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LEGENDS - Coyote

The following Nez Perce story explains how Coyote created human beings, including the Nez Perce people.

Coyote Creates the Human Beings

Some time after the animals had been created, along came Coyote. Coyote had all the emotions and problems that humans have today. Everything that the human being was, this is what coyote was. He was traveling one day when his brother, fox, stopped him and told coyote that a great monster was devouring all the animal people. Fox told coyote that he has to save the animal people. Coyote gave it some thought and decided that maybe he would have to kill this monster. He got five flint knives all sharpened and shaped and put them in his belt. He had a little pouch and he put soot and pitch and rope in it. Then coyote went to look for the monster.

He came across the prairie where Grangeville is now, and he hollered over toward the Clearwater Valley. The monster at that time was lying in the valley devouring all the animal people. Coyote hollered, "Monster, here I am! I am right here! Come and get me! You can't eat me like you do those other people. Come and get me!"

So the monster raised his head over the edge of the canyon and looked out across the prairie towards the place where Coyote was hollering at him.

Coyote said "Oh, there you are monster. I've come here to see what you are doing to the animal people."

The monster looked over and said, "I am going to eat you, too."

The monster devoured the animal people by sucking them into his stomach with his breath. Coyote knew this, so he tied himself to the mountain on the other side. So when the monster would suck in his breathe, coyote would come to the end of his rope and stop. He teased the monster saying, "You can't get me." And then the monster would try again, but coyote would stop at the end of the rope. The monster did this three times.

Coyote finally decided to go inside of the monster so he could rescue the animal people. Some were already devoured, some were half dead, some were still alive. As coyote was walking among them, Rattlesnake shook his rattle and struck out at him and Coyote said "What are you getting mad at me for? I came here to save you, and here you are striking out at me." So coyote stepped on Rattlesnakes head, and that is why today rattlesnake has a flat head.

Coyote went a little further and grizzly bear roared and growled at coyote. Coyote said, "What are you getting mad at me for? I came to rescue you." Grizzly bear growled at him again so coyote pushed his nose, and that's why grizzly bear has a flat nose.

Coyote then told all the animal people he was going to rescue them and kill the monster. Coyote built a fire from pitch in his pouch, and he used the fat from the monster to keep the fire going. Then coyote told the people, "When the monster takes its last breath, you all escape by running out of the holes of the monster. Wait by the holes and when the monster takes its last breath, run out. That will be your last chance to escape." Then coyote started working. He started to cut the heart away. While he was doing this, sometimes his knife would break, he would get another knife and keep going. In time he was down to his last knife and the last piece of flesh was holding the heart. Coyote then told the animals to get ready because the monster was going to die. The animals were waiting by the holes in the monster: by the nose, by the ears, bye the mouth, and by the hole underneath the tail. When coyote made the last cut, the heart came loose. When the monster took his last great breath, all the animals ran out. The last one was muskrat. He ran out the tail was and the hole closed on his own tail while he was getting out. That's why muskrats tail doesn't have and hair.

When the monster was dead, coyote came out and said, "This place should have some human beings in it. It is such a beautiful place to be. I am also going to create other people too." Coyote started cutting the monster up. As he did this he would throw pieces of the monster in all directions, and he would create tribes out on the plains and to the south and east and north and west. So coyote did all that. He scattered the body parts to the four winds, and that's where the different tribes came from.

Then his brother fox said to coyote, "You have to create people here too." Coyote replied, "What I will do is create people this way." Coyote washed his hands in the water to get the blood off and scattered blood droplets on the ground when those drops of blood hit the earth, human being sprang up as the Nee-mee-poo, the Nez Perce people. "These will be a special kind of people in this valley. They will have strong hearts and strong minds and they will live well here in this valley. That's how the Nez Perce people came to be. To this day you can still see the heart of the monster where coyote cut it out at Kamiah, Idaho.

-Allen Pinkham (Nez Perce)

Coyote Red Grizzly Bear Fire