioux}

  THE CHEATER CHEATED - {Lakota}

  THE SPIDER CRIES “WOLF” - {Rosebud Sioux}

  TIT FOR TAT - {Omaha}

  IKTOMI TAKES BACK A GIFT - {Rosebud Sioux}

  IKTOMI AND THE WILD DUCKS - {Minneconjou Sioux}

  IKTOMI TRYING TO OUTRACE BEAVER - {Santee}

  TOO SMART FOR HIS OWN GOOD - {Sioux}

  PART SIX - SPIDER-MAN INLOVE

  OH, IT’S YOU! - {Lakota}

  TOO MANY WOMEN - {Lakota}

  FORBIDDEN FRUIT - {Lakota and Rosebud Sioux}

  THE SPIDERS GIVE BIRTH TO THE PEOPLE - {Arikara}

  THE WINKTE WAY - {Omaha}

  PART SEVEN - THE VEEHO CYCLE

  HE HAS BEEN SAYING BAD THINGS ABOUT YOU - {Northern Cheyenne}

  THE POSSIBLE BAG - {Northern Cheyenne}

  HAIR LOSS - {Northern Cheyenne}

  BROTHER, SHARPEN MY LEG! - {Cheyenne}

  VEEHO HAS HIS BACK SCRAPED - {Northern Cheyenne}

  HE SURE WAS A GOOD SHOT - {Cheyenne}

  THE ONLY MAN AROUND - {Northern Cheyenne}

  PART EIGHT - THE NIXANT AND SITCONSKI CYCLES

  WHEN THE PEOPLE WERE WILD - {Gros Ventre}

  THE TALKING PENIS - {Gros Ventre}

  HAIRY LEGS - {Gros Ventre}

  SITCONSKI AND THE BUFFALO SKULL - {Assiniboine}

  SHE REFUSED TO HAVE HIM - {Assiniboine}

  NI‘HANCAN AND WHIRLWIND WOMAN - {Arapaho}

  NI‘HANCAN AND THE RACE FOR WIVES - {Arapaho}

  PART NINE - MAGICAL MASTER RABBIT

  LITTLE RABBIT FIGHTS THE SUN - {Ute}

  THE LONG BLACK STRANGER - {Omaha}

  WHY THE POSSUM’S TAIL IS BARE - {Cherokee}

  RABBIT ESCAPES FROM THE BOX - {Creek}

  RABBIT AND POSSUM ON THE PROWL - {Cherokee}

  TAR BABY - {Biloxi}

  DON’T BELIEVE WHAT PEOPLE TELL YOU - {San Ildefonso or San Juan}

  PART TEN - NANABOZHO AND WHISKEY JACK

  NANABOZHO AND THE FISH CHIEF - {Great Lakes Tribes}

  WHY WE HAVE TO WORK SO HARD MAKING MAPLE SUGAR - {Menomini}

  WHO IS LOOKING ME IN THE FACE ? - {Menomini}

  WHY WOMEN HAVE THEIR MOON-TIME - {Menomini}

  WHISKEY JACK WANTS TO FLY - {Cree and Métis}

  WESAKAYCHAK, THE WINDIGO, AND THE ERMINE - {Cree and Métis}

  PART ELEVEN - OLD MAN NAPI CHOOSES A WIFE

  CHOOSING MATES - {Blackfoot}

  NAPI RACES COYOTE FOR A MEAL - {Blackfoot}

  MAGIC LEGGINGS - {Blackfoot}

  PART TWELVE - GLOOSKAP THE GREAT

  HOW THE LORD OF MEN AND BEASTS STROVE WITH THE MIGHTY WASIS AND WAS SHAMEFULLY ...

  GLOOSKAP TURNS MEN INTO RATTLESNAKES - {Passamaquoddy}

  KULOSKAP AND THE ICE-GIANTS - {Passamaquoddy}

  QUESTIONS, QUESTIONS - {Passamaquoddy}

  A NEW WAY TO TRAVEL - {Micmac}

  GLOOSKAP GRANTS FOUR WISHES - {Micmac}

  A PUFF OF HIS PIPE - {Micmac}

  PART THIRTEEN - SKELETON MAN

  WHILE THE GODS SNORED - {Hopi}

  HOW MASAAW SLEPT WITH A BEAUTIFUL MAIDEN - {Hopi}

  SCARED TO DEATH - {Hopi}

  PART FOURTEEN - RAVEN LIGHTS THE WORLD

  HUNGRY FOR CLAMS - {Hoh and Quileute}

  GIVE IT BACK! GIVE IT BACK! - {Haida}

  RAVEN STEALS THE MOON - {Haida}

  YEHL, THE LAZY ONE - {Haida}

  RAVEN AND HIS SLAVE - {Tsimshian}

  A LOUSY FISHERMAN - {Haida}

  RAVEN LIGHTS THE WORLD - {Tlingit}

  APPENDIX

  SOURCES

  INDEX OF TALES

  PENGUIN BOOKS AMERICAN INDIAN TRICKSTER TALES

  Richard Erdoes is an illustrator, photographer, and author of more than twenty books on the American West, including the classics Lame Deer: Seeker of Wisdom and Lakota Woman. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, and educated in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, he now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His photographs have been published in National Geographic, Life, and many other magazines, and he created the illustrations that appear in this book.

  Alfonso Ortiz was born at San Juan, a Tewa pueblo in New Mexico, and was Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico. He was a MacArthur Fellow, the author of The Tewa World, and the contributing editor of the two Southwest volumes of the Smithsonian’s Handbook of the North American Indian. He died in 1997.

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  Published by the Penguin Group

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  First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin.

  a member of Penguin Putnam Inc., 1998

  Published in Penguin Books 1999

  Copyright © Richard Erdoes and the Estate of Alfonso Ortiz, 1998

  Illustrations copyright © Richard Erdoes, 1998

  All rights reserved

  Grateful acknowledgment is made for permission to reprint the following copyrighted works:

  “Origin of the Moon and the Sun” from lndian Legends of the NorthernRockies by Ella Clark.

  By permission of the University of Oklahoma Press.

  “Coyote and Eagle Visit the Land of the Dead” from Indian Legends ofthePacific Northwest

  by Ella Clark. Copyright © 1953 The Regents of the University of California;

  © renewed 1981 Ella E. Clark. By permission of the University of California Press.

  “The Adventures of a Meatball” from Comanche Texts by Elliott Canonge.

  By permission of the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

  “Where Do Babies Come From?” from “Karuk Indian Myths”

  by John P. Harrington, Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 107, 1932.

  By permission of the Smithsonian Institution Press.

  “Napi Races Coyote for a Meal” from The SunCameDown by Percy Bullchild. Copyright

  © 1985 by Percy Bullchild.

  “How Maasaw Slept with a Beautiful Maiden” and “How Maasaw

  and the People of Orayvi Got Scared to Death Once” (retitled “Scared to Death”)

  from Stories of Maasaw, A Hopi God by Ekkehart Malotki and Michael Lomatuway‘ma.

  Copyright © 1987 by the University of Nebraska Press.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-17406-7

  1. Indians of North America—Folklore. 2. Tales—North America. 3. Trickster.

  I. Erdoes, Richard. II. Ortiz, Alfonso, 1939-1997.

  E98.F6A48 1998

  398.2’08997—dc21 97-37763

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  This book is dedicated to the memory of Professor Alfonso Ortiz, my coauthor and lifelong friend. He was a man of wisdom, an eminent scholar, a beloved teacher, and a storyteller with a gentle sense of humor. He lives on in his work and in all of us who had the privilege of knowing him.

  INTRODUCTION

  Of all the characters in myths and legends told around the world through the centuries—courageous heroes, scary monsters, rapturous virgins—it’s the Trickster who provides the real spark in the action—always hungry for another meal swiped from someone else’s kitchen, always ready to lure someone else’s wife into bed, always trying to get something for nothing, shifting shapes (and even sex), getting caught in the act, ever scheming, never remorseful. Tales in which the lowly and apparently weak play pranks and outwit the high and mighty have delighted young and old all over the world for centuries. Each culture usually focuses on one or two characters who turn up in a myriad of disguises and situations. In Germany, it is Till Eulenspiegel; in France they are Reynard the Fox and Gargantua and Pantagruel; in Greece, Karagöz; and in Turkey it’s Nasr-eddin, the hodja (clown-priest), whose antics are passed on from generation to generation. Loki is the mischief-making sky traveler in Norse mythology, and the famous Punch and Judy puppet shows performed in French parks and country fairs were really Trickster tales played out in a domestic situation.

  While in Old World legends and fairy tales the Trickster stories play only a minor part, in Native American folklore Trickster takes center stage. Unlike his European counterparts, who are almost always human males, the New World Trickster is usually the personification of an animal—though he’s known to assume human shape if it suits his purposes. The traditions of various tribes feature many different animal characters—Iktomi, the Sioux Spider-Man; Raven; Mink; Rabbit; or Blue Jay—but Coyote is the most popular prankster of all. Tales of Coyote’s wild and wicked adventures are told from the Arctic down to Mexico, and across the continent from ocean to ocean. There are probably more tales about Coyote than there are about all the other Native American Tricksters put together, and probably all the other characters, too.

  Indian folklore also broadens the role of the Trickster character enormously. In European tales, the Trickster is a jokester and mischief maker, and usually little else. By contrast, Iktomi, the Sioux Spider-Man, and Rabbit Boy are complicated culture heroes. We certainly see them, in classic Trickster style, being clever and foolish at the same time, smart-asses who outsmart themselves. But they are much more than that. Iktomi is a supernatural character with broad powers; Rabbit Boy stars in important creation myths, as the creator. Iktomi is powerful as well as powerless; he is a prophet, a liar who sometimes tricks by using the truth. He is a spider but transforms himself into a man, bigger than life and smaller than a pea. He is a clown, often with a serious message. Like Coyote and Veeho, he has a strong amorous streak and at times seems completely driven by sex.

  Coyote, part human and part animal, taking whichever shape he pleases, combines in his nature the sacredness and sinfulness, grand gestures and pettiness, strength and weakness, joy and misery, heroism and cowardice that together form the human character. The tales in this book star Coyote the godlike creator, the bringer of light, the monster-killer, the thief, the miserable little cheat, and, of course, the lecher. As a culture hero, Old Man Coyote makes the earth, animals, and humans. He is the Indian Prometheus, bringing fire and daylight to the people. He positions the sun, moon, and stars in their proper places. He teaches humans how to live. As Trickster, he is greedy, gluttonous, and thieving. During his numberless exploits he often teams up with other animal characters such as Fox, Badger, or Rabbit, usually competing with them for food or women, sometimes winning and sometimes losing.

  When it comes to Coyote’s amorous adventures, keep in mind that he is no different from the gods of Greek and Roman mythology, who in many classic tales are depicted as philanderers, adulterers, rapists, and child abusers. Mighty Zeus has innumerable extramarital affairs, often with mortal women. Like Native American Tricksters, Zeus and others in the Pantheon are shape-shifters, taking on the form of animals to seduce maidens. With Europa, Zeus disguises himself as a gentle white bull. In the shape of a swan he makes love to Leda. He impregnates Danae in the form of a shower of gold. Assuming the shape of an eagle, he kidnaps Ganymede, a handsome little boy. Hera, wife of mighty Zeus, is often depicted—like Coyote’s wife—as a jealous shrew who has her husband tailed (without much success). Coyote also displays, at different times, Pandora’s curiosity, Prometheus’s daring, and even faces death as well as Orpheus—but all with his own style.

  Just as in real life Coyote survives and thrives in spite of traps, poison, and a rancher’s bullets, so the Coyote of legend survives the onslaught of white American culture. As Henry Crow Dog, Rosebud Sioux wise man and traditionalist, put it, “Coyote stories will never die.”

  Iktomi the Spider, Ikto for short, also known as Unktomi, or Wauncha, the mocker, is the principal Trickster of the Lakota and Dakota (Sioux) tribes. Sometimes a wise god, sometimes a fool, Iktomi, according to Lakota tradition, is responsible for the creation of time and space. He invented language and gave the animals their name
s. As a prophet he foretold the coming of the white man.

  According to author James Walker, Iktomi has his roots in Ksa, the god of wisdom: “Because Ksa had used his wisdom to cause a goddess to hide her face in shame and a god to bow his head in grief, Skan, the god of motion, condemned him that he should sit at the feasts of the gods no more, and should sit on the world without a friend, and his wisdom should be only cunning that would entrap him in his own schemes. He named him Iktomi. So Iktomi is the imp of mischief whose delight is to make others ridiculous.”

  According to various friends from Pine Ridge and Rosebud Sioux tribes:

  Spiders were made from the blood of ancient people who died in a great flood. Ikto can be powerless, a nobody, lower than a worm. But he can also be a creator, more cunning than humans. When he is in the power, Iktomi can do anything. He can uproot mountains. He can transform himself. He is a mischief maker. He is good and bad at the same time—quick thinking, taking advantage of every opportunity. He is puny, a little fellow with tight brown hairy leggings and a red stripe running down the outside of his thighs, the result of being thrown in a fire once. He is the grandfather of lies. He speaks no truth. He brought arrowheads to the people and taught men to wear black face paint when going on the warpath.

  Sometimes people are afraid of Ikto and shake their gourd rattles to keep him away from ceremonies. At other times, a medicine man could make an earth altar in the shape of a spider for an Iktomi ceremony.

  Despite his bawdy, earthy nature, Iktomi is wakan—sacred. Some say you should never squash a spider. If you do, Iktomi will throw sand in your eyes and make them sore. On the other hand, if you make a tobacco offering to Ikto before you go hunting, he will lead you to the game.