Coyote: Did you mean...?

The coyote (canis latrans), the animal on which many Native American myths are based. Photograph attributed to George Harrison of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 2007.

Mike Rugnetta continues to teach you about Tricksters in myth, and this time we're headed to the Americas. Coyote and Raven appear in stories from many Native American groups, and more often than not, they're tricky. They're also often kind...

Photograph of the Northern Cheyenne chiefs Little Coyote (better known as Little Wolf) and Morning Star (better known as Dull Knife) by William Henry Jackson, 1873.

A coyote communicates with other animals at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge by howling. Photograph by USFWS (US Fish and Wildlife Service), 2011.

This ceremonial seat in the form of a coyote comes from Mexico's Lake Pátzcuaro Basin in Michoacán. This seat was likely occupied by a person of importance, and it was made by artisans residing in the Tarascan State. (Museum Rietberg, Zürich...

A close-up of a North American coyote in Yosemite National Park, California, USA. Photo by Christopher Bruno.

Afar off upon a large level land, a summer sun was shining bright. Here and there over the rolling green were tall bunches of coarse gray weeds. Iktomi in his fringed buckskins walked alone across the prairie with a black bare head glossy...

How Death Came into the World is a legend of the Modoc nation whose ancestral lands once covered the region of modern-day northeastern California and southern Oregon, USA. Their story of the origin of death shares many similarities with those...

How the Hopi Indians Reached Their World is the creation story of the Native American Hopi nation (the Hopi tribe of Arizona) located today within the Navajo Nation reservation. The legend details the ascent of the Hopi from below the earth...

Two popular Cheyenne legends are the Origin of the Buffalo and How the Buffalo Hunt Began (also known as The Great Race), both dealing with the importance of the North American bison to the Cheyenne nation. Like others of the Plains Indians...