American Indian Trickster Tales (Myths and Legends) Read Free Page A

embellishment and modification. Some stories are “owned” by a certain family or even a particular person, and cannot be retold by outsiders. Others wander from tribe to tribe. For instance, the story “Iktomi and the Wild Ducks,” in which the Trickster induces his victims to dance with their eyes closed so that he can kill them one by one, occurs in at least a dozen versions among as many tribes. Narrators who could act out a story and mimic the voices of different animals have always been in great demand.
    Time and place are evoked “Indian Way.” What happens in them is not measured in miles or hours in any conventional European way. A place can be “a hundred sleeps away,” or “a thousand paces afar.” A story does not begin with “Once upon a time,” but with “Sunday is coming along,” or “Coyote is walking about.” The events in the story have just happened, or are even still going on. In this way the world of Indian legend is more “real” than that of white men’s fairy tales.
    Tales told in broad, even slapstick comic style sometimes ripen into dramas, too. Sioux Heyoka, sacred clowns sometimes called Thunder-dreamers, must act out their dreams publicly, no matter how embarrassing that might be for them. Sacred clowns often take the guise of familiar tribal Tricksters during their dances.
    Indian Tricksters are undeniably amorous. Some of the tales are explicit and erotic, but never what white Americans would call pornographic. An earthy innocence surrounds these kinds of stories. Women and children enjoy them as well as men. As Lame Deer used to say, “We are not Christian missionaries. We think differently.”
    In the book Stories of Maasaw, a Hopi God , coauthor Ekkehart Malotki comments,
    The Hopi does not give a second thought when referring to sex and related subjects, and will openly talk of these things in the presence of his children. He will also do many things that may be considered repulsive in the eyes of a cultural outsider, but these are not so to him. Thus, characters in a story will urinate and defecate and engage in sexual activities.... If a narrator is somewhat of a comic he will embellish his tales along these lines to amuse his audience. In the Plaza [the center of the pueblo], too, the clowns do things of the above-mentioned nature without embarrassment, and people will laugh at them.
    The authors of this book can bear witness to this fact. We have often seen the sacred clowns—Kosa, Koshare, Koyemshi, Chiffonetti—doing things that upset the occasional missionary or make an elderly lady tourist blush. These antics are all part of old traditions. In many tribes, during certain dances, modest old grandmothers will say things they would never dare to utter on any other day. It should be noted, too, that there are no “dirty” words in Indian languages. A penis is a penis, not a “dick” or “peter,” and a vulva is just that, never a “twat” or “snatch.”
    Says Howard Norman of the Trickster, “His presence demands, cries out for, compassion and generosity toward existence itself. Trickster is a celebrator of life, a celebration of life, because by rallying against him a community discovers its own resilience and protective skills.”
    John Fire Lame Deer, traditional Sioux holy man, used to say, “Coyote, Iktomi, and all their kind are sacred. A people that have so much to weep about as we Indians also need their laughter to survive.” So take these tales—heroic, tragic, humorous, or erotic—in the spirit of a Lakota, a Hopi, or a Haida: Enjoy!

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

THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD
    {Yokuts} I

    Everything was water except a small piece of ground. On this were Eagle and Coyote. Then the turtle swam to them. They sent it to dive for the earth at the bottom of the water. The turtle barely succeeded in reaching the bottom and touching it with its foot. When it came up again, all the earth seemed washed