He’s the ubiquitous trickster and cultural hero of Native American mythology, the thorn in Raven’s side, the first American Idiot, the original Marx Brother and spiritual leader of all Roadrunner-chasing Looney Tunes.

The Top Trickster of many tribes, particularly the Navajo (who call him Ma’ii), he is responsible for many things, including the Milky Way (see Black God) and the diversity of mankind (see Earthmaker). There are more stories about him than stars in the sky.

For example, did you hear the one about the Spying Moon? It seems that someone had pinched the moon, and Coyote offered to stand in as replacement. Everyone agreed that he made a fine moon, but from his elevated position Coyote could see everything that was going on.

Being of an irritating disposition, he couldn’t resist blowing the whistle on friends and enemies alike. “Hey, look what Badger is doing behind his tepee!” Pretty soon everyone was sick of his snooping and voted him out of the sky.

But nothing can keep Coyote down for long. Being a boastful old show-off, he loves to impress the girls by juggling his eyeballs. One day he threw one so high it got stuck in the sky and became the star Arcturus. So even now he’s keeping an eye on us all.

See also Badger, Chinigchinich, Raven and the customer service dept of ACME Products Inc.

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Article last revised on November 03, 2018 by the Godchecker data dwarves.
Editors: Peter J. Allen, Chas Saunders

References: Coming soon.

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