"For thousands of years, my people, the Secwepemc and St'at'imc, have told stories about our trickster ancestor Coyote. The Creator sent Coyote to earth to set the world in order. A shapeshifter who possessed awe-inspiring supernatural powers, Coyote did much good. He filled the rivers with salmon, populated the lands with descendants, taught the cannibals not to eat men, and placed many geographic features in their present locations."
"But while he did much good, he was no good. Always chasing women and a good time, out to enrich himself and enlarge his own legend, Coyote was tricked just as often as he did the tricking. Our lands are still marked with stories and rocks commemorating his many misadventures, which often ended with Coyote dying and resurrecting or being turned into stone by Creator for sleeping or sleeping around on the job."
Indigenous Secwepemc and St'at'imc traditions describe Coyote as a Creator-sent trickster who set the world in order. Coyote is a shapeshifter with supernatural powers who both created benefits—stocking rivers with salmon, populating lands, teaching taboos—and displayed selfish, destructive behavior. Coyote pursues lust, wealth, and personal legend, often succeeding at tricking others but more often being tricked. Many misadventures end in death, resurrection, or transformation into stone as punishment. Coyote embodies transformation, cultural contradictions, and the forces that drive change. Understanding Coyote's appeal and ambivalence helps explain popular attraction to charismatic, self-aggrandizing political figures.
Read at The Nation
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