Coyote as a character
Among the characters in Apache narrative, Coyote is one of the best known. Published collections from several Apache groups, including the Chiricahua, Mescalero, Jicarilla, Lipan and White Mountain Apache, include tales in which Coyote plays a leading role. The tellers and communities are separate, so the stories are not one body of material. Some themes recur, but versions differ from group to group, and between one teller and another.
Coyote stories are only a portion of Apache oral traditions. Another article covers storytelling more broadly, including stories and moral teaching and the ties between stories and place. This one stays with Coyote tales and what the published record shows about them. It does not retell sacred accounts, and it treats only material that has already been published, with the caution that a printed text is a trace of something originally spoken.
What the published collections record
Much of what outsiders know about Coyote tales comes from early twentieth-century collections. Morris Opler published volumes of myths and tales of the Jicarilla (1938), the Lipan (1940) and the Chiricahua (1942), and Grenville Goodwin published tales of the White Mountain Apache (1939). These books were produced with the help of Apache storytellers and interpreters, and they remain the standard references, with the limits that come with translation and with an outsider’s selection.
In general terms, collections portray Coyote as a character whose appetites and shortcuts get him into trouble. He can be greedy, vain, impatient or overconfident, and he frequently tries to get something without effort, or copies others without understanding what they do. Sometimes he is a trickster who fools others, and sometimes he is the one fooled. In some groups’ tales he also appears in the early world as a figure who has a part in how things came to be the way they are. Because these roles differ by group, it is a mistake to assume one “Apache Coyote”.
A genre that teaches through humor
Coyote tales are often funny, and the humor is part of the teaching. By showing a character who does the wrong thing, a story lets listeners recognize the error without a lecture. Children can laugh at Coyote’s mistakes, and adults can see in them a version of choices people actually face. The consequences in the story, whether embarrassment, hunger or injury, make the point.
This is a different approach from direct instruction. Rather than telling a child what to do, a tale shows what can happen to someone who ignores advice, takes more than a share, or acts without thinking. Because the lesson is implied, a listener of any age can take something different from the same story. Many writers describe such narratives as a kind of moral education, though the Apache tellers themselves may describe them differently, and no outsider’s summary should be mistaken for the full meaning.
Setting, season and manner of telling
Reports on several Apache groups say that Coyote and other animal tales were traditionally told in winter and not in summer. Ethnographers noted this winter-only custom, along with expectations about when and how tales were opened and closed, who told them, and who listened. Reasons given in the sources vary, and today practices differ among families and nations. In some places the customs are observed, in others loosely, and a good number of stories are shared only in the family.
A performance has features that print cannot capture: the voice of the teller, repeated phrases, pauses, gestures, audience responses and the language itself. Translations may read as flat or odd for that reason. Storytelling in Apache language also carries wordplay and sounds that are lost in English. So a collection can give a sense of the plots but not of the experience.
Reading Coyote tales responsibly
A few habits help when reading published Apache tales:
- Note which group a collection comes from and when it was published.
- Treat the English text as one version among many, and avoid assuming it stands for all Apache people.
- Be wary of anthologies that mix tales from different Native nations under the label “Native American” or that present Coyote as a single pan-Indian figure. Coyote appears in the traditions of many peoples, each with its own stories.
- Respect any rule of the telling season or restriction a community asks visitors to observe.
- Avoid retellings, such as children’s books and websites, that cite no source or no nation.
Coyote stories today
Tales continue to be told in many forms. Elders tell them in families, teachers use them in classrooms and Apache language programs, and Apache authors and artists draw on them in print and other media. Some communities have worked to record and publish stories under their own direction, which gives them a say over how the material is presented and used. Those recordings and books, rather than older outsider collections, are the better place to look when they are available.
As with all cultural material, the stories remain tied to the people who tell them. To learn more, readers should look to the nations’ own cultural programs and to Apache-authored books, and ask permission before sharing or adapting anything they hear.