






































OCR Document


 

TRICK OR TREAT:  
COYOTE IN CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOKS  

RUTH STOTTER 

Coyote, legendary mediator between the sacred and profane in Native 
American mythology, has increasingly become a mediator between 
ethnic populations in children's picture books. Seemingly simple but 
culturally complex, Trickster figures such as Coyote appear in 
publications written by both American Indians and non-Native 
Americans. But just as folktales change when they cross geographical 
and cultural boundaries, so does Trickster transform. Do non-Native 
authors alter the character rashly, failing to understand and appreciate 
the complex role of Trickster? Or do these books provide a valuable 
bridge between cultures? 

Beverly Slapin, author of Through Indian Eyes, recently 
sent me this IRONIC memo: 

Eight Steps to Turn a Native Legend into a 
Children's Book (for fun and profit) 

1. Go to the library and find a people's legend told to 
and written down by an anthropologist. Don't worry 
about asking any people's permission to use or 
change the legend—they may consider it sacred, but 
it is public domain, and according to white people 
law, it is yours for the taking. 

2. Take the legend out of its language, out of its 
context, out of the values it teaches, and out of its 
group. Be sure to remain oblivious to the language 
and life ways of the people whose legend you hold 
in your hands. That way, you can be more objective 

3. Choose the details you think are important—never 
mind what is important to the people whose legend 
you are working on. Cut out all references to 
violence, sex, or anything you don't particularly like 
or understand. 

4. Belabor every detail to make it sound more 
authentic than the original telling. For instance, if 
the legend reads, "There was no fire here, only 



 

STOTTER 

far upriver at the world's end," change it to, "Long 
ago, the people had no fire. Day and night they 
huddled in their houses in the dark and ate their food 
uncooked. Oh, they were miserable." 

5. Improve on the dialogue. Let your imagination 
 run wild. 
6. Find an artist who knows nothing of the legend 
 or its people but knows how to copy details from 
 a museum. 
7. If you can, have the manuscript and illustrations 

checked by non-Native anthropologists. Make sure 
to thank them in the introduction. Call up a Native 
person too—any Native person. Even if she hangs 
up on you, you can thank her in the introduction. 
After all, she picked up the phone when you called. 

8. Think of an imaginative title that will make a 
publisher see income potential. Calling the legend a 
coyote story is good. Non-Natives like things called 
coyote stories, even if they're not. If the publisher 
bites, you can always change the legend and make it 
a coyote story. 

Are non-Native authors, publishers, and illustrators really this ignorant? 
Do parents, schools, and librarians who purchase books care about 
cultural context or authenticity? 

Many Native Americans object to outsiders writing their stories, 
raising issues of ownership of the tales and their adaptation and pointing 
out that appropriation exploits and commercializes Native cultures. 
Lenore Keeshig-Tobias, a Canadian Ojibway writer, says that taking 
these stories for adaptation is not sharing, it is "poaching" (118-19). On 
the other hand, authors, publishers, and illustrators may feel that they are 
acting as historians, recording and even contributing to Native culture. 

When Native Americans tell Coyote myths they frequently include 
tribal sacred truths. Reprinted for young children, a story can become a 
caricature of the culture. Coyote is a psychological, folkloristic, and 
literary archetypal figure. Especially in a children's book it is tempting to 
transform an archetype to a stereotype, an over simplified image that 
conjures a fixed response and taps ex- 

36 



 

TRICK OR TREAT 

isting attitudes and feelings, usually with derogatory implications. For 
example, Coyote is foolish, and some readers may conclude that this 
reflects the foolishness of American Indians. The Trickster archetype, 
for example, is illustrated by the variety of terms and descriptions 
folklorists have used to describe Coyote. In articles and books Coyote 
has been described as an alienated figure; audacious; beneficent being 
bringing culture and light to his people and a creature of greed, lust and 
stupidity; betwixt and between; a braggart; one who breaks taboos; 
childish; a coward and the essence of courage; creator and destroyer; 
culture hero; a Demigod bringing culture and light to his people; one 
who dupes others and is duped himself, egotistical; an enemy of the 
boundaries; one whose function is to add disorder and so make it whole; 
a figure of the margins, yet somehow at the center; the First creator; one 
with gamy holiness; Gemini; a giver and negator; gross; an inspired 
handyman; humble braggadocio; an imitator; innocent; one who knows 
neither good nor evil; a likable rascal; lustful; a marginal figure; a 
mediating figure; one who merges the secular and the sacred; a negative 
hero; Old Man; one who rules by passion and appetite; the spirit of 
disorder; a tolerated margin of mess; a transformer; an unrestricted ego; 
vexing; a wandering hero; and my favorite, one who evades academic 
capture and definition.1 

As a result of indifference or lack of knowledge, readers who 
stereotype lump together all "Indians," when in truth American Indian 
nations have different political, kinship, and philosophical systems. 
Native Americans also have different Trickster figures, and even those 
who share Coyote may assign different functions to his role. In the 
Southwest Hopi pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona, Coyote is usually 
a mischief-maker; for neighboring Navajos, he is often a menacing 
figure playing a role in sacred ritual (Stott 92). After one Northwest 
Indian told a Coyote story to a Southwest American Indian, the listener 
commented "He doesn't know Coyote. Coyote wouldn't eat fish" 
(Toelken 192). 

Reading a story with illustrations is different than listening to a tale 
being told and creating mental pictures to accompany it. A picture book 
imposes the illustrator's interpretation. A kindergarten student asked 
storyteller Susan Strauss after hearing several Coyote stories, "Just who 
is Coyote? Is he a man or an animal or a spirit?"2 Would a child respond 
in this way after seeing the illustrations in a picture book? 

37 



 

STOTTER 

Story source notes provide an opportunity to give cultural in-
formation or information about a story, its characters, source(s) for the 
rendering of the text, and changes/adaptations made by the writer. 
Source notes in children's picture books, however, are often incomplete 
or misleading. Here are a few examples: 

In Coyote and the Laughing Butterflies, edited by Harriet Peck 
Taylor, the acknowledgment states: "I gratefully acknowledge the 
American Folklore Society for permission to use this adaptation" (NP). 
The title of the article, author, and publication in which the story 
originally it appeared are not cited, however. 

In Coyote and the Firestick: A Pacific Northwest Indian Tale, retold 
by Barbara Diamond Goldin and illustrated by Will Hillenbrand, the 
author notes at the end of the book that Coyote is the chief character in 
the legends of the Pacific Northwest, as well as in many stories told over 
the whole western half of North America. In reality, Raven is the 
Trickster figure for many Native American nations in the Pacific 
Northwest, and other Trickster figures are common in the Southwest, 
Plains, and Northeast. Interestingly, the illustrator's comments are more 
informed: "The Pacific NW Indians who told Coyote stories lived 
primarily in plateau areas of Washington, Oregon, and in northern 
California" (Goldin NP). The illustrator adds cultural information as 
well. 

In Coyote and Native American Folk Tales, retold by Joe Hayes and 
illustrated by Lucy Jelnick, storyteller-author Hayes writes in the 
introduction: "Many American Indian stories are sacred. They are part of 
the religion of the people who tell them, and so belong to just one tribe 
or sometimes just part of a tribe. Sometimes Coyote plays a part in these 
religious stories. But, the Coyote stories in this collection are different. 
They are told for entertainment.  They are especially loved by children, 
who delight in Coyote's foolish antics. These stories do not belong to any 
single tribe. Most of them can be found among Native peoples 
throughout the west" (6)3 

Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American Southwest, by Gerald 
McDermott, has extensive notes about Coyote but does not indicate the 
source of this particular story. Coyote Goes Walking, retold with pictures 
by Tom Pohrt, is another children's picture book with information about 
Coyote but no source note for the story text. 

38 



 

TRICK OR TREAT 

In Coyote Places the Stars, retold and illustrated by Harriet Peck 
Taylor, the author acknowledges using a traditional text and lists several 
sources, which add authenticity. Taylor proceeds to make structural and 
motivational changes to this traditional text, however, eliminating 
Coyote's first trip to the stars, and changing the motivation for his 
second trip without noting that she has adapted the story. 

Paul Goble is a non-Native American author of children's Native 
American picture books acclaimed by both Native and non-Native 
reviewers. Goble's books have won Aesop Prize awards from the 
Children's Folklore Section of the American Folklore Society. In his 
introduction to Iktomi and the Buzzard: A Plains Indian Story, he has 
fun with the issue of non-Indians writing Indian folk tales: 

Hi kids! I'M IKTOMI! And proud of it! Don't 
read this book. That white guy, Paul Goble, is stealing 
my stories and making money off of them. This book 
is ethnically insensitive material about me; its racial 
epithets just bring me into contempt, ridicule and 
disrepute. Hey! You're G-R-E-A-T kids! I've got my 
rights; I don't have to put up with this derogatory, 
disreputable, disparaging, and denigrating slurs and 
offensive designations. I'm being victimized. I have 
always been here on this Turtle continent. And I'll be 
the last here, long after all white people have been 
forgotten. I'm no racist, but I'm excited just thinking 
about it! I'm nobody's football or baseball mascot! I 
was the first member of the Great Lakota Sioux 
Nation, born in Nihil, SD and etc., etc., etc. . .(NP)4

 

In Ma 'ii and Cousin Horned Toad: A Traditional Navajo Story told 
and illustrated by Shonto Begay, this Native American author's notes 
add to the text, including the following: "These stories show us proper 
ways to conduct ourselves. They also explain natural phenomena. But 
they are also pure entertainment. Whenever we come upon a horned 
toad we gently place it over our heart and greet it, 'Ya ateeh shi che' 
(Hello, my grandfather). We believe it 

39 



 

40 

STOTTER 

gives strength of heart and mind. We never harm our grandfather. Ma'ii 
is coyote" (NP). 

A picture book is a compilation of pictures and story text. Both 
contribute to the authenticity of the publication and have the potential to 
be offensive. Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale, in their publication, 
Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books for Children, cite 
many books that lack consistency with the story's source and the 
illustrations. For example, in Knots on a Counting Rope, by Dine, the 
story is identified as taking place in the Navajo nation, but Slapin points 
out that the hair styles of the women are similar to those of Mandan, 
Piegan, Blackfeet, or Atsima, and the faces of the men are more 
northern Plains than anything else. While the authors state, "The 
costumes are a mix of Hopi and Navajo celebration garbs, because their 
reservations are so close to each other, the tribes usually participate 
together in ceremonies." Slapin comments, "Is it necessary to say that 
Hopi people would not be showing up at a Navajo horse race in sacred 
ceremonial gear?" (183). 

In the publication, Baby Rattlesnake, a story attributed to Te Ata, a 
Chickasaw storyteller living in the Oklahoma territory, a Chickasaw tale 
is illustrated with Navajo clothing and Pueblo dwellings. In addition, the 
non-Native storyteller who is listed as co-author, Lynn Moroney, changes 
the traditional ending (which involves death as a punishment) without 
informing readers of the alteration. 

Slapin disapproves of the illustrations in Doctor Coyote, by John 
Bierhorst, in which animal characters are dressed as Indians. Coyote 
wears blue jeans, a squash blossom necklace and drives a pickup He 
lives in a shack with a yard full of junk and an outhouse in the back. 
"Given the historical tendency of white people to think of the native 
population as being somewhere between animals and real human 
beings," Slapin has said, "these pictures, are to say the least, unfortunate" 
(127). As Jon C. Stott notes, "A picture book is a marriage of text and 
illustration and either one can serve to trivialize Coyote, using him as a 
messenger for heavy-handed moralizing or behavior modification" (26). 

American Indian stories are often "owned" by families or nations, 
much as an author owns a copyright. Alexander Wolfe, a Salteaux 
storyteller, states, "Every family handed down its own 



 

TRICK OR TREAT 

stories. Other stories, belonging to other families, could not be told, 
because to do so would be to steal."5 

Telling a story to an anthropologist or non-Native friend does not 
mean granting permission for the story to be published, changed and 
prettified. In an article in The Bloomsbury Review, Margo Thunderbird 
is quoted as saying "They came for our land, for what grew or could be 
grown on it, for the resources in it, and for our clean air and pure water. 
They stole those things from us. And now, after all that, they've come 
for the very last of our possessions; now they want our pride, our 
history, and our spiritual traditions. They want to rewrite and re-make 
these things, to claim them for themselves"(Churchill 23). No wonder 
American Indians raise emotional and ethical issues about the 
publication of "their" stories! 

Toelken writes in his textbook, The Dynamics of Folklore, "Should 
we stop publishing Navajo Coyote stories? . . . This is a good example 
of an irresolvable dilemma, one that has grown more acute through the 
years because folklore and anthropological field researchers have 
assumed the right of access to traditional materials and have assumed 
the right to publish or disseminate these materials however they saw fit 
without regard to the hesitancies, codes, taboos, and ritual concerns of 
the real owners of those stories. . . That they [Indians] feel dislocated 
and hurt while we feel only embarrassment is a clear indication of the 
differences in worldview. It is also testimony to the abuse of power" 
(284). 

Publishing children's picture books is a business. The floodgates 
have long been opened, and Native American tales will continue to be 
published as long as parents and libraries buy these books. But these 
stories were created and meant for oral delivery, and the very process of 
adapting them for picture book presentation entails remodeling. Only 
with a balance of artistry and authenticity can these stories be 
maintained through informed rewritings so that they enhance 
multicultural comprehension. Revisions, adaptations, and translation of 
oral text into literary language can be done with sensitivity and respect-
both to the story and to the people from whom the story was obtained. 
Source notes can provide information about where the text was obtained 
and how it was revised. Effort can be made to contact Native American 
storytellers to attempt to find out more about the story. 

41 



 

STOTTER 

In the last decades, environmental consulting firms have met a need 
in our society. Perhaps a different kind of consulting firma folklore 
consulting firm-could offer services to publishers, not to hand out a seal 
of approval, but to guard against inaccuracies. Reviewers could ask such 
questions as: Did the authors attempt to talk to anyone from the Native 
American Nation about the story? Is the story still told? A Hopi tale 
illustrated with Navajo hairstyle and Coos lodges would be flagged. 
Currently, the implicit presumption seems to be that these stories are 
fossils, archaic remains bygone cultures. This organization could offer 
seminars for the publishing industry, discussing the responsibility 
involved in adapting Native American text. Since money, power, and 
ownership are issues, perhaps the publishers could designate a percent-
age of their profits to the American Indian Nation or to a Native 
American Indian organization. It is seductive to assume that a revised 
text is an improved text. This is frequently an inappropriate assumption, 
however. All of us can accept responsibility by writing book reviews 
and letting bookstores know when we feel a book is objectionable. 

Former American Indian Movement (AIM) leader, Russell Means, 
states, "What's at issue here is the question that Europeans have always 
posed with regard to American Indians, whether what's ours isn't 
somehow theirs" (Churchill 24). 

Sometimes a joke can make a point better than factual information: 

 Do you know what the Indians called this country before the 
Europeans arrived? 
 "Ours!" 

NOTES 

1. Munro S. Edmondson lists Trickster figures around the world in An 
Introduction to the Science of Folklore and Literature. New York: Holt, 1971. 
142. 
 2. Quote here is taken from Susan Straus' Coyote Stories for Chil- 
 dren. 
 3. The italics here were not in Joe Hayes' original text. 
 4. Goble is directly quoted here. The "etc., etc., etc. ." was not 
added. 

42 



 

TRICK OR TREAT 

5. M. Annette Jaimes, author of Earth Elder Stories, quoted by Lenore 
Keeshig- Tobias in "Poaching", page 118. 

WORKS CITED 

Ata, Te. Baby Rattlesnake. San Francisco: Children's Book Press, 1989.  
Begay, Shonto. Ma 'ii and the Cousin Horned Toad: A Traditional Na- 
 vajo Story. New York: Scholastic, 1992. 
Churchill, Ward. "A Little Matter of Genocide: Native American Spiritu- 
 ality and New Age Hucksterism," The Bloomsbury Review (Sept./ 
 Oct. 1988): 24. 
Goble, Paul. Iktomi and the Buzzard: A Plains Indian Story. New York: 
 Orchard, 1994. 
Goldin, Barbara Diamond. Coyote and the Firestick: A Pacific North- 
 west Indian Tale. San Diego: Harcourt, 1996. 
Hayes, Joe. Coyote and Native American Folktales. Santa Fe: Mariposa, 
 1983. 
Keeshig- Tobias, Lenore. "Poaching." Whole Earth Review (Summer 
 1991): reprinted in Utne (Mar/Apr 1994): 118-19. 
McDermott, Gerald. Coyote: A Trickster Tale from the American South- 

west. San Diego: Harcourt, 1994.  
Pohrt, Tom. Coyote Goes Walking. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1995. 
Siapin, Beverly, and Doris Seale. Through Indian Eyes: The Native Ex- 
 perience in Books for Children. Philadelphia: New Society, 1992. 
Stott, Jon. Native Americans in Children's Literature. Phoenix: Oryx, 
 1995. 
Straus, Susan. Coyote Stories for Children: Tales From Native America. 
 Hillsboro, Oregon: Beyond Words, 1991. 
Taylor, Harriet Peck. Coyote Places the Stars. New York: Simon & 
 Schuster Books for Young Readers, 1993. 
Toelken, Barre. Dynamics of Folklore. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 
 1979. 

43 




