Coyote

In Nez Perce tradition Coyote (ʔiceyéeye) is the foremost of the First People and the transformer who readies the world for humankind. The central narrative recounts how he slew the swallowing monster that had devoured the animal people along the Clearwater: letting himself be inhaled, he cut the monster's heart free from inside with flint knives, released the swallowed beings, and then carved the carcass into pieces, flinging them to the four directions to become the surrounding nations. From the heart's blood, sprinkled at Kamiah, he formed the Nimiipuu, promising them a small country but a people strong and clever. Coyote is likewise credited with breaking the dam that held back the salmon, with ordering marriage and death and the seasons, and with journeying to the land of the shadows to recover his dead wife, whom he lost by embracing her before the appointed time. He is at once benefactor and buffoon, wise orderer and appetitive trickster, and he dies and revives many times across the cycle.

Domains

• transformation
• trickery
• creation of humankind

Powers

• slays the swallowing monster from within
• forms the nations from the monster's body
• breaks the dam and looses the salmon runs
• dies and revives across the cycle

Epithets

• ʔiceyéeye

Relations

• companion: Fox
• enemy: The Swallowing Monster
• ally: Meadowlark
• enemy: Grizzly Bear
• ally: Salmon

Sources

• Archie Phinney, Nez Percé Texts (Columbia University Press, 1934), 'Coyote and the Monster'
• Herbert J. Spinden, 'Myths of the Nez Percé Indians,' Journal of American Folklore 21 (1908): 13-23
• Archie Phinney, Nez Percé Texts (1934), 'Coyote and the Shadow People'
• Deward E. Walker Jr. with Daniel N. Matthews, Nez Perce Coyote Tales: The Myth Cycle (1994)