Folklore Tale Crow

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“When I was a little boy this is a story that was told around every campfire: It was called ‘Old Man Coyote!’ Before the white man came the coyote used to roam over all the land. The Old Man Coyote took the little coyotes he picked up on the prairies and called them his little brothers. The little coyote was such a sly animal that the old coyote always sent him on errands, because he knew he would always [pg 137] be up to something. The Old Man Coyote says: ‘We are alone: let us make man.’ He said: ‘Go and bring me some mud so that I can make a man, so that we can be together.’ The Old Man Coyote took the mud and put it together, and put hair on it, and set it up on the ground, and said: ‘There is a man!’ The little coyote said: ‘Make some more.’ And the Old Man Coyote made four—two were women and two were men. The Old Man sized them up and said they were good, and so he made a whole lot more. Old Man Coyote said: ‘It is good that we live together, and I want you to open each other's eyelids.’ Old Man Coyote said to these people whom he had made: ‘Now, if you stay together and are good to each other, you will be happy, and you will increase in numbers.’ Old Man Coyote was our creator. Old Man Coyote said to these people whom he had made: ‘This is your land; live here, eat of the fruit of the trees, drink of the rivers, hunt the game, and have a good time.’ From that we believe that the white people had nothing to do with the land—it belonged to the Indian. This story, told to our people so many times, and told to me since I can remember, led me to believe when I came to know and understand that this land was wholly ours, and belonged entirely to the Indians. Old Man Coyote, after he had created man and woman, did not have anything to do, so he made a bow [pg 138] and arrow. He took the flint for the arrowhead, and with it he killed the buffalo. Then he gave the bow and arrow to the Indian and said to him: ‘This is your weapon.’ The people whom Old Man Coyote created had no knife, so he took the shoulder blade of the buffalo and sharpened it and made it into a knife. These people whom Old Man Coyote had created roamed round over the land and they found a mule. It was a great big mule with great big ears, and when they brought it home the people were all afraid of it. They all gathered around the mule, staring in amazement at him, and said: ‘What kind of an animal is this? It is a dangerous animal.’ Just then the mule stuck up his ears, and let out an awful cry, just such a cry as only the mule can make. Then the people all ran away as hard as they could go, scared almost to death, except one Indian, who fell flat on the earth—too scared to run. And finally the people called this man, ‘Not-Afraid-of-the-Mule.’ And in this way we learned how to name our Indians.”


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