Muskrat

Muskrat is the Animal-Person who assists Coyote at the close of the Wishpoosh story. After the giant beaver is killed and his body floats in the flooded country, Muskrat helps Coyote drag it ashore; the two then cut the carcass apart and scatter the portions across the land, and from these pieces the peoples of the Plateau arise. Muskrat's part is small but pivotal, for the origin of the tribes depends on his labor at the water's edge alongside Coyote. The Sahaptin form of his name is not preserved in the popular retellings, where he is called simply Muskrat.

Domains

• water
• origin of peoples

Powers

• raise the monster's body from the water
• help form the peoples

Relations

• ally: SpilyayCoyote's helper in dragging up and dividing the giant beaver's body.Ella E. Clark, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (1953), 'Coyote and Wishpoosh.' (secondary)

Sources

• Muskrat is Coyote's helper in the Wishpoosh myth, dragging the beaver's carcass ashore and joining Coyote in cutting it into the pieces that become the Plateau tribes.: Ella E. Clark, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1953), 'Coyote and Wishpoosh.' (secondary)