Wikipedia Trails: From Coyote to Burrow

The first thing you think of when you think about Native American folklore is the Coyote. He is the main trickster through most of their stories. That is why I picked him for my Wikipedia trails.

From Coyote I clicked on Desert because that is where a lot of coyotes are from. Deserts are barren wastelands where there is few life because of the lack of water and I think its cool how animals have adapted to live there.

Going on with that point, I came across the word Xerocole. These are the animals that have adapted to live in deserts. There are many different things that the animals do to survive such as living under the surface of the desert.

These animals tend to Burrow underground to survive the heat. Smaller animals are the ones that tend to burrow because they do not have to dig as big of a hole and are generally better diggers.

Xerocoles in their Burrow Wikimedia Commons

Tech Tip: Canvas Dashboard

I always edit my canvas dashboard at the beginning of each semester because all of my classes usually are CHEM E with some random number and I can never remember which number is which class. I usually change the name to the title of the class. This is very useful to me and makes it easier to find the class you want when opening up canvas on your laptop.

My Canvas Dashboard

Week 10 Story: How Redbird and Coyote Got Their Colors

Back in the day, the Redbird was very ugly and no one wanted to be his friend because of it. But Redbird knew of a campfire where the fire was not too hot to stand in, and he burned in this four times every morning for four mornings. Every morning he sang a magic song:

There's a red fire. 

It lies there.

I went in.

I am all red.

On the fourth morning all of Redbird's feathers burned off and came out of the campfire just in his skin. But the next morning when he came out of the campfire he was covered with red feathers.

The Coyote was watching the bird for days. He contemplated jumping in and eating the bird, but he was too scared of the flames. He had no idea how the bird could sit in the flames and not get burned. He noticed on the last day that the bird went from an ugly grey bird to a beautiful RedBird. He wanted in on the secret so he asked the bird, "How could someone go from being so ugly to so pretty in one day? If you tell me how you did it, I will spare your life and not eat you."

"I can only tell you, if you will be my friend," squeaked the Redbird.

The Coyote agreed of course and was taught the magic song. He went through the ritual just as the Redbird did and came out just as red as the bird. 

The Coyote was delighted at how he turned out that he forgot the promise he made to the bird. He wandered off to show off his color and left his friend behind. He was so focused on making new friends that he was not paying attention to where he was going and fell into the water. He rinsed off to notice that he was no longer red, but the original color he started as.

Redbird Pixabay

Bibliography: How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).

Author's Note: In the original story, the ugly bird turns into a blue bird. He bathes in a lake that where the water does not flow in or out. He sings a similar song about water. The coyote is scared of the water and would not go into to eat him. I changed the water to fire because I thought that it would be more realistic for the coyote to be afraid of fire. I also changed some reasoning for why the bird gave the coyote the secret song as well as how he lost his red coloring. 

Reading Notes: How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors

The coyote is watching and wanting to eat this bird as he bathes for 4 straight days. On the fifth day the birds feathers change to blue, the fox no longer wanted to eat the bird, but wanted to get his fur to be blue as well. Being the dumb and proud of his color, he was distracted and did not pay attention to where he was going. He ran into a stump and was covered in dirt. If he were to just live his normal life and realize that people would love to see a blue fox and not get distracted by it, he might still be blue to this day. In changing the story I could have a redbird jump into fire everyday and change his skin to red like the fire.

Blue Bird Wikimedia Commons

How Bluebird and Coyote Got Their Colors from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912).

Reading Notes: The Theft of Fire

The story begins with the coyote seeking to steal fire for the Indians. He first goes in there and you think that he will be able to steal it by himself, but that is not the case. He needed help from the Indian to distract the people he is stealing it from. When retelling this story I think that I could have someone come from the future and tell the coyote that he needs to steal it and provide the distraction. This would be someone from the tribe in the future helping to make sure the tribe survives and thrives. His distraction would be a little different than running by the people that have the fire.

Fire Pexels

In The Theft of Fire from Myths and Legends of California and the Old Southwest by Katharine Berry Judson (1912)