In one Maidu story, Coyote told the world's very first lie
Across many Indigenous North American cultures, Coyote is creator, fire thief, fool and troublemaker, sometimes all in one tale. In a Maidu story he laughs while trying to shape creatures from clay, then insists he was not laughing. That denial, the storytellers say, was the first lie ever told.
Coyote is usually male and humanlike, sometimes with fur, pointed ears, yellow eyes or a tail, and his character varies widely from one people to the next. In California alone he appears in the traditions of the Chumash, Pomo, Yokuts, Maidu and many others. Some cast him as a sacred being with creative power, others as a malicious, comic trickster, and plenty combine the two. His role echoes that of Raven in other cultures.
His creative side can rival the gods. In one Maidu account Coyote calls out to Earth Maker, floating on endless waters, and the pair sing the world into being. Coyote then vows to spoil it with evil, slips every attempt to destroy him, and forces Earth Maker to admit their powers are equal. A Miwok tale has him create the animals and then sabotage their plans for humans: each animal models people in its own image, but Coyote wrecks the rival figures overnight so that only his, endowed with wit and cunning, comes alive.
He is often a benefactor too. Many stories have him organising the theft of fire or the sun from beings who hoarded it, and a Shasta myth credits him with rescuing the world from ten evil moons that had imposed endless winter. The Navajo creation story places him with the first people as they emerge into the present world, and Coyote serves as guardian spirit of Coyoteway, a Navajo healing ceremony meant to restore a patient's harmony with him and with the world.
His failures teach as well. In Secwepemc tradition, the trickster Sk'elep tries to spin a web like a spider and leaves only tufts of hair in a tree, which become a lichen. In a Chemehuevi tale Coyote avenges his grandson, who had turned into a bighorn sheep, and in the end realises the boy has come back as the very first horse. Some tales make him shockingly immoral, and scholars suggest their outrageous humour helped reinforce community rules by showing exactly what not to do.
Source: Coyote (mythology)
