Coyote and the Monster: A Creation Story
Author’s Note: This piece was originally intended as a sidebar for Mysterious Bones. I thought it would serve as a good counterpart to the “Migrations” sidebar.--KK
Many Native Americans of the Columbia Plateau believe that their ancestors came into being in that region. If their people had migrated from a different place (Asia or Beringia), they say, their oral traditions would have indicated that.
The creation stories of every Columbia Plateau tribe tell of a time when mythical beings with extraordinary powers re-imagined the landscape for the coming of humans. During the time of transition, the myth people took on forms such as the coyote, the wolf, and other animals, fish, plants, rocks, and mountains. In this way, the mythic world both precedes the present-day world and also resonates within it.
The oral traditions of the Columbia Plateau tribes vary slightly, but all speak of their common beginning from the world of the myth people. The stories refer to landmarks such as Mount Saint Helens, Mount Hood, and Celilo Falls. And the geography of the Columbia Plateau region features many mythic names and meanings. The stories also mention mammoths, Ice Age glaciers, and volcanic activity. These ties to scientifically proven, prehistoric happenings indicate that the tribes lived on the Plateau for a very long time before written history.
According to NAGPRA, tribes must demonstrate cultural affiliation with a specific region in order to repatriate human remains found there. As evidence, NAGPRA recognizes oral histories (stories passed along from one speaker to another, over time) and mythology.
Here is an example of a creation story from the Nez Percé Tribe, who are known in their language as the Nimíipuu (pronounced nee-MEE-pooh).
Here is a story that explains the coming of the La-te-tel-wit (Human Beings) and why certain animals look as they do today.
A very long time ago, when there were no people on the Earth and all the animals were talking animals, a great monster came from the north. The monster ate all the mice and chipmunks and raccoons, the rattlesnakes, and the deer and the elk. He even ate the fiercest animals, the grizzly bears and the mountain lions. The greedy monster went on eating until all the animals had disappeared into his enormous stomach.
One day, Coyote couldn’t find any of his friends. This put him in a grumpy mood. He searched for them all along the Snake River. He climbed up into the Wallowa Mountains. Over the ridges, he saw a gigantic head and, sprawling out into the distance, a gigantic body. He’d never seen any monster as big as that! And suddenly, Coyote knew what had happened to the animals.
He went away, to sleep and to think, and then he came up with a brilliant plan.
Coyote painted himself with clay the same color as the earth. He tied himself with rawhide rope to the peaks of three great mountains, Tuhm-lo-yeets-mekhs (Pilot Knob), Se-sak-khey-mekhs (Seven Devil’s Mountain), and Ta-ya-mekhs (Cottonwood Butte). After people were created, young men and women visited these sacred mountains to seek their wey-a-kin, or spirit guide.
“Come and eat me!” Coyote challenged the monster.
The monster crossed the river and charged up into the mountains.
“Come and eat me!” Coyote called again.
After a while, the monster spotted Coyote swaying on the ropes. He drew in a powerful, noisy breath. The whole earth swayed and shook. The monster tried to inhale Coyote, but the strong rope held him in place. When the monster found he’d been tricked, he went round in circles trying to decide what to do. In the end, the monster asked Coyote to remain on the mountain, and he was happy that he had made such a strong and able friend as Coyote.
One day, Coyote mentioned that he’d like to see all the animals in the monster’s belly. The monster agreed. He did not know that Coyote was not his friend after all. The monster did not know that in Coyote’s pack he carried a stone knife and flints with which to create fire.
The monster opened his mouth. Down, down Coyote went, deeper and deeper. Finally he found all his animal friends. He was happy that they were safe.
“Get ready to escape,” Coyote told them. “As soon as the monster is dead, go out through his eyes, nose, ears, and anus.”
With his flints, Coyote built a great fire in the monster’s belly.
The monster began to feel pain, and smoke started to pour out of all his openings. Coyote reached the monster’s heart and began cutting it to pieces with his knife. The last of the heart hung on by a piece of muscle. After Coyote snipped it off, the monster let out a loud groan and died. Then Coyote and the animals found their way out of the monster.
In honor of this happy occasion, I’m going to create a new animal, the La-te-tel-wit (human beings).” Coyote asked the animals to assist him in carving up the great monster. Everyone helped.
Coyote scattered the parts all over the land: to the east, where the sun rises, and to the west, where the sun sets, and toward the north and the south. Each of the monster’s parts turned into a different tribe: the Cayuse, the Flathead, Blackfeet, Coeur d’Alene and Yakama. It happened at that very moment.
After Coyote had given away the parts of the monster, his friend Fox came up to him. “You have given all the parts to faraway lands,” he said,” but you haven’t created a tribe for this place where we are standing.”
“Why didn’t you say something before?” Coyote asked. “I was too busy to think of it.”
Another idea came to Coyote. He asked the animals to bring him water, so he could wash his hands. He sprinkled drops of bloody water onto the ground. “Here I make the people who will be known as the Nimíipuu” (Nez Percé), he said. “They will be few in number, but they will be strong and pure.”
And so it was, through Coyote’s cleverness, that people came into the world and Coyote finished out the day’s work by creating the Nez Percé.