Spilyay
Spilyay, Coyote, is the pivotal figure of Sahaptin narrative and the culture hero of the Columbia Plateau, where Coyote rather than Raven holds the transformer's role. Alternately clever and foolish, greedy and generous, he moves through the myth age setting the world in the order the people will inherit: he breaks the barrier that pens the salmon and lets them run up the rivers, he kills the swallowing monsters, and by trickery and appetite he both benefits and shames himself. His deeds fill the largest part of the recorded Sahaptin corpus, from Jacobs's Klickitat and Cowlitz texts to the tales retold by Ella Clark. In the story of Wishpoosh he ties his spear to his wrist, is swallowed and dragged through the drowning country, and cuts his way out to slay the beaver, then with Muskrat carves the carcass into the peoples of the Plateau. In many tellings he works as the agent of the Great Chief Above, doing in the world below what the sky-maker had begun above.
Domains
- transformation
- trickery
- rivers and salmon
Powers
- transform the land and its beings
- release the salmon up the rivers
- slay the swallowing monsters
Epithets
- spilyay — Coyote, the Changer / TransformerEugene S. Hunn, Nch'i-Wana, 'The Big River' (1990). (secondary)
Relations
- ally: Whee-me-me-ow-ahActs as agent of the Chief Above in ordering the world for people.Ella E. Clark, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (1953). (secondary)
- enemy: WishpooshCoyote spears and kills the man-eating giant beaver.Ella E. Clark, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (1953), 'Coyote and Wishpoosh.' (secondary)
- companion: XwayamaCoyote adopts Eagle, then tricks him and takes his wives.Melville Jacobs, Northwest Sahaptin Texts (1934): 'Coyote adopts Eagle.' (primary)
- ally: MuskratMuskrat helps Coyote drag the beaver's body ashore and cut it up to make the tribes.Ella E. Clark, Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest (1953), 'Coyote and Wishpoosh.' (secondary)
Sources
- Spilyay (Coyote) is the central transformer, culture hero and trickster of Sahaptin oral tradition, releasing the salmon, slaying monsters and setting the world in its present order.: Eugene S. Hunn, Nch'i-Wana, 'The Big River' (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990). (secondary); Melville Jacobs, Northwest Sahaptin Texts (New York: Columbia University Press, 1934). (primary)