I have lived and worked in many Indigenous communities. I am currently living and have been befriended by the people of the Secwepemc nation. I am honored and grateful. In every tribe, band, are the teachings of Coyote stories. Coyote is a figure of the trickster who breaks rules and teaches us through his misadventures. Some times Coyote is a hero who does foolish things and ends up learning things the hard way. He teaches us to persevere. He also is who brought animals, elements of nature, food, medicines, and plants to help us. His stories have meaning to everyone who hears or reads them. Through the stories we learn the wisdom of values and reflection that will brin the story to your consciousness. Coyote is Universal to many nations and always caries a metaphor for us to learn lessons from. Here is one:
One day, Coyote was laying down below a cliff but he was still watching. Coyote is a watcher and he was very interested in watching Eagle winging down from the top of the cliffs. He saw Eagle swooping off the top of a cliff and ride the winds, screaming in delight, then wing back to the top of a cliff and do it again. Coyote was ever so interested. He started figuring things out in his head and said to himself, “Those are my ways!” And got up, stretched his whole body, and decided he would go up to the top of the cliff and show Eagle his way.
He started climbing the cliff and the way was hard. He kept his eye on Eagle the whole time and kept thinking, “Those are my ways!” He made it up to the top because Coyote is very determined but it took him all day.
Just when the sun was going down, he reached the edge of the top of the cliff. He was very into the idea that he could do what the Eagle had been doing. “Those are my ways!” he said as he jumped off expecting to catch the updrafts and downdrafts and soar with great joy in his heart and then climb up and do it again when he reached the bottom. Oh, he reached the bottom alright.
When he realized, he was not going to soar, he started flapping his skinny legs to no avail. He even twirled his tail. He fell like a stone and screamed all the way. He even pooped all the way, too. When he hit the bottom of the cliff face, he was splattered. All the way down the cliffs is a white streak to this day to remind us of coyote’s disastrous adventure.
Well, that is not the end of the story because Coyote’s brother, Fox, came along and he sighed when he saw Coyote was dead again. He gathered up all the pieces of Coyote and when he figured he had it all, he breathed into the pile then set the pieces down on the ground. He stepped over the pile four times. This made the pile begin to transform back into a live Coyote.
Coyote sat up and gave Fox a bad time for waking him up. Then Coyote carried on as if nothing had happened. Fox just shook his head because he had to do this often because of Coyotes misadventures.
This story speaks to me about being able to start again after a mistake, poor decision, trying to be ‘above’ oneself. Coyote is brought back to life as we can be if we pull ourselves together and begin again. Sometimes we need a mentor, a sponsor, a good friend, who can help us put ourselves back together again. We learn from our mistakes, when we “jump over the pile”, get past whatever it is that has happened. We can learn from our mistakes and live the life we were meant to.
I love this story. To you it might carry a different meaning. What did you get from this story?
Carol Desjarlais 3.15.24
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